Saving Seafood

Gina Raimondo nomination rekindles fish vs. turbine fight

February 12, 2021 — In 2019, long-simmering differences between Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) and the state’s fishing industry boiled over.

The dispute concerned a plan to limit fishermen’s financial losses associated with a proposed $2 billion offshore wind project. Many boat captains felt the deal undervalued their catch, and they directed their ire at Raimondo, an outspoken offshore wind advocate, accusing her of freezing the fishing industry out of negotiations with Vineyard Wind, the project developer.

At a meeting of the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council that February, many lined up to blast the package. Council members, who are appointed by the governor, expressed sympathy for the concerns but argued that it represented the best offer. They ultimately signed off on the deal.

Fishing companies, incensed by the decision, turned their attention to NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency tasked with assessing the project’s impact on fish stocks. One outspoken critic wrote an email to NOAA staffers the next day calling the deal “an absolute roll over of the fishing industry” (Climatewire, Oct. 25, 2019).

A NOAA official wrote back a week later saying that many at the agency shared the concerns, foreshadowing a decision from the agency two months later not to sign off on a draft environmental study conducted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the lead federal permitting agency.

Read the full story at E&E News

US Senate committee backs Raimondo for commerce secretary

February 4, 2021 — Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo is one step away from Washington, D.C.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation voted 21-3 Wednesday to advance to the full Senate Raimondo’s nomination to be President Biden’s secretary of commerce. The hearing lasted just 15 minutes, and the overwhelming support is a sign that she is likely to be confirmed.

“I think it’s very important that we have someone at the department of commerce who is from the private sector, and we’re blessed with Governor Raimondo’s being both in the public sector and the private sector,” Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington said prior to the vote.

Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Rick Scott of Florida, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee voted against Raimondo.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Hawaii Longline Association Supports Federal Agency Recommendations Regarding Human Trafficking in the Seafood Supply Chain

February 4, 2021 — The following was released by the Hawaii Longline Association:

Human trafficking, including forced labor in fisheries and the seafood supply chain, has rightfully garnered attention in recent years. This unconscionable activity is not condoned by the Hawaii Longline Association (HLA) and other responsible fishing organizations, and has led to seafood industry-developed standards and social responsibility auditing mechanisms. Recent reports to U.S. Congress present government actions to further prevent and respond to such labor abuses including: 1) Department of Commerce and Department of State Report to Congress on Human Trafficking in the Seafood Supply Chain, Section 3563 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (P.L. 116-92) and 2) Federal Agency Task Force on Human Trafficking in Fishing in International Waters.

“The Hawaii Longline Association commends the work of federal agencies to address this important topic and supports many of the recommendations made in these reports,” said HLA Executive Director Eric Kingma.

Paramount among the recommendations covering domestic fisheries is the development of a temporary visa program for foreign fishing crews. “Providing foreign crews temporary work visas, as recommended in the Task Force report, is an important measure that would benefit foreign workers in our fishery, allowing them to go home and visit family and friends and then return to Hawaii via air travel in an efficient, humane manner,” Kingma said.

Currently, foreign fishermen employed in the fishery are ineligible to obtain a visa and thus are prohibited from flying into Honolulu. Rather, these fishermen must board their employer’s Hawaii-based longline vessel in a foreign port (e.g., Mexico or Canada) or U.S. Territory (e.g., American Samoa) and transit nearly two weeks to Honolulu to begin their legal employment, which is authorized under U.S. law (46 USC 8103(2)(b). However, despite being legally employed to fish on U.S. vessels fishing for highly migratory species in the U.S. EEZ and high seas, without visas they are required to stay within the Honolulu Harbor port area. The only exception to leave the port area is for medical visits or to depart from Honolulu International Airport with permission from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The majority of the 140 active longline vessels operating out of Honolulu Harbor have legally employed foreign crew for over 30 years. Like migrant farm and food processing workers employed across the nation, these skilled fishermen temporarily leave their countries to seek higher paying jobs in the United States, to support their families back home. Other U.S. tuna fleets that fish on the high seas also employ foreign crew, including U.S. distant water purse seine vessels, West Coast-based albacore vessels, and East Coast-based longline vessels. Hawaii longline crew are mainly from Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Pacific Island countries.

