Saving Seafood

US congressional committee turns up heat on Western Pacific council’s handling of funds

September 5, 2019 — Four influential members of the US Congress have requested a federal investigation into the use by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac) of millions of dollars of funds intended to promote conservation, reports the Honolulu Civil Beat, an investigative journal based in Hawaii.

In a letter sent Aug. 29, Democratic representatives Raul Grijalva, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee; Jared Huffman, chairman of the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife; Ed Case, from Hawaii; and Gregorio Sablan, an independent representative from the Northern Mariana Islands, asked Peggy Gustafson, the US Department of Commerce’s inspector general, to conduct a “comprehensive review of the Western Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Fund…and report on lapses in transparency and accountability and possible waste and abuse of government funds”.

The fund, which was initially seeded by millions of dollars in fines against foreign vessels fishing illegally in US Pacific islands, now relies on contributions made by the Hawaii Longline Association, a group that represents most of the state’s 144-vessel fleet.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

REP. ROB BISHOP: It’s Time for Congress to Reform the Antiquities Act

May 3, 2019 — As the new Democratic chairman and top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, respectively, Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva and I recently presided over a hearing examining the status of presidentially declared national monuments under the Antiquities Act, including Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.

I followed-up with a letter to Chairman Grijalva with a simple invitation: Let’s write a national monuments reform bill together that does exactly what he said he wants during that panel.

While the hearing initially focused on two Utah monuments, it didn’t take long for the whole room to realize we were confronting a deeper problem. Republicans, Democrats, and local stakeholders have all expressed frustration with the Antiquities Act. As written, the act incentivizes presidents of both major political parties to sidestep transparent democratic processes by mandating unilateral land use decisions. Consequently, voices from all sides of the political spectrum have been silenced and ignored even as generational decisions about their futures were being made behind closed White House doors.

The Antiquities Act is the law by which presidents have designated monuments ranging from Devil’s Tower in Wyoming to Arizona’s Casa Grande Ruins and Montezuma Castle. Rightly, some monuments enjoy overwhelming local support prior to designation. Due to a lack of a Congressional review requirement for  presidential declarations, designations under the Antiquities Act can be promulgated quickly to protect against imminent threats.

That feature of speedy monument designation can also be a curse. This fact has been amply, painfully demonstrated to communities across my state. In the last few decades, presidents have outright abused the Antiquities Act in Utah. Regardless of how you feel about the areas that were designated, the fact that Presidents Clinton and Obama came in the dead of night — without any input from state or local elected officials! — and locked up millions of acres of land is outrageous. Local representation opposed the massive monuments. The livelihoods of ranchers and access for recreators was scuttled overnight, and the traditions of families with generations of responsible land stewardship were suddenly upended without due process.

Read the full opinion piece at The Daily Caller

Congressman calls on Trump to pull nomination of Barry Myers to head NOAA

February 14, 2019 — A high-ranking House Democrat called on Wednesday, 13 February, for the Trump administration to withdraw the nomination of Barry Myers to lead NOAA after reports showed his former company paid USD 290,000 (EUR 256,832) in a settlement of sexual harassment claims that happened during his time as its chief executive officer.

Earlier this week, the Centre Daily Times reported the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs determined AccuWeather created a hostile work environment for women. Four women, who left the company between 1 January, 2014, and 21 December, 2017, have already claimed awards. More than 30 other former employees have agreed to the settlement.

In response, U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, called on President Trump to pull Myers, citing NOAA’s own history sexual harassment and assault claims. The chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee said in a statement he hopes a new nominee would be able to “improve the agency’s troubling record” on maintaining a safe work environment.

“Federal employees have been subjected to the president’s unpopular ideas about sexual harassment and women in the workplace for the past two years,” Grijalva said. “Trump’s nomination of Mr. Myers sends the wrong message about his care for the agencies and people he oversees. He has a chance to do much better, and he should take it.”

Grijalva’s statement noted NOAA officials recently began taking steps to reduce sexual harassment and assault but the agency still continues to face claims of harassment and retaliation.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US House panel resumes focus on climate change, warming oceans

February 11, 2019 — Climate change is hitting the lobster industry in two ways, Beth Casoni, the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association’s executive director, told the US House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee’s Water, Oceans and Wildlife – or WOW — panel on Thursday.

The Gulf of Maine is warming at a faster pace than 99% of other bodies of water and, by 2050, could lose 62% of its lobsters as a result, she said. Meanwhile, ocean acidification is making it harder for juvenile lobsters to grow shells, leaving them open to predators and disease.

