Saving Seafood

Congress’ covid deal includes $300 million more for fishing industry

December 23, 2020 — A second round of aid for the fishing industry is emerged as part of the $900 billion emergency pandemic relief package approved Monday night by Congress.

“We got another $300 million for fisheries,” said Leigh Habegger, executive director of the Seafood Harvesters of America. The package is similar to the first Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act covid-19 emergency aid unveiled in May, although “the process may look a little bit different than it did in the first round,” she said.

The Paycheck Protection Program is being extended with rule changes to help smaller businesses. One change sought by Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both R-Alaska, will allow the program to cover crew members paid as contractors or 1099 employees, said Habegger.

In addition seafood is also explicitly listed as eligible for purchase by the U.S Department of Agriculture for its domestic food assistance program, allotted $1.5 billion by the emergency legislation. The legislative language specifically notes the money is to purchase “food and agriculural products, including seafood” for distribution through public agencies and non-profit, charitable partners such as food banks.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Fishermen, Seafood Companies Come Together to Defend Their Industry

November 16, 2020 — The following was released by the At-Sea Processors Association:

Ahead of tomorrow’s House Natural Resources Committee hearing on legislation entitled the “Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act,” a coalition of more than 800 members of the seafood community say Title II of the proposed bill is not backed by science and is a direct threat to an iconic American industry.

“United States fisheries management is the envy of the world,” said Matt Tinning, Director of Sustainability and Public Affairs at the At-sea Processors Association. “Science-based management under the Magnuson-Stevens Act is a remarkable example of bipartisan policy success. It is achieving exceptional environmental outcomes, preserving vital cultural traditions, creating jobs in communities across the United States, and delivering food with one of the lowest carbon footprints of any protein on Earth. Title II of the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act will jeopardize that remarkable record of success.”

“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is among the world’s very best fishery managers,” said NFI President John Connelly. “This bill appears to ignore that expertise and process and just walls off parts of the ocean to fishing. It disregards generations of science-based work and community consensus. Drawing arbitrary lines on a map is not science, it’s politics. Lines on a map don’t actually promote sustainability but they can harm livelihoods that depend on real sustainability work.”

The proposal calls for massive Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that would prohibit all commercial fishing activity across at least 30 percent of the nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) by 2030.

“The 831 signatories of this letter hail from different regions and participate in different parts of the seafood supply chain,” said Robert B. Vanasse, Executive Director of Saving Seafood. “However, we are all united in our commitment to using defensible, quality science to ensure that our nation’s fisheries are harvested sustainably for the benefit of this and future generations. ‘30 by 30’ is a campaign slogan, not a scientific proposal. The legislation would undermine the Magnuson-Stevens Act and its fundamental principle of using the best available scientific information to inform our fisheries management decisions.”

“High-value benthic habitat, such as deep-sea corals, are important parts of the marine ecosystem and worthy of science-based protection,” said Leigh Habegger, Executive Director of Seafood Harvesters of America. The current system is working to deliver exactly those protections to hundreds of thousands of square miles of sensitive habitat through the Regional Fishery Management Council process. We should build on what is working, not create a new, parallel process.”

The coalition letter can be viewed here. The Committee hearing is Tuesday, November 17, at 12:00PM Eastern and will be live-streamed here.

Over 800 Seafood Industry Members Write to Oppose the Fisheries Provisions of the House Democrats’ Climate Bill

November 16, 2020 — Over 800 participants in our nation’s seafood economy wrote today to Chairman Raúl Grijalva of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources to express deep concern regarding Title II of the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act, recently introduced by the committee Democrats. The signers of the letter argue that the bill would undermine our nation’s world-class system of fisheries management, harming fishermen and the coastal communities they sustain. They urged the chairman to fundamentally rethink Title II’s provisions.

Of particular concern is the bill’s mandate that would compel the Executive Branch to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that prohibit all commercial fishing activity across at least 30 percent of the nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) by 2030.  The proposal is known by the slogan “30 by 30”.

The House Natural Resources Committee plans a hearing tomorrow to cover this bill, among several others.

The letter was organized by the At-sea Processors Association, the National Fisheries Institute, Saving Seafood, and the Seafood Harvesters of America.

