Saving Seafood

Court Denies California’s Attempt to Delay Whale Entanglement Case

February 1, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — A federal court has rejected the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s bid to delay a lawsuit alleging it’s not doing enough to prevent its commercial Dungeness crab fishery from entangling whales and sea turtles in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act.

The Center for Biological Diversity sued the department in October 2017 after whale entanglement numbers broke records for three straight years.

“This is an important win in our fight to protect whales and sea turtles from suffering and dying in crabbing gear. It’s time for California regulators to stop delaying and take action,” Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center, said in a press release. “The court recognized that it can’t just sit on the sidelines while state officials have no plan to prevent entanglements. Talking and holding endless meetings isn’t enough.”

U.S. District Court Judge Maxine Chesney denied the department’s motion to stay the case for two and a half years while it applies for an ESA Section 10 federal permit, which would require preventive measures. California sent a letter to NOAA last year, indicating the agency’s plans to formally file for the permit.

In the meantime, California has taken steps to avoid whale entanglements. The Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group published a best practices guide for fishermen It also established the Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP) to support the state in working collaboratively with experts (fishermen, researchers, NGOs, etc.) to identify and assess elevated levels of entanglement risk and determine the need for management options to reduce risk of entanglement. Working with federal scientists, the group also solicits periodic flyovers to find concentrations of gear and concentrations of whales. With that information, fishermen can voluntarily get their gear and/or try to avoid whale interactions.

The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations filed as an intervenor in the lawsuit and continues to support the industry in its efforts to avoid whale entanglement.

“No commercial fisherman wants to entangle whales or sea turtles in their fishing gear – doing so is not only a public relations disaster, but will likely destroy that gear, can damage their boats and can even be life-threatening,” the PCFFA states in its Memorandum in Support of Motion for Intervention in March 2018. “Many commercial fishermen voluntarily participate in programs to identify and rescue marine animals (especially whales) from entanglements in commercial fishing gear, often at great personal peril.”

On Feb. 22 the court is scheduled to consider the Center’s motion for summary judgment, the Center said in a press release.

In 2016 federal officials confirmed that the California commercial Dungeness crab fishery entangled at least 23 animals. As of late November, at least 36 whale entanglements had been reported off California in 2018, including at least five humpback whales entangled in California commercial Dungeness crab gear, the Center said in the statement.

California’s attention to this issue a few years ago has resulted in several gear workshops that included researchers, developers and fishermen coming together to try to solve or mitigate whale entanglement issues on the entire West Coast. Both Oregon and Washington now have their own gear/entanglement groups, working on problems and proposing incremental steps to prevent entanglements. Washington also has notified NOAA it intends to apply for an ESA Section 10 permit for its Dungeness crab fishery.

This story was originally published by SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

California opens more coastline to crab fishing, but don’t count on a big haul yet

January 17, 2019 — Woe is the crab lover: More of California’s north coast opened to commercial crab fishing Tuesday, but stormy waters and a shellfish toxin still are limiting the haul and putting a further crimp on the season for the tasty crustaceans.

“It’s not easy to be a crab fisherman in California this year,” said Noah Oppenheim, director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “But they’ll soldier on.”

Crab lovers had hoped for relief this season after several frustrating winters of on-again-off-again crab catching along the California coast. The crab fishery was valued at $67.5 million last season.

Crab fishers began hauling up the tasty crustaceans along the Central Coast south of Mendocino County when the commercial season began in mid-November.

But state authorities kept the fishery north of Sonoma County off limits until Tuesday — the latest date allowed by law — because crabs there were coming in lean and considered not ready for market.

Read the full story at The Mercury News

West Coast fishermen are suing oil companies for climate change damages

December 5, 2018 — Fishermen are still waiting for permission to catch Dungeness crabs off California’s northernmost coast this season — and they want oil companies to pay for the delay.

