Saving Seafood

Plot by Dept. of Commerce and Congressional Leaders to Gut Magnuson Revealed in Red Snapper Memos

October 12, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Internal memos between Earl Comstock, Director of the Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross show that both men intentionally violated the Magnuson-Stevens Act to allow sports fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico a summer of weekend openers for red snapper.

As a result of the decision, the quota for red snapper was exceeded by an estimated 50 percent. Prior to the decision, red snapper stocks in the Gulf were halfway through a successful rebuilding program. The damage done to the stocks will be assessed this year and likely would result in further cuts to all sectors — recreational, commercial, and charter — next year.

But the insistence to break the law had more nefarious motives than simply to give recreational fishermen more red snapper.

The memos, released as part of a lawsuit against the Department of Commerce by Ocean Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund, show that the disaster caused by the decision would “…put the ball squarely in the court of Congress,” wrote Comstock to Ross in a June 7, 2017 memo.

“Congress  would need to act to prevent reduced catch limits for all fishing sectors next year. This problem will not be able to be addressed through the fishery management system without a change of law,” Comstock said.

“The Congressional representatives know this, and are looking to DoC [Department of Commerce] for leadership. By resetting the debate and building a strong partnerhsip with the State fishery managers … we can provide the leadership Congress is asking of us,” Comstock wrote to Ross.

Ocean Conservancy called this “playing a game of chicken with Congress. They have manufactured a crisis in the fishery by allowing so much overfishing that now everyone could get hurt next year.”

The reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act is poised to happen in 2018. Already there are half a dozen bills aimed at making changes to MSA, which is the foundation for the nation’s sustainably managed fisheries resources. Comstock’s agenda, as outlined in the memos to Secretary Ross, implies that to respond to the overfishing that will occur on red snapper as a result of the decision, an MSA reauthorization favoring recreational interests would be more likely.

Red snapper was just coming up to its halfway mark of a 27-year rebuilding plan, having been reduced to just 3 percent of historic levels by decades of overfishing.

Stocks were showing a strong recovery under the plan until large overages from the recreational sector resulted in lowering catch levels by 20% in 2014.

Catch rates in the recreational sector are two to three times higher than they were a decade ago, when the rebuilding plan began.

The five states bordering the Gulf of Mexico were estimated to catch 81% of the available quota, before Commerce’s decision to extend their sports fisheries. The estimate of what was taken now is three times the sustainable limit.

It isn’t as though Comstock, who has worked on other recreational issues within the Council system before, including the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council in Alaska, doesn’t know any better.

In a May 2, 2017 testimony to the House Oversight & Government Report Subcommittee, Comstock explained that “NMFS, as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, must set an annual catch quota for the red snapper fishery that does not exceed the level specified by the Gulf Council’s scientific advisors, and must prohibit fishing when the quota is reached.”

His memos to his boss five weeks later encourage a complete reversal of that principle, with little regard for the law.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

NEFMC SSC Meeting, October 12, 2017, Live Streaming Information

October 4, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will meet on Thursday, October 12, 2017.  The public is invited to listen via webinar or telephone.  Here are the details.

MEETING LOCATION:  Hilton Garden Inn, Boston Logan Airport, 100 Boardman Street, Boston, MA.  Hotel information is available here.

START TIME:  10:00 a.m.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting will be available at: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/3726401422414349827.

There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone, dial +1 (562) 247-8321.

The access code is 818-682-657.

Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA:  The SSC will (1) review information provided by the Council’s Scallop Plan Development Team (PDT) and recommend overfishing limit (OFL) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) levels for Atlantic sea scallops for fishing year 2018, as well as default OFL and ABC levels for 2019; (2) review information provided by the Council’s Whiting PDT and recommend OFLs and ABCs for the northern and southern stocks of silver hake and, separately, for red hake for fishing years 2018-2020; and (3) discuss other business as necessary.

MATERIALS:  Meeting materials, as they become available, will be posted on the Council’s website at SSC October 12, 2017 documents.

