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US spending bills include millions for seafood-related initiatives

July 30, 2021 — Washington, D.C., U.S.A was a busy place Thursday, 29 July, as lawmakers in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate passed large appropriation bills, both of which included seafood-related line-items and initiatives.

In the House, a package of seven spending bills passed by a 219-208 vote. The appropriations package included funding for such agencies as the Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration and Department of Interior. Among the projects in the bill is a USD 6 million (EUR 5.1 million) initiative secured by Louisiana U.S. Reps. Garret Graves (R), Steve Scalise (R), and Troy Carter (D) that would redirect dredged sediment to coastal restoration projects in the state instead of having it dumped in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

LOUISIANA: USDA to buy $30 million pounds of domestic shrimp

August 6, 2020 — The federal government will buy $30 million worth of domestic shrimp to distribute as part of its emergency food assistance efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

Lawmakers say the action will also benefit Louisiana’s shrimp industry as fishermen struggle with decreased sales amid restaurant closures states have enacted to slow the coronavirus’s spread.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the purchase this week under a law that allows it to provide food assistance to states and food banks nationwide during emergencies.

“This is great news for the U.S. shrimp industry, including Louisiana shrimpers, who tirelessly work to provide their delicious, world-class product,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, whose district includes southern Terrebonne and Lafourche, home to many shrimp fishermen and processors. “This program will support our shrimpers who have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic while providing U.S. shrimp proudly produced in Louisiana and the entire Gulf Coast to the families who need it most.”

U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., also praised the action.

Read the full story at Houma Today

Gulf lawmakers press US commerce secretary for disaster relief

July 25, 2019 — The letters keep pouring into U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ office from elected officials representing Gulf Coast states.

On Tuesday, U.S. Reps. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), Steven Palazzo (R-Mississippi), Cedric Richmond (D-Louisiana), Bradley Byrne (R-Alabama), Garret Graves (R-Louisiana), and Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana), each signed a letter supporting the requests submitted by the governors of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi for fishery disaster assistance.

“The livelihoods of many in our coastal communities are dependent on a healthy marine environment, and disruptions to these ecosystems have heavy impacts on both the commercial and recreational fishing industries, including the supply chains they support,” the congressmen wrote.

Record flooding throughout the Mississippi River basin has been recorded through most of the year. For example, earlier this week the river fell below flood stage in St. Louis for the first time in 127 days, breaking a record set 26 years ago.

As the water flows south, the flooding has created devastating effects on the fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. For the first time, the Army Corps of Engineers has needed to open the Bonnet Carré Spillway, causing millions of gallons of freshwater to spill eventually into the saltwater Gulf of Mexico.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

LOUISIANA: Federal lawmakers join together to seek help for state seafood industry

July 9, 2019 — Our area’s Federal lawmakers in Washington DC are urging Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to help Louisiana’s fishermen.

U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and John Kennedy (R-LA) and U.S. Representatives Steve Scalise (R-LA), Garret Graves (R-LA), Cedric Richmond (D-LA), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Ralph Abraham (R-LA) and Mike Johnson (R-LA) collectively urged Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to begin the process of implementing a federal fisheries disaster declaration in because of the opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway earlier this summer.

By opening the spillway, hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of fresh water are pouring into Lake Pontchartrain every second, which is impacting aquatic life that are vital to our state’s seafood industry.

If the commerce secretary makes a determination to declare a fishery disaster, based on a NOAA Fisheries evaluation, Congress will then be allowed to appropriate funds for fishery disaster relief.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser have also contacted Secretary Ross with the same request in recent weeks.

Read the full story at The Houma Times

Lawsuit alleges government colluded with sportfishing sector on red snapper

October 19, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Three additional documents have emerged as part of the lawsuit filed against the US Commerce Department that appear to show an intent to end-run normal channels of public comment and regulated processes for regional council activities, only to serve the needs of the sportfishing industry.

The lawsuit, filed by Ocean Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund last July, focused on mismanagement of the Gulf Red Snapper fishery, but documents released last week show the recreational industry expects a level of allowance that flies in the face of the legal requirements of the Magnuson Stevens Act, and the processes for managing fisheries that is contained within it.

The documents are part of a 70-page package submitted by the government in response to the plaintiff’s lawsuit. They show clear intent to receive special treatment when it comes to taking more of the annual catch, and broader influence on choosing who sits on the regional management councils, a process specified by the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) which is poised for reauthorization in 2018.