“United States fisheries management is the envy of the world. Science-based management under the Magnuson-Stevens Act is a remarkable example of bipartisan policy success. It is achieving exceptional environmental outcomes, preserving vital cultural traditions, creating jobs in communities across the United States, and delivering food with one of the lowest carbon footprints of any protein on Earth. Title II of the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act will jeopardize that remarkable record of success.”
— Matt Tinning, Director of Sustainability and Public Affairs at the At-sea Processors Association

“The over 800 signers of this letter hail from different regions and participate in different parts of the seafood supply chain. However, we are all united in our commitment to using defensible, quality science to ensure that our nation’s fisheries are harvested sustainably for the benefit of this and future generations. ‘30 by 30’ is a campaign slogan, not a scientific proposal. The legislation would undermine the Magnuson-Stevens Act and its fundamental principle of using the best available scientific information to inform our fisheries management decisions.”
— Robert B. Vanasse, Executive Director of Saving Seafood

“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is among the world’s very best fishery managers.  This bill appears to ignore that expertise and process and just walls off parts of the ocean to fishing. It disregards generations of science-based work and community consensus. Drawing arbitrary lines on a map is not science, it’s politics. Lines on a map don’t actually promote sustainability but they can harm livelihoods that depend on real sustainability work.”
— John Connelly, President of the National Fisheries Institute

“High-value benthic habitat, such as deep-sea corals, are important parts of the marine ecosystem and worthy of science-based protection.  The current system is working to deliver exactly those protections to hundreds of thousands of square miles of sensitive habitat through the Regional Fishery Management Council process. We should build on what is working, not create a new, parallel process.”
— Leigh Habegger, Executive Director of Seafood Harvesters of America

Read the full letter here

NOAA establishes national-level criteria for observer waivers in wake of criticism

July 31, 2020 — NOAA Fisheries announced on 30 July that it has identified national-level observer waiver criteria, and that the redeployment of observers in the Northeast U.S. will begin 14 August.

The national criteria comes in the wake of Seafood Harvesters of America calling on NOAA Fisheries earlier this month to develop more consistent policies regarding observer waiver criteria. A letter sent by Seafood Harvesters of America called NOAA’s policy regarding at-sea coverage “inconsistent and unequal.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fisheries across nation seeking monitor waivers

July 17, 2020 — What began in the fisheries of New England has spread across the country.

Fishing stakeholders from as far away as the West Coast and Alaska have joined Northeast commercial fishermen in pressuring NOAA Fisheries to extend — and uniformly apply — waivers from having to carry at-sea monitors and other observers on vessels while the COVID-19 pandemic still rages.

The Seafood Harvesters of America, an umbrella organization that represents 18 separate fishing groups from Maine to Alaska, wrote to NOAA Fisheries and Department of Commerce officials this week to advance many of the same safety arguments against reinstating observers aboard commercial fishing vessels in the midst of the pandemic.

“Recent decisions by the National Marine Fisheries Service regarding observer requirements continue to threaten the health, safety, and lives of our nation’s fishermen, fishing communities, and observers,” the group said in its letter to Neil Jacobs, the acting undersecretary for oceans and atmosphere, and three chief NOAA Fisheries executives. “We strongly urge you to add a third criteria to the emergency action under which NMFS may waive observer coverage requirements to take into consideration the health and safety of captains, crew, coastal communities, and observers.”

The group also urged NOAA Fisheries to “fix its inconsistent and unequal application of observer waivers” by extending waivers to any fishery where fishermen are now mandated to accept human observers aboard commercial vessels.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Seafood Harvesters calls on NOAA Fisheries to apply observer waiver consistently for all regions

July 14, 2020 — Seafood Harvesters of America is calling on NOAA Fisheries to develop a more consistent policy in issuing waivers for observers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bob Dooley, the organization’s president, and Leigh Habegger, its executive director, signed a letter sent Monday, 13 July, calling for NOAA to rethink the agency’s current policy regarding at-sea observer coverage. The letter – which was sent to Dr. Neil Jacobs, the acting undersecretary for oceans and atmosphere in the U.S. Department of Commerce; Chris Oliver, NOAA Fisheries’ assistant administrator; and two other NOAA Fisheries officials – is calling for the federal agency to amend the “inconsistent and unequal” process of applying waivers by extending them to all regions where observers and at-sea monitors are mandatory.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US harvesters seek to fix ‘oversight’ blocking crew payroll from COVID loans

May 11, 2020 — The Seafood Harvesters of America (SHA) has written US senators Marco Rubio (a Florida Republican) and Ben Cardin (a Maryland Democrat) — the chairman and ranking member of the Small Business Committee respectively — to fix what the group believes was “an oversight” that’s now blocking fishermen from taking full advantage of the small business loans made available in the recently passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

In a letter sent Thursday, SHA, a group that represents 18 US fishing-related trade associations, seeks to allow “fishing businesses to include payments to fishing vessel crew members reported as fishing boat proceeds on Form 1099- MISC as eligible payroll costs under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)”.