QUESTIONS:  Contact Joan O’Leary at (978) 465-0492 ext. 106, joleary@nefmc.org or Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

A Cheerful Story About Environmental Conservation

October 3, 2017 — October is National Seafood Month, and I have a surprise for you. It’s a cheerful story about environmental conservation. I’m serious. Don’t roll your eyes in disbelief and click away to Facebook right now; stay with me. I know the headlines about the environment have been dire recently, particularly when it comes to seafood. But when I learned the story of West Coast groundfish, a true story about people with diverse perspectives banding together and taking action — and the action worked! — I was floored. And moved, because this could become a model of success for fisheries across the globe.

First, a deep dive

In late 1999, West Coast groundfish fishermen were seeing landings plummet drastically, from a 20-year average of about 74,000 tons annually to an estimated 27,000 tons for the year 2000. At the time, the cause of the crash was deemed “undetermined, but probably natural, causes,” but stock assessments between 1999 and 2002 determined that overfishing (fish being caught faster than they could breed) played a part in the crash. The Pacific Fishery Management Council and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) declared 10 species of West Coast groundfish overfished. The environment had suffered as well, with seafloor habitats damaged by certain types of fishing gear.

Groundfish get grounded

When a stock is deemed overfished, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requires regulators to develop a plan to rebuild the stock in as short a time as possible, while balancing and incorporating the needs of the fishing community.

Historically, fisherfolk and government regulators have had contentious relationships. Complex regulations can make the hard day-to-day work of fishing even harder. And then there are the environmentalists, who frequently have contentious relationships with both parties. But in the face of the West Coast groundfish disaster, something unprecedented occurred: fishermen, regulators, and conservationists sat down and worked together to save West Coast groundfish.

It wasn’t easy, especially for the fishermen. A management plan was put into place that included individual fishing quotas (IFQs) or “catch shares,” which meant that they had to accept drastic cutbacks on the number of fish they could catch, even species that weren’t overfished because of the possibility of bycatch, or catching a non-targeted species while catching a targeted species. The management plan also included area restrictions, seasonal closures, gear restrictions, and a mandate that a federal observer be on every fishing trip to monitor bycatch.

Read the full story at HuffPost

NE Council in Rebuke to NOAA Demands Enforcement Against Rafael’s Sector IX Co-op for Overfishing

September 28, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The New England Fishery Management Council voted 13-1 to ask NOAA to immediately enforce regulations governing fish quota allocations to sectors in New England.  The move reflected growing frustration with NOAA’s lack of enforcement for Carlos Rafael’s overfishing.

Separate from the criminal trial and the issues of vessel forfeiture, Rafael’s Sector IX Co-op is in direct violation of Co-op requirements to correctly report catch, and to not exceed their quota.

Sector IX has mis-reported and exceeded its quota by nearly 783,000 lbs during a four year period.

NOAA regulations require that when Sectors have overages, they either purchase the quota required, or have that amount deducted from their future allocations.  Any overages also expose the sector to civil penalties and permit sanctions.  So far Sector IX has been allowed to continue fishing with none of these penalties months after Rafael pled guilty to 26 separate counts of falsifying fishing records.

Until now, NOAA, through administrator John Bullard, has said that any actions would await the conclusion of the criminal prosecution of Rafael.   But many have objected that the blatant violations by Sector IX, which was set up primarily for Rafael’s vessels, have not resulted in anything except business as usual for the sector, despite Rafael’s guilty plea in April of this year.

The Council’s first thought was again to avoid the issue until NOAA has addressed the permit violations and vessel seizures.  But the council reversed course when asked directly to take a position on the lack of enforcement of sector regulations.

Maine DMR commissioner Patrick Keliher made a motion to request immediate enforcement action against Sector IX. 

“If we don’t enforce these regulations, how can the public trust us to manage a public resource? “ asked Matthew McKenzie, a member of the NEFMC who seconded the motion.

The motion passed 12-2. 

