Saving Seafood

Obama’s Atlantic Monument Hurts Lobster, Red Crab, and Other Fisheries

September 15, 2016 — President Obama will designate a national monument Thursday covering thousands of square miles in the Atlantic Ocean, pleasing environmental groups but flying in the face of opposition from state officials and fishing organizations.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument will cover 4,913 square miles off the coast of New England — an area nearly the size of the state of Connecticut — the White House announced Thursday. It will include “three underwater canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon, and four underwater mountains known as ‘seamounts’ that are biodiversity hotspots and home to many rare and endangered species,” it said.

Robert Vanasse, executive director of fishing advocacy group Saving Seafood, slammed the declaration, saying White House officials never seriously took the concerns of locals into account.

“It’s just really obvious that the fix was in from the start,” Vanasse told BuzzFeed News. “I believe the sound waves hit their eardrums but I don’t believe they were actually listening.”

Though the exact parameters of the monument were not available late Wednesday, Vanasse said the designation could potentially cost the offshore lobster community $10 million a year. He also said red crab, squid, and other fishing industries could take significant hits by a monument designation.

According to the White House, fishing within the monument will be phased out; red crab and lobster fisheries will have seven years before having to leave, and other commercial fishers will have a 60-day transition period.

Vanasse praised the gradual change — because it’ll give the industry time to fight the designation.

“The fact that they have some time is going to be a good thing because we can fight this and we’ll be fighting it with a different administration,” he said. “I imagine that we will see a legal challenge.”

Read the full story at BuzzFeed News

New England Fishery Managmement Council to Weigh New Marine Monument Impacts, Implications

September 15, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Managment Council:

President Obama today announced that he had used his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to establish a “Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument,” the first of its kind in the Atlantic Ocean. The New England Fishery Management Council, which has been working for several years to develop its own coral protection measures throughout a significantly broader sweep of this offshore area, will now turn its efforts toward analyzing the impacts and implications of the newly established marine monument and determining how the designation affects the work that already has been conducted under the Council’s draft Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment.

The 4,913-square-mile monument encompasses three deep-sea canyons – Oceanographer, Gilbert, and Lydonia – as well as four seamounts – Physalia, Bear, Retriever, and Mytilus – that also were proposed for additional protection under the Council’s Coral Amendment.

However, the Council will need to reassess its management strategy given these new developments. Next week, the full Council will meet in Danvers, Massachusetts and discuss “next steps” for how the Habitat Committee should proceed given that some of the actions in the Coral Amendment have been superseded by the monument’s establishment.

“The monument area does overlap some of the proposals in our own Coral Amendment,” said Council Vice Chairman Dr. John Quinn, who also chairs the Council’s Habitat Committee. “Since there’s no need for duplication of conservation measures, I expect those alternatives to be removed.”

The Council is expected to continue working on numerous other provisions within its Coral Amendment, which covers 15 additional deep-sea canyons on Georges Bank, as well as areas of the continental slope between those canyons.

Commercial fishing will be prohibited within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, although the Administration is giving lobster and deep-sea red crab fishermen a seven-year exception to phase out fishing activities and exit the area. Other impacted fishermen, such as whiting and squid harvesters, will have 60 days to transition out. Recreational fishing will be allowed.

According to the White House, “The geographic boundaries of the monument have been narrowly tailored based on the best available science and stakeholder input.”

Acknowledging this statement, Council Chairman Terry Stockwell said, “The designation is smaller than proposals circulated earlier in the process, indicating an effort to at least partly address fishing industry concerns.”

The New England Council never took a formal position on any of the marine monument proposals that were put forward over the past year for this region. However, the Council was a signatory to the position developed last spring by the Council Coordination Committee (CCC), a body that pulls together the leadership teams of the nation’s eight Regional Fishery Management Councils.

The CCC, in a late-June letter to the President, requested that, in the event of a marine monument designation, the Councils be allowed to continue managing fishing and habitat related activities under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), as has been the case since the Act was first passed by Congress in 1976 and implemented in 1977.

The MSA requires that fishery regulations be developed through a science-based, open, and very transparent public process where all stakeholders can participate in the discussion within multiple venues, including through advisory panel and committee meetings, workshops, scientific meetings, full Council meetings, and, these days, through webinars.

Chairman Stockwell said, “The position of all eight Councils is that we still prefer to be allowed to continue managing fishing activity and establishing essential fish habitat designations under the MSA.”

About the NEFMC:
The New England Fishery Management Council, one of eight regional councils established by federal legislation in 1976, is charged with conserving and managing fishery resources from three to 200 miles off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

Obama Designates 1st Marine Monument In The Atlantic; Draws Ire of Fishermen

September 15, 2016 — During the Our Ocean conference in Washington, D.C., President Obama announced the creation of the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean.

“We’re protecting fragile ecosystems off the coast of New England, including pristine underseas canyons and seamounts,” Obama said during his remarks. “We’re helping make the oceans more resilient to climate change … and we’re doing it in a way that respects the fishing industry’s unique role in New England’s economy and history.”

Opponents are already challenging the move, calling it an illegal use of presidential authority.

“We don’t normally create laws in this country by the stroke of an imperial pen,” says Bob Vanasse, a spokesman for the National Coalition for Fishing Communities.

He adds, “This is not only an end-run around Congress, it’s an end-run around the entire system the Congress created to protect these ocean resources.”

Vanasse says the move will seriously hurt the fishing industry: “We anticipate the offshore lobster industry will be affected to the tune of about $10 million per year. On top of that one of most affected industries is going to be the Atlantic red crab industry. It is going to be very significantly impacted.”

Senior administration officials say to mitigate the financial harm, they’re designating a smaller area than planned, and lobster and red crab fisheries have been given a seven-year grace period before they have to comply.

Jon Williams, president of the Atlantic Red Crab Company in Massachusetts, says his company will survive, but he tells The Associated Press, “It’s a big blow to us.”

Read and listen to the full story at NPR