Moreover, in at least three instances, Department of Commerce employees, after briefing sports industry stakeholders on the requirements of MSA, go on to suggest various legislative — not regulatory — “fixes” for breaking the rules with the red snapper action.

Indeed, the documents point to a blurred state of authorities and influence wielding between the Commerce Department and the US Congress. Whether it is a beleaguered agency’s attempts to protect its standing among Gulf states or an intentional violation of the law remains unclear, but no one is disputing that the regulations within MSA are clear, and have, in the case of red snapper, been ignored.

A letter to commerce secretary Wilbur Ross from Ben Speciale, president of Yamaha Marine Group, was sent on April 3, less than a week after Ross met with Speciale, Mike Nussman, Scott Deal and Pat Murray to discuss the need for a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fisheries administrator who had experience with the recreational sector. Chris Oliver was hired as head of NOAA Fisheries two and a half months later.

Nussman is the president of the American Sportfishing Association, Deal is from Maverick Boats and Murray is from the Coastal Conservation Association.

Ross posed questions to the group and asked them to respond later. One topic that may have been brought up — Ross certainly raised it frequently during his confirmation hearing and in separate interviews following his confirmation — was ways to reverse the seafood imbalance of trade.

It was a topic Speciale responded to in his April 3 letter to Ross.

“We support imposing assessments on imported seafood based on the country of origin’s management program,” wrote Speciale. “We believe this will help level the playing field and allow our domestic commercial fishermen to increase revenue without increasing their landings. We also support efforts to promote aquaculture….and we must not forget that all recreational landed fish are consumed in the US,” Speciale pointed out.

“Promoting recreational fishing is a conservation-minded way of increasing the consumption of US-caught fish,” he wrote.

Speciale did not elaborate on the ramifications of increased per capita consumption coming from sports landings and the impact on sustainably managed populations of fish.

Speciale’s first request was about more red snapper for Gulf of Mexico anglers.

“…we must return to a recreational red snapper season of no less [than] the 60 days for the 2017 and 2018 seasons,” he wrote.

“I understand that the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and the regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries in the southeast region will present obstacles to this initiative, but they must be overcome so that we may restore a sense of fairness for recreational anglers.”

Speciale continued: “Excessive precaution and fear of frivolous litigation from the environmental industry has created a massive bureaucrat roadblock that has been unfair to anglers and stifled our industry.

“We ask that you overcome these obstacles at the regional fishery management councils and Regional Administrators’ Offices.”

Speciale’s second request was to appoint a person within the Office of Policy and Strategic Planning (currently headed up by Earl Comstock) to have direct oversight on all regional fishery management council appointments. Further, that every appointment should be made only after coordinated consulting with the recreational industry.

Finally, Speciale asked for NOAA Fisheries to adopt a long-term strategy to increase public access to state and federal waters and “eliminate any management effort or technique that attempts to privatize federal fisheries, which are and should remain a public resource.”

Almost two months later, as the red snapper season caught its quota in a matter of days, Shannon Cass-Calay, Chief of the Gulf and Caribbean Branch of the Sustainable Fisheries Division at NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center ran the numbers on what the impact a 45-day extension would have on the red snapper stock in the gulf.

She sent a summary of the research to five of her colleagues, asking them to consider it, emphasizing the uncertainties in the data, and warning that an extended season “…will very likely cause catches to exceed OFL (Over Fishing Limit) and delay recovery by 4-6 years. Each additional overage will degrade the condition of the stock further.”

The final dissemination of that memo is not known, but it must have reached Earl Comstock, because he referenced it in one of two memos to Secretary Ross in early June.

After consulting with all five gulf state fisheries managers, Comstock asked Ross if he could move ahead on crafting an extension to the red snapper season. At the bottom of his first memo to Ross, dated June 1, Comstock hand wrote “Secretary said go with two days plus holidays. OK to proceed.”

On June 7, Comstock sent a memo to Ross preparing him for a hearing on appropriations where Senator Shelby (R-AL) may ask Ross about the gulf snapper issue. He also presented two options for the extension and asked Ross to pick one.

“As discussed, under either option the increased angler catch will result in the overall catch limit for this year being exceeded by 30% and 50%,” Comstock explained to Ross. “Either option would mean that, absent Congressional action to modify the Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements for the gulf, the recreational season next year would be significantly reduced.  All the state fishery managers know this, but agree the coordinated action has the greater long-term benefit,” Comstock wrote.