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

NMFS Puts Councils on Notice for Three Species Subject to Overfishing or are Considered Overfished

September 28, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The National Marine Fisheries Service has notified regional fishery management councils that three species are subject to overfishing, approaching an overfished condition or are overfished.

South Atlantic red grouper, Gulf of Mexico greater amberjack and Northwestern Atlantic witch flounder are on the list and regional councils must take steps to end overfishing and/or rebuild those stocks.

South Atlantic red grouper, under the South Atlantic Fishery management Council’s purview, is subject to overfishing and also overfished, according to the stock assessment finalized this year using data through 2015, NMFS said in a Federal Register notice. This assessment supports a finding of subject to overfishing because the current estimate of fishing mortality is above the maximum fishing mortality threshold (MFMT), and overfished because the spawning stock biomass estimate is less than the minimum stock size threshold (MSST).

Gulf of Mexico greater amberjack is subject to overfishing, NMFS said, based on a stock assessment update finalized in 2016. That assessment also used data through 2015. This assessment supports a finding of subject to overfishing because the current estimate of fishing mortality is above the MFMT. Furthermore, greater amberjack remains overfished because the spawning stock biomass estimate is less than the MSST.

Northwestern Atlantic witch flounder is still overfished and the overfishing status is unknown, NMFS said in the notice. The assessment peer review panel for this stock rejected the most recent benchmark assessment, finalized in 2017, using data through 2015.

“However, this stock is at historical low levels and other signs of poor stock condition support this stock remaining listed as overfished,” the NMFS notice said. “Lack of similar reliable indicators for overfishing status support changing the overfishing status of this stock to unknown.”

Witch flounder is under the New England Fishery Management Council’s jurisdiction. NMFS said the NEFMC must implement conservation and management measures to rebuild it.

Similarly, the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico fishery management councils must take action to end overfishing of red grouper and greater amberjack immediately and implement conservation and management measures to rebuild those stocks.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

A US ban on shark fins is a bad idea, say researchers

September 22, 2017 — Earlier this year, United States senators put forth S.793, a bill they’ve named the “Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act”. With the noble goal of protecting shark populations, which are in decline all over the globe, the document proposes a total ban on the buying or selling of shark fins in the US. Sounds like an unambiguously good thing, right? Well, the straightforward answer to a problem is not always the best one – and some shark researchers worry that this approach could do more harm than good.

In a recently published paper, shark researchers David Shiffman and Robert Hueter argue that banning trade in fins would not prevent many shark deaths at all – but it might hinder successful conservation practices, and sow confusion by misrepresenting the true threats to these animals. What they recommend instead is prioritising the continued sustainable management of shark fishing.

The finning issue

Let’s start with the broad problem: sharks are in trouble. And losing them is a threat not only for the ecosystems in which they serve important roles, but also for economies all over the globe that rely on them for food, including the United States. Worldwide, many populations are dwindling, their decline driven largely by overfishing, including hunting for meat, bycatch, as well as the lucrative fin trade, which supplies demand in some countries for a delicacy known as shark-fin soup.

This fin trade has led to a phenomenon called shark finning. As the bill describes, “Shark finning is the cruel practice in which the fins of a shark are cut off on board a fishing vessel at sea. The remainder of the animal is then thrown back into the water to drown, starve, or die a slow death.” This practice is not only cruel, but also wasteful – in contrast with conservative shark-fishing practices that make use of meat and parts from the entire body.

Shark finning has actually been banned in the US since the 1990s, but as long as the animal’s body is not discarded at sea, fishers are generally free to do what they will with the fins; indeed, these are typically harvested along with the meat. The new bill, however, presented by Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, proposes a total ban on possessing, transporting, selling or purchasing shark fins, under threat of a fine of up to $100,000 or more.

Read the full story at Earth Touch News

Monica Goldberg: New red snapper proposals need safeguards from overfishing

September 21, 2017 — Lawmakers in the House and Senate recently introduced legislation aimed at the perpetually contentious Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery. Thanks to stronger conservation standards and accountability, red snapper numbers in the Gulf have tripled in the last decade and catch limits have doubled, leading to increased value for commercial fishermen and access for charter and for-hire vessels. Unfortunately, private anglers are stuck under a profoundly broken management system. Congressman Garret Graves, Senator Bill Cassidy and others on Capitol Hill propose to give the Gulf states the chance to manage this specific part of the red snapper fishery.

