Saving Seafood

Rep. Seth Moulton bill aims to protect right whales

June 11, 2018 — U.S. Rep Seth Moulton is a primary sponsor of a House bill that would appropriate $5 million in grants annually over the next decade to help in the conservation of the endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The bill, if made law, would require the U.S commerce secretary to provide competitive grants for projects related to the conservation of the right whales. It caps administrative expenses at 5 percent of the appropriated funds or $80,000, whichever is greater.

The bill carries a non-federal matching requirement of up to 25 percent for successful applicants. It also authorizes in-kind contributions as part of the matching requirement and “allows for the waiving of the match requirement if necessary to support a project identified as high-priority,” according to the proposed bill.

“The waters off Massachusetts are home to one of the planet’s most endangered species, the right whale,” Moulton said in a statement. “By providing competitive grants from right whale conservation projects, we can generate innovative solutions for saving an entire species. Let’s preserve some of earth’s greatest animals for future generations, rather than be a generation responsible for their irreversible demise.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Solons shaking sabers over right whales

May 7, 2018 — The plight of the North Atlantic right whales certainly remained in the news last week, as a group of U.S. senators from New England, including Edward Markey of Massachusetts, hinted at a possible trade action against Canada if our neighbors to the north don’t impose stricter protections for right whales.

Then U.S Rep. Seth Moulton and other members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation got in on the rattling of cutlery with a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Munchin urging them to require Canada to “apply for and receive a comparability certificate” for any of their commercial fisheries implicated in the incidental killing of North Atlantic right whales.

Or else.

“If Canada cannot secure a comparability finding for those fisheries then the (Marine Mammal Protection Act) requires the National Marine Fisheries Service, in cooperation with the Department of the Treasury and Department of Commerce, to impose a ban on the importation of commercial fish or products from fish harvested in those fisheries,” the letter stated.

The diplomatic grumbling served as a backdrop to the seasonal return of the right whales to Massachusetts — including a feeding fest on Friday off the rocky cliffs that separate Long Beach from Good Harbor Beach chronicled in the Saturday pages of the GDT and online at gloucestertimes.com.

(And thanks to Marty Del Vecchio for generously sharing his great images with us for that story.)

Residents and workers in the area reported seeing up to about a dozen of the imperiled marine mammals, with some of them venturing within 25 feet of the rocks in a galvanizing display of nature in the raw.

The best line of the morning belonged to Anthony Erbetta of Marblehead, who was working with his buddy Nick Venezia, also of Marblehead, on restoring and renovating a cliffside home on High Rock Terrace.

Told that they were right whales, Erbetta said: “Right whales, left whales. I really don’t think we should get into whale politics.”

Actual good news on whales

It may not involve the right whales, but according to a piece in the New York Times, humpback whales are forging a comeback in the southern oceans near Antarctica.

The piece reported a new study shows that humpback whales that live and breed in those waters have been hard at work making little humpbacks, “with females in recent years having a high pregnancy rate and giving birth to more calves.”

The higher levels of whale recruitment represent a stark contrast to the condition of the humpback populations in the 19th and 20th centuries, when they were hunted nearly to extinction.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Rep. Moulton: NOAA cuts ‘recipe for disaster’

February 16, 2018 — President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cuts more than $1 billion from the agency that manages the nation’s fisheries and coastal ecosystems, explores space and forecasts weather and changing environmental conditions.

On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton of Salem criticized the proposed cuts, saying the proposed 14 percent decline reflects the administration’s shallow understanding of the importance of NOAA’s programs to coastal communities, maritime industries and the national resources the agency is tasked to protect.

“It’s a recipe for disaster,” Moulton said of the withering budget cuts.

A spokeswoman at NOAA’s Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic Region Fisheries Office said the agency would have no comment on the budget proposal.

Still, the numbers remain unnerving — and the opposition more unified among a disparate band of conservationists, fishing stakeholders and political forces — when the cuts within the cuts are explored.

Local groundfishermen, already buffeted by heightened regulation, shrinking quotas and climactic changes, fear the cuts will kill any possibility that NOAA will continue reimbursements for portions of their at-sea monitoring costs in 2018.

Conservationists, such as Oceana, have railed against the deep cuts in ocean-funded research, such as the 33 percent cut in the National Ocean Service.