He acknowledged that either option will be opposed by commercial fishermen and charter operators, and “it will almost certainly draw a lawsuit.”

Comstock noted that any plaintiffs in a suit “cannot get a temporary restraining order because the Magnuson-Stevens Act prohibits them. However, they might be able to get an injunction based on the argument we are violating a recent court order that stopped a 2% reallocation from commercial to recreational that the Gulf Council had adopted,” he wrote.

A third new document appears to depict a National Marine Fisheries Service administrator suggesting work arounds for an action that would be in direct violation of MSA. It’s a memo from Harry Blanchet, Biologist Administrator of the Fisheries Division, Louisiana Department of Wildlife, to John Searle, the Congressional staffer to Louisiana Representative Steve Scalise. Searle had been in discussions with the state fisheries department regarding the red snapper situation.

Blanchet, who also sits on the Gulf Council’s Science and Statistical panel, warned Scalise that “recreational red snapper harvest for 2017 may well overrun the recreational allocation by a substantial amount, and as a result, overall harvest may overrun the total allowable catch.”

Blanchet, like those before him, warned Searle that, “historically, and required by Magnuson, those over-runs would have to be paid back in following years, resulting in even lower recreational quota and thus federal seasons,” he told Seale.

Blanchet’s solution was a waiver.

“My thought was that a simple waiver of those Magnuson requirements in another bill in the current Congress could help a lot in terms of allowing there to be a federal waters recreational red snapper season in 2018. I understand that you may want to do a lot more, but just want to be sure that those payback provisions to not come back to bite next year,” he wrote.

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

LOUISIANA: Red snapper season dominates LWFC meeting

July 8, 2017 — The dire prediction from two state fishery managers that recreational anglers would catch Louisiana’s self-imposed limit of red snapper by early July did not materialize after information was provided during Thursday’s Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting.

Jason Adriance, the state Wildlife and Fisheries biologist who reports to the LWFC on such matters, told the seven-member commission Louisiana fishermen took less than half of the 1.04 million pounds of red snapper during the early three-day federal season and a special weekends-only season struck between congressmen and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

That 1.04 figure comes from data showing Louisiana’s recreational take is 14 percent of the overall catch from Gulf waters when extracted from the annual recreational catch quota mandated by federal fisheries managers.

The special recreational season opened June 9, and came after the June 1-3 season in federal waters, the shortest-ever recreational red snapper season.

The congressional push, which was acknowledged to be led by Reps. Garret Graves and Steve Scalise, both Louisiana Republicans, gave the five Gulf states three options from which a 39-day season was put in place to run Fridays-through-Sundays with exceptions adding July 3-4 and Labor Day, Sept. 4, to the open season, which is to close Sept. 4.

Adriance’s presentation indicated the recreational catch, derived from its LA Creel data, came up just short of 500,000 pounds, and said that number didn’t include catches from the four-day Fourth of July period.

Read the full story at The Acadiana Advocate

39-day red snapper season gives private recreational anglers relief, but future seasons still unsettled

June 17, 2017 — Now that private recreational fishermen are in the first days of the new 39-day red snapper season in federal waters, there’s a lingering question about any future season or seasons for the hundreds of thousands of recreational anglers throughout the five Gulf States.

After Wednesday’s announcement came from the U.S. Department of Commerce, pro-fishing groups proclaimed a long-overdue win for the private recreation fishing community.

During the same hours, groups long aligned with and supporting commercial fishing and the separation of the recreational fishing sector — it’s been three years since these groups pushed for separate seasons for private anglers and for-hire/charterboat interests — decried the move, even to the point of stating the National Marine Fisheries Service indicated red snapper numbers will continue to increase, but at a much slower rate.

None of those claims were revealed in Commerce’s announcement.

The advance of a 39-day season began in the days following the early May proclamation by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council that set a three-day, June 1-3, private recreational red snapper season in federal waters, that’s nine miles out to 200 miles into the Gulf.

And Wednesday’s announcement came just hours after U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the majority whip, was critically wounded while practicing for the annual baseball game between Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. House and Senate.

“I’d like to offer my thoughts and prayers to Whip Scalise, his staff, the Capitol Police, and their families,” Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said. “Majority whip Scalise and his staff have been incredibly helpful on this and a host of other issues, and I wish them and the other victims a speedy recovery.”

Tuesday night, on the eve of the announcement, Scalise declared the three-day season “unacceptable.”

Read the full story at The Acadiana Advocate

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