We share the desire to give private anglers more flexibility and certainty in their fishing opportunities, and states are already innovating under current law, such as the LA Creel program in Louisiana. The new bills (H.R. 3588 and S. 1686) have improved significantly from similar attempts last Congress. But without further safeguards, they threaten to take us back to the failures of the past, when the fishery was severely depleted and red snapper was hard to find for seafood consumers and anglers alike.

The current proposals would give the five Gulf States authority to manage the private angler portion of the red snapper fishery in both state and federal waters; commercial and charter/for-hire fishermen would remain under federal management. But because the bills lack provisions to ensure that the private angler sector stays within its quota (after exceeding it nine of the last 12 years), the bills would jeopardize the sustainability of the fishery and undermine the commercial and charter sectors.

Read the full opinion piece at the Environmental Defense Fund

Salty Girl Seafood: Stop the misinformation: the oceans will not run out of fish by 2048

September 21, 2017 — This last year has been a stark reminder that we must be vigilant about questioning the information that we receive from the media. That today, as we are constantly inundated with a steady stream of the latest news, it is ever more important to question our sources, reflect on the content, and apply a critical eye to everything we read.

Last month, an article published on Forbes.com attempted to educate consumers about the status of our world’s oceans and the fish in them by painting a familiar, but largely unsubstantiated picture that has been repeatedly touted by the media in the last decade: “the oceans may run out of fish by 2048, so you should stop eating them.”

For the 1 billion people who rely on seafood for protein (largely in undeveloped countries), not eating fish isn’t much of an option — and for the many more who use seafood as a nutritious, healthful source of protein as a component of their diets, adding to the misinformation about the status of our world’s fisheries makes the notion of sustainable seafood confusing, as well as potentially damaging for the livelihoods of millions of people who depend on fishing as a way of life.

The best available evidence shows that the oceans, in fact, will not run out of fish by 2048.

Read the full opinion piece at Medium

James G. Stavridis & Johan Bergenas: The fishing wars are coming

September 14, 2017 — Lawmakers are finally catching up to something that the Navy and Coast Guard have known for a long time: The escalating conflict over fishing could lead to a “global fish war.”

This week, as part of the pending National Defense Authorization Act, Congress asked the Navy to help fight illegal fishing. This is an important step. Greater military and diplomatic efforts must follow. Indeed, history is full of natural-resource wars, including over sugar, spices, textiles, minerals, opium and oil. Looking at current dynamics, fish scarcity could be the next catalyst.

The decline in nearly half of global fish stocks in recent decades is a growing and existential threat to roughly 1 billion people around the world who rely on seafood as their primary source of protein. No other country is more concerned about the increasingly empty oceans than China, whose people eat twice as much fish as the global average. Beijing is also the world’s largest exporter of fish, with 14 million fishers in a sector producing billions of dollars a year.

In order to keep its people fed and employed, the Chinese government provides hundreds of millions of dollars a year in subsidies to its distant-water fishing fleet. And in the South China Sea, it is common for its ships to receive Chinese Coast Guard escorts when illegally entering other countries’ fishing waters. As such, the Chinese government is directly enabling and militarizing the worldwide robbing of ocean resources.

Read the full opinion piece at the Washington Post

Feds looking to trim golden tilefish quota for next 3 years

September 12, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Federal fishing regulators are planning to cut back the fishing quota for golden tilefish for the next three years.

Golden tilefish are prized as food and they are caught by longline and hook-and-line fishermen up and down the East Coast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says proposed quotas for 2018 to 2020 are 14 percent lower than the 2017 quota to prevent overfishing.

The fish are not currently experiencing overfishing, but fishery managers recommended reduction based on an evaluation of the fishery.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle