Saving Seafood

December 10: NOAA, partners to announce findings from 2019 Arctic Report Card

December 5, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA and its partners will release the latest scientific observations of climate change in the Arctic, a sensitive part of the world that impacts other parts of the planet, at a news conference on Tue., Dec. 10, at 11:00 a.m. PT, during the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco, CA.

A panel of scientists, led by retired Navy Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet, Ph.D., deputy NOAA administrator, will provide this year’s report on sea ice, snow cover, air temperature, ocean temperature, the Greenland ice sheet, vegetation and ecosystem changes. The Arctic Report Card, updated annually since 2006, demonstrates the importance of long-term observing programs to effectively measure significant changes in the Arctic.

The news conference will also be streamed live on the AGU press events webpage. Reporters can watch the press event in real time and ask questions via an online chat. For more information and instructions, click on the “Webstreaming” button in the Fall Meeting Media Center.

WHAT:
Arctic Report Card 2019 news conference

WHEN:
Tuesday, Dec. 10, 11:00-11:45 a.m. PT

WHERE:
AGU Press Conference Room
Moscone Center South
Third floor, Room 310-312
747 Howard Street,
San Francisco, CA 94103

WHO:
Retired Navy Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet, deputy NOAA administrator
Matthew Druckenmiller, National Snow and Ice Data Center
Donald Perovich, Research Scientist, Dartmouth College
Mellisa Johnson, Executive Director, Bering Sea Elders

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

NOAA’s Arctic Report Card website will be updated with 2019 findings, photographs, graphics, videos, and other information at the start of the news conference.

Competing for space on the increasingly crowded ocean

October 23, 2019 — Oceans cover nearly three-quarters of the Earth, and it’s getting crowded out on the water.

Energy, shipping, fishing and conservation groups all need space to operate on the world’s oceans, and are bumping up against each other more frequently. All agree the competition is going to increase in coming years.

A conference Tuesday at New Jersey’s Monmouth University brought together industry and environmental groups, who agreed that communication and coordination are essential to sharing the ocean.

“Ocean activity is on the rise, and it’s exponential,” said Timothy Gallaudet, deputy administration of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a retired rear admiral with the Navy. “There has been 400% growth in ocean activity over the last 25 years.”

Bethann Rooney, a deputy director with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, predicted that the combined port of New York and Newark, New Jersey, second in size only to Los Angeles, will see its cargo volume double or triple over the next 30 years.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Star Tribune

NOAA: Number of U.S. fish stocks at sustainable levels remains near record high

August 2, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA:

Today, NOAA released the 2018 Status of U.S. Fisheries Annual Report to Congress that details the status of 479 federally-managed stocks or stock complexes in the U.S. to identify which stocks are subject to overfishing, are overfished, or are rebuilt to sustainable levels.

Building upon the trend of the past few years, the report notes that the vast majority of U.S. fish stocks were at sustainable population levels in 2018, and the number of U.S. fish stocks subject to overfishing remains at a near all-time low. The report also documents a newly-rebuilt stock, smooth skate in the Gulf of Maine. This brings the total number of rebuilt U.S. marine fish stocks to 45 since the year 2000, an encouraging indicator that the U.S. fishery management system is achieving its long-term sustainability goals.

“The U.S. is an international leader in fisheries management, and through our work in partnership with the regional councils, we’re on track to maintain that high standard,” said Rear Admiral Timothy Gallaudet, Ph.D., NOAA’s assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. “Our fishing communities continue to succeed and contribute to the Blue Economy. In 2016 alone, U.S. commercial fishing, recreational fishing, and the seafood industry generated $212 billion in sales, contributed $100 billion to the gross domestic product, and supported 1.7 million full- and part-time jobs.”

Read the full release here

Jacobs now leading NOAA as Gallaudet focuses on Blue Economy initiative

March 5, 2019 — U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has made a change in leadership for the agency that oversees NOAA Fisheries.

In a memo dated 25 February, Neil Jacobs told NOAA employees that Ross assigned him to the “nonexclusive” role of undersecretary and NOAA Administrator. He replaces retired Rear Admiral Timothy Gallaudet, who had served as the agency’s acting administrator.

The switch will not change NOAA’s mission or priorities, Jacobs said.

“This is a natural shift that occurs in agencies and departments over time,” a NOAA spokesperson told SeafoodSource in a prepared statement. “Both leaders are dedicated professionals who believe in the people, science, and missions at NOAA. The agency’s important work on behalf of the American people and businesses will occur seamlessly into the future.”

Jacobs said Gallaudet continues in his position as the assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere in the Commerce Department. In this position, Gallaudet will work on the department’s Blue Economy initiative, which is looking to bolster how the U.S. can better leverage the resources in the world’s second-largest Exclusive Economic Zone.

One of the priorities for the Blue Economy initiative is to examine how the U.S. can increase the amount of seafood America produces. Currently, America imports roughly 90 percent of the fish and shellfish consumed annually. The initiative also calls for surveying for oil and gas exploration.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Environmental groups raise concerns over state of New England groundfish fishery

January 17, 2019 — Two environmental organizations have requested a meeting with federal officials this month over the concerns they have about groundfish stocks in New England.

Representatives from the Conservation Law Foundation and the Environmental Defense Fund sent a letter last month to Timothy Gallaudet, the assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere in the U.S. Commerce Department, and Chris Oliver, NOAA Fisheries’ assistant administrator. The groups called for the meeting to take place before the next full meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council, which starts on 29 January in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

While the groups claim NOAA Fisheries is rebuilding domestic fish stocks across the country, they criticize the government for failing to properly monitor Atlantic cod, flounders, and other groundfish in the northeastern United States.

“NOAA Fisheries and the Council have consistently failed to prevent overfishing on some of these stocks since ‘overfishing’ metrics were first approved in 1989,” the letter states. “If there isn’t a radical change in management direction, the prospect of these stocks ever rebuilding remains tenuous at best.”

The groups also take federal officials to task for not having good data available. They claim the Atlantic cod stock is overfished to the point of a potential collapse, and they also say, citing government reports, that fishermen also discard tons of cod without it being officially reported by onboard observers.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Alaska wary of federal push for marine aquaculture

September 6, 2018 — During a recent stop in Juneau, NOAA Fisheries chief Chris Oliver said that wild seafood harvests alone can’t keep up with rising global demand.

But there’s another way.

“Aquaculture is going to be where the major increases in seafood production occur whether it happens in foreign countries or in United States waters,” Oliver told a room of fishermen, seafood marketing executives and marine scientists.

Aquaculture is a broad term: it’s farming in the sea. That could be shellfish like oysters or seaweed which Alaska permits. But it also includes fish farms — which Alaska does not allow.

The nation’s federal waters are vast. They begin 3 miles offshore and extend 200 nautical miles. There isn’t any aquaculture in federal waters — yet.

Acting U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Timothy Gallaudet said during a Juneau visit that streamlining regulations and boosting aquaculture production – both part of the Commerce Department’s 2018-2022 strategic plan – could help change that.

Read the full story at KTOO

Fishing Report: Not everyone’s is buying the “Blue Economy”

August 3, 2018 — Not all, including U.S. Senators from Rhode Island and Massachusetts, are buying into the administration’s “Blue Economy” strategy.

Last week, Timothy Gallaudet, NOAA chief and Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere said before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation panel that NOAA will promote its “Blue Economy” vision with more aquaculture and mineral extraction in federally controlled waters hoping to lessen seafood imports and increase energy production.

Earlier this year at the National Recreational Fishing Summit Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce who oversees NOAA, said one of his primary goals is to focus NOAA’s attention on the seafood trade deficit. Ross said, “Ninety percent of the seafood we eat in America comes from foreign sources… So we are going to try to fix this.” Ross and Assistant Secretary Gallaudet said the top priority at NOAA now is to improve the fisheries trade deficit by increasing wild harvest and aquaculture.

Moving forward putting short term economic gains first to improve the trade balance with enhanced wild harvest could lead to overfishing to the determent of the fish. Additionally, concerns have been expressed about the environmental hazards associated with large scale aquaculture as well as possible conflicts with wild harvest in our oceans so caution will be needed here too.

Read the full story at The Providence Journal

Ocean science agency chief floats removing ‘climate’ from mission statement and focusing on trade deficit

June 26, 2018 — A recent presentation by the acting head of the United States’ top weather and oceans agency suggested removing the study of “climate” from its official mission statement, focusing the agency’s work instead on economic goals and “homeland and national security.”

Critics say this would upend the mission of the $5.9 billion National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But the administration disputes that interpretation, saying the presentation did not intend to create a change of direction at a vast agency that tracks hurricanes and atmospheric carbon dioxide, operates weather satellites, manages marine reserves and protects endangered ocean species, among other functions.

NOAA’s mission, the agency says, is “to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts, to share that knowledge and information with others, and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.”

But in a presentation at a Commerce Department “Vision Setting Summit” this month, Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet, the agency’s acting administrator, suggested a change to that mission statement, as well as a new emphasis on tripling the size of the U.S. aquaculture industry within a decade and moving to “reduce the seafood trade deficit.”

The new NOAA mission, the presentation said, would be “to observe, understand and predict atmospheric and ocean conditions, to share that knowledge and information with others, and to protect lives and property, empower the economy, and support homeland and national security.”

“This presentation is a simplified draft for discussion,” said Gallaudet, an oceanographer who has spoken in the past about climate change’s effects on the Arctic, in a statement provided by the agency. “It was not intended to create change in NOAA mission or policy from what it was before. Any interpretation to the contrary is simply inaccurate.”

But the proposed removal of language about studying the “climate” and about the managing of coastal and marine resources has aroused considerable ire and concern.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

Subcommittee to Hold Oversight Hearing on FY2019 Budget Priorities for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Bureau of Reclamation, and Four Power Marketing Administrations

April 9, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the House Committee on Natural Resources:

On Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. in 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans will hold an oversight hearing titled, “Examining the Proposed Fiscal Year 2019 Spending, Priorities and Missions of the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Four Power Marketing Administrations.” 

WITNESSES:

Mr. Mark Gabriel, administrator, Western Area Power Administration

RDML Timothy Gallaudet, Ph.D., acting under secretary for oceans and atmosphere, U.S. Department of Commerce

Mr. Kenneth Legg, administrator, Southeastern Power Administration

Mr. Dan James, deputy administrator, Bonneville Power Administration

Mr. Timothy R. Petty, Ph.D., assistant secretary for water and science, U.S. Department of the Interior

Mr. Mike Wech, acting administrator, Southwestern Power Administration

WHAT:

Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans oversight hearing, “Examining the Proposed Fiscal Year 2019 Spending, Priorities and Missions of the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Four Power Marketing Administrations.”

WHEN:

Thursday, April 12, 2:00 p.m.

WHERE:

1324 Longworth House Office Building 

Visit the Committee Calendar for additional information once it is made available. The meeting is open to the public and a video feed will stream live at House Committee on Natural Resources.