“These threats from climate change are intensified by the other challenges lobstermen are facing,” said Casoni, one of seven witnesses at the two-hour hearing. “We do not have the luxury of looking at any one of these impacts on its own – all of them collectively are causing declines in the resource, hurting our bottom line, and our communities.

The event on Thursay was the second hearing called by the Natural Resources Committee on climate change since Democrats took control of the lower chamber in the 2018 election. The day before representative Raul Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who now chairs the main committee, held a more general discussion.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Court: No new offshore drilling work during federal shutdown

January 21, 2019 — A federal judge in South Carolina has turned back the Trump administration’s attempt to continue preparatory work for offshore drilling during the federal government’s partial shutdown, issuing a ruling in a federal lawsuit challenging the overall expansion plans.

In his order, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel halted federal agencies “from taking action to promulgate permits, otherwise approve, or take any other official action” for permits to conduct testing that’s needed before drilling work can begin.

The ruling comes a few days after President Donald Trump’s decision this week to recall workers at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management so they could continue to process testing permits for possible drilling off the Atlantic coastline. The recall drew an objection from the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee chairman, Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva (gri-HAWL-vah) of Arizona. He called on Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to reverse course or provide a briefing on the legal justification for the move.

Earlier this month, South Carolina joined a federal lawsuit opposing the administration’s plans to conduct offshore drilling tests using seismic air guns. Gergel is overseeing that case, initially filed by environmental groups and municipalities along the state’s coast.

The suit challenges permits for the testing that precedes the drilling itself. It claims the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act in issuing the permits.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Five US House Democrats get behind tariff-relief bill for fishermen

July 30, 2018 — In the same week that President Donald Trump announced his plan to offer land farmers in the US $12 billion to help compensate for losses suffered as a result of his trade scuffles with China and other nations, a small group of Democrats in the House of Representatives have put forth a plan to help fishermen.

HR 6528, introduced Wednesday by Massachusetts representative Seth Moulton, would amend a provision contained in the Magnuson Stevens Act that allows for the government to make money available to harvesters in the case of a natural or man-made disaster. It would add language that clarifies that such funds can also be used in the case of “unilateral tariffs imposed by other countries on any United States seafood.”

Co-sponsors of the bill include representatives Chellie Pingree of Maine, Stephen Lynch and William Keating, both of Massachusetts, Jared Huffman of California, and Raul Grijalva of Arizona.

Pingree, an organic farmer, has been particularly vocal about the president’s tough trade stance, writing letters to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and US Trade Representative.

“Farmers haven’t been the only ones to suffer the consequences of the Trump administration’s sloppy trade actions,” she said in a statement issued this week.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Domestic and global fishing issues take center stage

December 15, 2017 — The House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday advanced out of committee revisions to the Magnuson-Stevens Act (H.R. 200 (115)) governing marine fishing and management in federal waters. The law is intended to prevent overfishing, but several conservation groups and Democrats are critical of the way it was written. Only three out of 12 amendments to the bill passed, and the bill moved out of committee on a party-line vote, your host reports.

What lawmakers said: Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who voted against it, called it a plan to “deregulate our oceans and fish everywhere until there’s nothing left.” He added: “Like most of the bills advanced by the leadership of this committee, this bill is extreme and has no future in the Senate.” Many environmental groups also issued strongly worded statements condemning the bill.

GOP leaders, for their part, took issue with the idea that it was being rushed. “The idea we are jamming this through without ample opportunity is false,” said Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who noted that he had been working on this legislation for the past five years. “I recognize this bill is not perfect yet.”

What about fishing criminals? After it was clear it wouldn’t pass, Grijalva pulled back his amendment to address repeat offenders in the fisheries industry — such as Carlos “the Codfather” Rafael who last month started serving a federal prison sentence for violating federal fishing regulations. Although Young did not support this specific amendment, he and other committee members said they would work with Grijalva to revisit the issue.

Read the full story at Politico 

 

Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization bill advances in US House

December 14, 2017 — By a 22-16 vote on Wednesday, the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources advanced HR 200, the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act, legislation introduced by representative Donald Young, an Alaska Republican.

The bill was one of 15 scheduled for markup Tuesday and Wednesday by the panel.

With just days to go before Congress breaks for the holidays, the bill to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act so far has not received much attention in the Senate. Chances are strong that the debate over the measure will continue well into 2018.