State officials have postponed the start of the commercial Dungeness crab season because of high levels of a neurotoxin called domoic acid. Similar closures have wreaked economic havoc on the industry in recent years.

he neurotoxin’s presence in the prized crabs has been linked to warming ocean waters, one of the many effects of human-caused climate change. That’s why the West Coast’s largest organization of commercial fishermen is suing more than a dozen oil companies, arguing they have knowingly peddled a product that threatens ocean life and the people whose economic fortunes depend on it.

The oil companies “engaged in a coordinated, multi-front effort to conceal and deny their own knowledge of those threats, discredit the growing body of publicly available scientific evidence, and persistently create doubt,” the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Assns. said in its lawsuit, filed last month.

“Families and businesses that depend on the health and productivity of the Dungeness crab fishery to earn their livings suffer the consequences,” the federation said.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

Climatic closures: Crabbers file suit over warming waters

November 16, 2018 — On Wednesday morning, Nov. 14, as crabbers in California’s San Francisco Bay prepared for the state’s Dungeness crab opener today, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations filed a lawsuit alleging that 30 fossil fuel companies are to blame for the past four years of delayed Dungeness crab seasons and disastrous economic losses. The reason? Ocean warming as a result of fossil fuel consumption.

“We’re taking a stand for the captains and crew, their families, and the business owners that support the fleet,” said Noah Oppenheim, the association’s executive director. “The fossil fuel companies named in our lawsuit knowingly caused harm, and they need to be held accountable. We are seeking to implement measures, at the fossil fuel industry’s expense, that will help crabbers adapt to a world in which domoic acid flare-ups will be increasingly common, and also help those crabbers who suffer financial losses as a result.”

The lawsuit claims that these fossil fuel companies have been aware for nearly 50 years that “greenhouse gas pollution from their fossil fuel products has a significant impact on Earth’s climate, including a warming of the oceans” and that West Coast crabbers, their families and the communities they support have suffered “substantial economic losses due to those lost fishing opportunities.”

“We’re out fishing all the time, and it’s obvious the oceans are getting warmer,” said Crescent City, Calif., crabber John Beardon. “That’s bad for crabs and other fish, and it’s bad for those of us who make a living on the water. The last three years have been really hard. Our community came together and held a fish fry to help our crew members. But fish fries and disaster relief are no solution to these closures we’re now seeing year after year after year.”

This summer, the government allocated $25.8 million in disaster assistance to those affected by the 2015-16 closure of California’s commercial Dungeness and rock crab fisheries. While that funding was welcome, it certainly didn’t solve the problems of commercial fishing families coming off a series of tough seasons. Oppenheim said that that the 2015-16 closure cost the industry $110 million in lost revenue.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

West Coast crab fisherman sue 30 fossil fuel companies, citing economic losses due to climate change

November 15, 2018 — The day before commercial fishermen were due to bring the first of the season’s Dungeness crab to Bay Area docks, they made other news.

On Wednesday, West Coast crab fishermen filed a lawsuit alleging that 30 fossil fuel companies are to blame for the past several years of delayed seasons and disastrous economic losses due to ocean warming. Specific complaints include strict liability, failure to warn and negligence.

“The scientific linkage between the combustion of fossil fuels and ocean warming, which leads to domoic acid impacts in our fisheries, is clear,” said Noah Oppenheim, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, which filed the suit in California State Superior Court in San Francisco on behalf of California and Oregon crab fishermen. “We know it, and it’s time to hold that industry accountable for the damage they’ve caused.”

West Coast crab fishermen have experienced significant losses during the past three years, starting in the 2015-16 season when massive algal blooms caused by warm ocean temperatures resulted in a domoic acid outbreak that caused a months-long delay. The season was partially delayed again during the 2016-17 season for the same reason.

In California, Dungeness crab brought in over $47 million in 2017 and $83 million in 2016; the amount was down to $17 million in 2015, during the industry’s first major problem with domoic acid. Oppenheim said that that the 2015-16 closure cost the industry $110 million in lost revenue. There are nearly 1,000 Dungeness crab permit holders in California and Oregon.

