Saving Seafood

Zinke urges commercial fishing in 3 protected areas

December 7, 2017 — Much of the attention to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s review of national monuments has focused on sites across the West, but recommendations he made to President Trump show that a trio of marine monuments could also see significant changes.

In a report Interior released yesterday, Zinke advised that commercial fishing be introduced to three ocean sites: Rose Atoll, Pacific Remote Islands, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts marine national monuments.

Advocates for fishermen cheered the recommendations, asserting the restrictions had created an “economic burden” for their industry.

“The marine monument designation process may have been well intended, but it has simply lacked a comparable level of industry input, scientific rigor, and deliberation,” said New Bedford, Mass., Mayor Jon Mitchell in a statement released by the National Coalition for Fishing Communities.

He added: “That is why I think hitting the reset button ought to be welcomed no matter where one stands in the current fisheries debates, because the end result will be better policy and better outcomes.”

In the report, Zinke criticized restrictions on commercial fishing in the three monuments, discounting the industry’s impact on areas such as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts near the Massachusetts coast.

Read the full story at E&E News

 

Zinke backs shrinking more national monuments and shifting management of 10

December 7, 2017 — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Tuesday called on President Trump to shrink a total of four national monuments and change the way six other land and marine sites are managed, a sweeping overhaul of how protected areas are maintained in the United States.

Zinke’s final report comes a day after Trump signed proclamations in Utah that downsized two massive national monuments there — Bears Ears by 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante by nearly 46 percent. The president had directed Zinke in April to review 27 national monuments established since 1996 under the Antiquities Act, which gives the president broad authority to safeguard federal lands and waters under threat.

In addition to the Utah sites, Zinke supports cutting Nevada’s Gold Butte and Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou, though the exact reductions are still being determined. He also would revise the proclamations for those and the others to clarify that certain activities are allowed.

The additional monuments affected include Northeast Canyons and Seamounts in the Atlantic Ocean; both Rose Atoll and the Pacific Remote Islands in the Pacific Ocean; New Mexico’s Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and Rio Grande Del Norte, and Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Waters.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

 

NCFC Members Support Interior Department’s Reported Marine Monument Recommendations

WASHINGTON — September 18, 2017 — The following was released by Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities:

Members of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities support Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s reported recommendations to alter three marine national monuments. Coalition members are hesitant to comment on leaked recommendations that may not be final, but are offering comment due to the significant media attention this report has already received. The reported revisions to marine monuments will lessen the economic burden on America’s fishing communities while still providing environmental protections for our ocean resources.

According to reports, Secretary Zinke’s recommendations to President Donald Trump would allow commercial fishing managed under the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) in the recently designated Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. He also reportedly recommended revising the boundaries or allowing commercial fishing under the MSA in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument. NCFC members in the Pacific hope that the White House will extend these recommendations to the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, and appreciate the open and transparent process by which Secretary Zinke reviewed these designations.

Marine monument expansions and designations have been widely criticized by commercial fishing interests as well as by the nation’s eight regional fishery management councils, which in a May 16 letter told Secretary Zinke and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that marine monument designations “have disrupted the ability of the Councils to manage fisheries throughout their range.” Fishing industry members believe these monuments were created with insufficient local input from stakeholders affected by the designations, and fishing communities felt largely ignored by previous administrations.

“The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was designated after behind-closed-door campaigns led by large, multinational, environmental lobbying firms, despite vocal opposition from local and federal officials, fisheries managers, and the fishing industry,” said Eric Reid, general manager of Seafreeze Shoreside in Narragansett, R.I., who has been critical of the Obama Administration’s process in designating the monument. “But the reported recommendations from the Interior Department make us hopeful that we can recover the areas we have fished sustainably for decades. We are grateful that the voices of fishermen and shore side businesses have finally been heard,” Mr. Reid concluded.

“There seems to be a huge misconception that there are limitless areas where displaced fishermen can go,” said Grant Moore, president of the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association. “Basically with the stroke of a pen, President Obama put fishermen and their crews out of work and harmed all the shore-side businesses that support the fishing industry.”

“The fisheries management process under the existing Magnuson Act is far from perfect, but its great strength is that it has afforded ample opportunities for all stakeholders to study and comment on policy decisions, and for peer review of the scientific basis for those decisions,” stated Mayor Jon Mitchell of New Bedford, Massachusetts, the nation’s top-grossing commercial fishing port. In March, Mayor Mitchell submitted testimony to Congress expressing concern over marine monuments. “The marine monument designation process may have been well intended, but it has simply lacked a comparable level of industry input, scientific rigor, and deliberation. That is why I think hitting the reset button ought to be welcomed no matter where one stands in the current fisheries debates, because the end result will be better policy and better outcomes,” Mayor Mitchell concluded.

Fishermen in the Pacific are also supportive of the Interior Department’s review, but remain concerned about the effects of the Papahānaumokuākea Monument, which was omitted from the version of the recommendations being reported. “We are appreciative of Secretary Zinke’s review, and his reported recommendations to support commercial fishing in the Pacific Remote Islands Monument,” said Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association. Hawaii’s longline fishing fleet supplies a large portion of the fresh tuna and other fish consumed in Hawaii. “However, we hope that the White House will extend these recommendations to the Papahānaumokuākea Monument, where President Obama closed an area nearly the size of Alaska without a substantive public process. The longline fleet caught about 2 million pounds of fish annually from the expanded area before it was closed to our American fishermen. That was a high price to pay for a presidential legacy,” Mr. Martin continued.