However, that didn’t stop the ocean conservation group Oceana from responding, issuing a statement that warned HR 200 “would weaken science-based conservation of U.S. fish populations and increase the risk of overfishing by removing annual catch limits for many species”.

Oceana campaign director Lora Snyder called the vote “a slap in the face to anyone who cares about ensuring the health of our nation’s fisheries, instead jeopardizing decades of progress in ocean conservation. … [It]  would roll back decades of progress, leading us back down the path to oceans empty of fish and fishermen losing their livelihoods.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

House Natural Resources Committee Passes Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization

December 13, 2017 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the House Committee on Natural Resources:

Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources passed H.R. 200, the “Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act.” Introduced by Chairman Emeritus Don Young (R-AK), the bill reauthorizes and modernizes the Magnuson-Stevens Act by implementing regional flexibility, tailored management practices and improved data collection for America’s federal fisheries.

“It has been 11 years since the Magnuson-Stevens Act was reauthorized and when we first passed this law, we saw tremendous success for the fisheries nationwide. Alaska is considered the gold standard of fisheries management and this industry is crucial to our local economy. I am proud to see my bill pass out of Committee today. This legislation will improve the management process by allowing regional fisheries to develop plans that match the needs of their area. Ultimately, this bill updates the Magnuson-Stevens Act to ensure a proper balance between the biological needs of fish stocks and the economic needs of fishermen and coastal communities,” Rep. Young stated. 

“America’s fisheries are governed by an outdated regulatory scheme and inflexible decrees imposed by distant bureaucrats. Fishermen and biologists on the ground should be partners in the formation of management plans, not powerless onlookers,” Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) said. “This bill provides flexibility so we can better meet local needs, expand economic activity and conserve ecosystems. Rep. Young has delivered a win for local management and I look forward to moving this bill through the chambers in the coming year.” 

Click here to learn more about the bill.

The following was released by the Democrats of the House Committee on Natural Resources:

Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today highlighted the broad-based economic and environmental opposition to H.R. 200, today’s highly partisan rewrite of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which governs fisheries and fishing quotas across U.S. waters. The GOP bill is opposed by the Seafood Harvesters of America and a wide swathe of restaurants and individual commercial fisherman and by dozens of environmental groups, including the Alaska Wilderness League, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, the League of Conservation Voters, the National Audubon Society, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Ocean Conservancy and the Wilderness Society.

Opponents of the Republican bill have written a barrage of letters to Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and other Republican leaders, including Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans, urging them to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act and abandon today’s bill, which was written by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) on highly partisan lines. The letters are available at http://bit.ly/2nYuEin.

“Republicans’ plan is to deregulate our oceans and fish everywhere until there’s nothing left, and we’re not going to let that happen,” Grijalva said today. “Ocean management is about sustainable use and enjoyment, not just making environmentalists unhappy. Like most of the bills advanced by the leadership of this Committee, this bill is extreme and has no future in the Senate. Until my counterparts decide to take the issues in our jurisdiction more seriously, we’re going to keep wasting time on unpopular bills that have no chance of becoming law.”

Grijalva also underscored the deep opposition to H.R. 3588, Rep. Garret Graves’ (R-La.) bill deregulating red snapper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Many letter-writers who oppose H.R. 200 also oppose Graves’ effort, which an alliance of chefs and restaurateurs noted in a Nov. 7 letter “could inadvertently result in significant overfishing and deprive our customers of one of their favorite fish.”

 

Fight over national monuments intensifies

October 16, 2017 — WASHINGTON — Conservatives have opened a new front in the fight over the future of America’s national monuments.

House Republicans are moving forward with a bill to reform a century-old conservation law, raising the stakes in their ongoing effort to curtail the president’s’ ability to set aside wide swaths of federal land as national monuments and protect them from future development.

The new legislation, from Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), comes as the White House mulls reductions to several previously declared monuments. That’s an effort environmentalists consider an affront to the Antiquities Act, a law signed by conservation champion Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

Conservatives, industry groups and Westerners have long pushed for changes to the Antiquities Act, saying presidents of both parties have abused the law, handcuffing local communities who could look to create jobs on public land. President Trump is an ally in that effort.

Environmentalists and most Democrats consider the Antiquities Act a bedrock American conservation law and have vowed to fight any effort to water it down.

The reform effort has its impetus in what conservatives consider an abuse of federal monument designation powers.

Sixteen presidents have used the Antiquities Act to lock up federal land over the last century. But President Obama used it the most often, and protected by far the most acreage — 553.6 million acres of land and sea monuments — inspiring a fresh round of legislative proposals.

Read the full story at The Hill