“The president’s proposal would cripple NOAA, the nation’s premier agency for ocean management and research,” Oceana said in its statement responding to the Trump budget proposals. “Major NOAA programs would suffer massive cuts.”

Read the full story at Salem News

 

Massachusetts congressional delegation urges Gov. Charlie Baker to reject Trump administration’s offshore drilling plan

January 11, 2018 — Massachusetts congressional lawmakers called on Gov. Charlie Baker Wednesday to formally oppose the Trump administration’s plan to expand oil and gas drilling off the East Coast.

All 11 members of the state’s delegation penned a letter to Baker urging him to join other states’ governors in officially rejecting the Interior Department’s newly unveiled five-year drilling plan, which seeks to open federal waters off the California coast and areas from Florida to Maine for oil and gas exploration purposes.

The lawmakers, who have been critical of efforts to expand offshore drilling, contended that opening areas off the East Coast for such purposes “would pose a serious threat to our oceans and the economic viability of the Commonwealth’s coastal communities, tourism and shore-side businesses that rely on healthy marine resources.”

Pointing to maritime industries’ impact on Massachusetts’ economy, the delegation noted that the commercial fishing supported 83,000 jobs in the state and generated $1.9 billion income, as well as $7.3 billion in sales in 2015.

Marine-related tourism, meanwhile, generates tens of billion of dollars in economic value each yeah and supports more than 100,000 jobs in Massachusetts, they wrote.

“The economic effects of our ocean community are extensive, providing a source of income and jobs for commercial and recreational fishermen, vessel manufacturers, restaurants and other businesses throughout Massachusetts, all of which would be threatened by allowing offshore drilling and the risk of an oil spill off our coast,” the letter stated.

Read the full story at MassLive

 

Fishery education plan in Congress

April 18, 2017 — The federal budget may be shrinking, and bipartisanship moribund, but congressmen from two coastal states a continent apart are undeterred.

Last week, Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts) and Don Young (R-Alabama) introduced legislation that would establish the first national program to support young men and women entering the commercial fishing industry.

The bipartisan, bicoastal bill, which would provide grants of up to $200,000 (a total of $2 million annually), is part of the Fishing Communities Coalition’s efforts to launch the first coordinated, nationwide effort to train, educate and assist the next generation of commercial fishermen. The grant program would be administered through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sea Grant Program.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Rep. Don Young Unveils Young Fishermen’s Development Act

April 14, 2017 — Alaska Congressman Don Young, a longtime leader in national fisheries policy and legislation, this week unveiled his newest bill –  H.R. 2079, the Young Fishermen’s Development Act – to address the longtime decline in younger Americans entering the commercial fishing fleet  – or “graying of the fleet.” Young’s legislation would create the first ever national grant program through the Department of Commerce to support training, education, and workplace development for the nation’s next generation of commercial fishermen.

“This innovative new program is only one effort to preserve fishing heritage and encourage new participation in the industry,” said Congressman Don Young. “Young commercial fishermen are facing bigger challenges than ever before – new barriers to entry, limited training opportunities and a lack of support. This legislation is about supporting the livelihoods of fishing communities in Alaska and across the nation. I’m proud to stand with our young fishermen by introducing this important piece of legislation.”

Congressman Young introduced H.R. 2079 with Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) to create a completive grant program – modeled closely after the successful Department of Agriculture’s Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program – to provide meaningful resources for younger generations of Americans entering and progressing in the fishing industry.

“The fishing industry is vital to the Sixth District and to our entire region, but we’re at a crossroads,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA). This legislation will help to sustain the fishing industry by ensuring that our young people not only have a future in fishing, but are also empowered with the training and resources necessary to thrive in the 21st-century economy. I’m grateful to Congressman Young for his collaboration on this bill and broader efforts to support our young fishermen.”

Read the full story at Alaska Business Monthly

 

MASSACHUSETTS: By knocking down barriers, bill could help reinvigorate Gloucester fleet

April 10, 2017 — With the wind-swept vista of the nation’s oldest fishing seaport on full display behind him, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton on Saturday stood with his feet on the Gloucester waterfront and his eye on the future of the commercial fishing industry.