The reported recommended changes come after an extensive and open public comment period in which the Interior Department solicited opinions from scientists, environmentalists, industry stakeholders, and members of the public. As part of the Interior Department’s review process, Secretary Zinke engaged with communities around the country affected by monument designations. This included a meeting with local fishermen in Boston who explained how the designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Monument has negatively impacted their livelihoods.

Critics of the monument designation include the regional fishery management councils; numerous fishing groups on the East Coast; and mayors from fishing communities on both coasts.

Additionally, fishery managers in Hawaii have been critical of expansions of both the Papahānaumokuākea Monument and the Pacific Remote Islands Monument. In an April 26 letter to Secretary Zinke, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council stated that marine monuments around Hawaii “impose a disproportionate burden on our fishermen and indigenous communities,” and noted that they have closed regulated domestic commercial fishing in 51 percent of the U.S. exclusive economic zone in the region.

Florida charter fishermen applauded the review, and a return to the process of established law that guides fishery management. “Destin, Florida was founded by commercial fishermen before the turn of the 20th century, and continues to be a major port for commercial and charter fishing fleets,” said Captain Gary Jarvis, president of the Destin Charter Boat Association. “To our fishing community, it’s extremely important to address closures of historical fishing grounds through the Magnuson-Stevens mandated regional council process.”

Curiously, although President Obama’s September 2016 monument designation prohibited sustainable low-impact commercial fishing, it allowed other extractive activities including recreational fishing, and even far more destructive activities such as the digging of trenches for international communications cables.

NCFC members supporting the Interior Department’s reported recommendations include:

  • Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association
  • Destin Charter Boat Association
  • Fisheries Survival Fund
  • Garden State Seafood Association
  • Hawaii Longline Association
  • Long Island Commercial Fishing Association
  • North Carolina Fisheries Association
  • Seafreeze Shoreside
  • Southeastern Fisheries Association
  • Western Fishboat Owners Association
  • West Coast Seafood Processors Association

 

Zinke: Open up first Atlantic monument to commercial fishing

September 18, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wants to open up the first marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean to commercial fishing, according to a recommendation he made in a memo to President Donald Trump.

Zinke’s memo touches on his recommendations for a host of national monuments, including Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. Former President Barack Obama designated some 5,000 square miles (12,950 square kilometers) off New England as the marine monument about a year ago.

Obama’s proclamation should be amended to include commercial fishing activities regulated under federal law, Zinke’s memo said. The memo states that instead of prohibiting commercial fishing, the government should allow it in the area under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which is the primary law governing the U.S.’s marine fisheries and meant to prevent overfishing and guarantee a safe source of seafood.

Zinke’s memo states that the monument was established “to protect geologic features, natural resources, and species,” but regulators have charged that it disrupts their ability “to manage species to balance protection with commercial fishing.”

Conservationist groups slammed the recommendation on Monday, while fishing groups said they’ve been making the same proposal all along. Allowing regulated commercial fishing in the area is a conservation-minded move, said Robert Vanasse, the executive director of Saving Seafood, a fishing advocacy group.

“Regulated fishing everywhere under the Magnuson-Stevens Act is pro-conservation and appropriate for all federal waters,” he said. “It’s scientifically sound.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

 

Shrink at least 4 national monuments and modify a half-dozen others, Zinke tells Trump

September 17, 2017 — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended that President Trump modify 10 national monuments created by his immediate predecessors, including shrinking the boundaries of at least four western sites, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Washington Post.

The memorandum, which the White House has refused to release since Zinke submitted it late last month, does not specify exact reductions for the four protected areas Zinke would have Trump narrow — Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, Nevada’s Gold Butte, and Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou — or the two marine national monuments — the Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll — for which he raised the same prospect. The two Utah sites encompass a total of more than 3.2 million acres, part of the reason they have aroused such intense emotions since their designation.

The secretary’s set of recommendations also would change the way all 10 targeted monuments are managed. It emphasizes the need to adjust the proclamations to address concerns of local officials or affected industries, saying the administration should permit “traditional uses” now restricted within the monuments’ boundaries, such as grazing, logging, coal mining and commercial fishing.

The memorandum, labeled “Final Report Summarizing Findings of the Review of Designations Under the Antiquities Act,” shows Zinke concluded after a nearly four-month review that both Republican and Democratic presidents went too far in recent decades in limiting commercial activities in protected areas. The act, signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt, gives the president wide latitude to protect public lands and waters that face an imminent threat.

“It appears that certain monuments were designated to prevent economic activity such as grazing, mining and timber production rather than to protect specific objects,” the report reads, adding that while grazing is rarely banned “outright,” subsequent management decisions “can have the indirect result of hindering livestock-grazing uses.”

Read the full story at the Washington Post

 

American Samoa Biologist Says Marine Monument Designation Not Based On Science

July 18, 2017 — Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) Chief Fisheries Biologist, Domingo Ochavillo has shared concerns with US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, over the designation of Rose Atoll as a marine monument; and also argues that expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands National Marine Monument was not based on science “but more on political legacy considerations.”

The biologist’s comment was in response to Zinke’s request for public comments on DOI’s review of all land and marine monuments in the nation including Rose Atoll and Pacific Remote Islands following President Trump’s executive order in April.

“There is a need to review these national monument designations so that they are based on the best available science, and adequate cultural and economic considerations,”  said Ochavillo who wrote the comment-letter in her capacity as DMWR acting director at the time.

“The recent consideration of the American Samoa Deeds of Cession as a relevant document for federal decisions makes it more imperative now to review these marine monument designations,” said Ochavillo, referring to the Honolulu federal court decision this year that voids a US National Marine Fisheries Service rule which reduced last year the Large Vessel Prohibited Area in territorial waters from 50 to 12 miles.

Read the full story at Pacific Islands Report