The PPP refers to the new program that authorized up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses to pay their employees during the COVID-19 crisis.

“We believe it was an oversight that fishing vessel crewmember wages cannot be considered in the fishing business’s PPP loan application as submitted by the vessel owner or captain, and hope it can be easily fixed as [the Department of] Treasury completes their final rule for the PPP,” wrote Robert Dooley and Leigh Habegger, SHA’s president and executive director, respectively.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Seafood Harvesters of America asks for clarity on COVID-19 relief funding

April 23, 2020 — Seafood Harvesters of America sent U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross a letter on Thursday, 23 April, calling on the Commerce Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to communicate how it will use the USD 300 million (EUR 278.2 million) in COVID-19 relief funding to help the nation’s fishermen.

That money was allocated in the USD 2.2 trillion (EUR 2.04 trillion) CARES Act, which Congress passed last month.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Food security starts at sea

November 13, 2019 — By 2050, global food production must increase by 70 percent to keep up with population growth. The pressure to grow, harvest and create more protein from America’s resources will be immense. Yet, America owns vast wealth in and near our coastal communities that permeates across state lines. This wealth must be protected for businesses, community survival and our nation’s food security.

Every summer, the wealth of our fisheries is seen coast to coast. Wild salmon return to pristine Alaskan waters, striped bass reappear near New England’s shores, and red snapper congregate in the Gulf of Mexico. As leaders of the Seafood Harvesters of America and lifelong fishermen, we shared stories like these — the story of the American fisherman — during the summer’s Capitol Hill Ocean Week.

Like any robust American resource, fisheries connect businesses, communities and families across the nation around hard work and resiliency. Renewable and sustainably managed, it has the capacity to help feed us in perpetuity.
But does it?

In 2017, U.S. commercial fishermen landed an astounding 9.9 billion pounds of seafood. Americans love the idea of eating American seafood. We celebrate it on menus and grocery store banners, devour dramatic fishing documentaries, and honor its heritage in our coastal towns. As a nation we’ve prioritized sustainability through laws like the Magnuson Stevens Act, which is why 91 percent of America’s fishery stocks are not overfished today — and that number is only improving.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Bayless, Moonen among 50 US chefs to sign Portland Pact on MSA

November 21, 2018 — American celebrity seafood restauranteurs Rick Bayless and Rick Moonen are among the first 50 chefs who have signed on to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s organized effort to “protect the strong conservation measures of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA)”.

Undercurrent News reported earlier how the Monterey Bay Aquarium was planning to start on Nov. 7, the day after the US mid-term election, rallying chefs to sign a document produced at a meeting in Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 24. The so-called “Portland Pact for Sustainable Seafood” calls on “the new Congress to prioritize the long-term health of US fish stocks by protecting the strong conservation measures of the [MSA]”.

Commercial fishing groups that support Alaska Republican representative Don Young’s MSA reauthorization bill, HR 200, earlier expressed concern that the Monterey Bay Aquarium effort was an attack on the bill, which was passed by the US House of Representatives but requires Senate action before the expiration of the 115th Congress in December. The bill makes some of the most significant changes in MSA’s 42-year history, giving fishery regulatory bodies much more needed flexibility, say its champions.

But HR 200, which would have to be re-introduced in the 116th Congress if not successful in the next few weeks, already faces an uphill battle in the new House as it has enjoyed little support from the soon-to-be-in-charge Democrats.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium, which runs the Seafood Watch sustainability initiative, is one of a number of ocean conservation and environmental advocacy groups opposed to Young’s bill. The Environmental Defense Fund, Earthjustice, Oceana North America, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, Seafood Harvesters of America, Fortune Fish & Gourmet, and Santa Monica Seafood have also expressed opposition. They say it would undermine previously established fishing policies and endanger many valuable species.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News