Read the full story at the San Fransisco Chronicle

Feds allocate $200M in disaster relief funds for Gulf, Alaska and West Coast fisheries

June 22, 2018 — Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the allocation of $200 million in fishery disaster relief funds appropriated by Congress on Wednesday to assist fishermen affected by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017 and disasters that devastated the West Coast and Alaska fishermen from 2014 to 2017.

“Last year, American fishing communities across the Gulf and Caribbean were devastated by some of the most destructive hurricanes in recent memory, while Pacific fisheries have suffered from years of hardship,” said Ross, according to a NOAA press release. “This Administration stands shoulder to shoulder with these communities as they prove their strength and resilience in the face of adversity.”

The government has allocated $25.8 million in disaster assistance to those affected by the 2015-2016 closure of California’s commercial Dungeness and rock crab fisheries and another $3.9 million to the Yurok Tribe stemming from the collapse of the fall Chinook fishery in 2016.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

West Coast Fisheries Disaster Funding Included in Senate Appropriations Bill

February 8, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — As news of a Wednesday night Senate agreement on the federal budget bill that included millions for disaster aid filtered out, many fishermen and processors on the West Coast wondered whether fisheries aid was included.

The short answer: Yes, according to Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations Executive Director Noah Oppenheim.

“We called on Congress to step up and provide fishery disaster assistance, and today they delivered. West Coast fishermen express their heartfelt gratitude to key senators and members of congress who fought hard for their constituents,” Oppenheim said in a statement. “Fishery disasters don’t flood cities or burn down houses, but they do devastate coastal communities and threaten the fishing way of life. These fishery disaster appropriations will go a long way towards beginning the healing process for hundreds of working fishing families on the West Coast.”

Read the full story with a subscription at Seafood News

 

Commerce chief Ross makes waves, roils fisheries rules

September 21, 2017 — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has wasted little time in giving a jolt to the nation’s fisheries.

In June, the 79-year-old billionaire investor who now oversees NOAA Fisheries singlehandedly extended the fishing season for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, ignoring protests from scientists and environmentalists that it could spur overfishing of the popular species.

Then in an unprecedented decision in July, he handed a big win to New Jersey fishermen and the state’s Republican governor, Chris Christie, by overturning catch limits for summer flounder that had been approved by an interstate fisheries commission.

While Ross wants more fishing and more seafood exports, critics say his early moves have smacked of meddling and favoritism and will ultimately sabotage hard-won conservation gains.

And many fear that states and fishing groups will directly seek political relief instead of following NOAA procedures and adhering to fishing quotas set by government experts and scientists.

“It just really seems that it’s kind of setting a bad precedent,” said Trey Blackiston, a former commercial fisherman from Chestertown, Md.

Noah Oppenheim, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, said he’s still waiting for Ross to sign an emergency declaration for California crabbers and salmon fishermen. But he’s worried about the signals from Washington.

“We’re asking maybe the wrong questions, right?” Oppenheim said. “If the Trump administration is finding it easier to disrupt the status quo than to follow the normal procedures to get this done, we don’t want any part of that. We’re sort of sitting on the West Coast with one of the best fishery management council processes in place … watching the country crumble and wondering what the hell’s going on. But I’m not inclined to seek political favors.”

Read the full story at E&E News

Environmental and fishing groups sue to save salmon

February 24, 2017 — Environmental and fishing groups are suing the federal government to provide cooler habitat for migrating fish in the Columbia River system of Washington and Oregon.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Seattle against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the agency.

The lawsuit was filed by Columbia Riverkeeper, Snake River Waterkeeper, Idaho Rivers United, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, and the Institute for Fisheries Resources.

It seeks to compel the EPA to create a temperature pollution budget for the river system, to keep rivers cool enough to support salmon and steelhead runs in the face of global warming.

Giant dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers create reservoirs that cause water temperatures to rise in summer months, hurting fish.

Read the full story from the Associated Press here