Moulton was in Gloucester to announce legislation he believes will help rebuild the industry’s dwindling workforce by removing training and economic barriers to cultivate a new generation of fishermen.

“Today we’re celebrating the industry that is so fundamental to this community and frankly to our entire region,” said Moulton while flanked by a cadre of state and city officials. “The piece of legislation that we’re announcing today will go toward sustaining that industry into the future by ensuring that young people have a future in the fishing industry.”

The legislation, crafted in partnership with U.S. Rep. Don Young of Alaska, is the Young Fishermen’s Development Act. The bill, according to its sponsors, is a vehicle for addressing one of the fishing industry’s most pressing needs — building a new generation of fishermen that will take the industry into the future.

The bill is modeled after a similar and successful program initiated by the Department of Agriculture to re-energize the farming industry. It is designed to provide federal grants to local organizations to develop training, education and outreach to attract younger fishermen to help reverse the trend of an aging industry.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Rep. Moulton bill looks to inject youth into fishing industry

April 10, 2017 — Looking to the future of commercial fishing as well as its troubling present, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton is sponsoring legislation that will attempt to inject more innovation, entrepreneurship and youth into the aging industry.

The Salem congresman is scheduled to travel to Gloucester on Saturday morning to announce his filing of the “Young Fishermen’s Development Act of 2017” at an event at Fisherman’s Wharf with fishing stakeholders and local and state officials.

“The fishing economy certainly is critical to our district and state, but it’s also critical to our country,” Moulton said Thursday. “More and more people are eating more and more seafood and it’s in our national interest to protect this food source and do everything we can to rebuild the industry.”

The tenets of the legislation, which is modeled after a similar and successful program run by the Department of Agriculture, include training, education and outreach to attract younger fishermen to the waterfront to help reverse the trend of an aging industry.

The legislation calls for Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, acting through the National Sea Grant office, to establish the program and “make competitive grants to support new and established local and regional training, education, outreach and technical assistance initiative for young fishermen.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

SEAN HORGAN: Trump looking to ax NOAA budget

March 20, 2017 — Fresh from battering the Trump administration like a pinata over its (rescinded) plan to whack the U.S. Coast Guard budget to the tune of $1.3 billion, Washington D.C.’s loyal opposition now is taking up the cause of — wait, can this be right? — NOAA.

A dozen congressional members from coastal communities throughout the U.S. are lobbying the Office of Management and Budget to reconsider the proposed cuts of $990 million, or about 17 percent, to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s total budget.

Cape Ann’s congressman, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Salem, is a signatory on a letter to OMB Director Mick Mulvaney pointing out that the cuts could have a devastating impact on coastal communities battling sea rise and other extreme weather events.

“To disarm our coastal communities, many of which are already experiencing first-hand the effects of severe weather, is dangerous and short-sighted,” the letter stated.

The letter also decried the proposed $513 million in cuts to the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service and the gutting of the Sea Grant college program.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Rep. Moulton, lawmakers: Proposed Coast Guard cuts ’cause for concern’

March 16, 2017 — Opposition to the Trump administration’s proposed slashing of the Coast Guard budget to pay for the Mexican border wall continues to grow, with members of Congress arguing cuts would contradict the president’s goal of rebuilding the nation’s armed forces.

Nearly 60 bi-partisan members of the House of Representatives, including 6th District Congressman Seth Moulton of Salem, signed a letter Monday highlighting the folly of cutting about $1.3 billion, or about 14.3 percent, from the Coast Guard’s $9.1 billion annual budget.

The letter, addressed to the chairman and ranking member of the House subcommittee on homeland security, stated the Office of Management and Budget’s financial outline for the Department of Homeland Security — which includes the Coast Guard — is a “cause for serious alarm.”

“It is nonsensical to pursue a policy of rebuilding the armed forces while proposing large reductions to the U.S. Coast Guard budget,” the letter stated. “Without question, OMB’s proposed cut targeting the Coast Guard directly contradicts the president’s stated goals and should be dismissed.”

The letter points to the pivotal role the Coast Guard plays in the interdiction of illegal drugs and undocumented immigrants and its direct impact on border security and law enforcement. It said the proposed cuts severely discount the value and effectiveness of the U.S. Coast Guard in both areas.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times