Read the full release here

US Commerce secretary nominee Gina Raimondo discusses fishing industry concerns at Senate confirmation hearing

January 27, 2021 — Testifying on Tuesday, 26 January, before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo pledged to use science and data to help move the seafood industry forward if she becomes the country’s next secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

With senators from several major fishing states represented on the panel, Raimondo got plenty of time to discuss her views on the commercial fishing industry during the hearing, which lasted over two-and-a-half hours. She noted seafood is a key industry in her home state of Rhode Island.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Biden’s Commerce Pick Vows to Combat China and Climate Change

January 26, 2021 — Gina M. Raimondo, President Biden’s nominee to be the next commerce secretary, told lawmakers on Tuesday that she planned to help American communities bounce back from coronavirus, aggressively enforce trade rules to combat unfair Chinese practices and leverage the government’s power to mitigate climate change if confirmed.

Ms. Raimondo, the current governor of Rhode Island and a former venture capitalist, tried to reassure members of the Senate Commerce Committee that she would work with them on priorities like protecting American fisheries, expanding broadband access and promoting American research into cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and advanced communications.

“In this time of overlapping crises, the Commerce Department must be a partner to businesses and workers to help them innovate and grow,” Ms. Raimondo said.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Sen. Cantwell Calls on Commerce Secretary Nominee to Put Science First, Protect Salmon, Act on Washington Economic Priorities

January 26, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA):

Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing with Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, President Biden’s nominee to be U.S. Secretary of Commerce. At the hearing, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the incoming Chair of the committee, spoke about the importance of the Department of Commerce to the economy and way of life in the Pacific Northwest and asked Raimondo about her plans for salmon and fisheries management, protecting scientific integrity, and COVID-19 recovery.

In her opening statement, Cantwell talked about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Washington’s maritime economy and highlighted the critical need to get recovery funds to those impacted: “One of the key responsibilities will be in response to the larger COVID pandemic in the country and what we should do about it. I hope that the Secretary of Commerce will play an important role in strengthening our economy, in trying to defeat the pandemic and recover from its economic impacts,” Cantwell said.

“All of our sectors have been impacted. Congress appropriated $600 million in fisheries assistance for state and Tribal needs, but so far, the fishermen and our state have yet to receive $1 from this program, so I hope we can get her assistance in implementing and moving forward on this.”

Later in the hearing, Cantwell secured commitments from Raimondo to work on increasing investments in salmon habitat and prioritizing fisheries management. Cantwell asked: “As we’re talking about a seafood and fishing economy, salmon is particularly important to the Pacific Northwest. Keeping salmon habitat and restoration in a very robust state is very critical to keeping salmon. So will you work with us on a more targeted, larger-scale investment in stormwater restoration and in building critical habitat for everything from oyster reefs to eel and seagrass and critical habitat?”

“Yes, I would very much look forward to working with you and other members of the committee,”Raimondo responded.

“We believe in good fisheries management policy, and the key to that is stock assessment. And so I hope you’ll work with us on increasing the amount of dollars that go into the science behind stock assessment so we can make good management plans,” Cantwell continued.

“Yes, again absolutely. I plan to lead with science and lead with data,” Raimondo said.

As part of her focus on reprioritizing science and data, Cantwell also spoke about increasing the department’s investment in weather forecasting and emphasized the importance of safeguarding scientific integrity and listening to science throughout the department: “In my opinion, there’s no reason why the United States should not be a leader in weather forecasting. This is an important issue for us, whether you’re talking about fires or you’re talking about ocean issues. Making a better, crucial investment in the science for maritime, aviation, space, and agriculture industries will be very important for us moving forward,”Cantwell said.

“I appreciate that [Raimondo] will lead the agency in making decisions based on science and data that will help our economy grow in the future, everything from oceans issues and fisheries to spectrum and space issues. We in the Pacific Northwest know that we can’t always agree on issues, but we know we can agree on science, and that’s why science needs to continue to prevail.”

Cantwell also emphasized the importance of trade to Washington’s economy: “I hope that we will continue to look at this issue of competitiveness. In my state, [roughly] one in four jobs are related to trade, and I hope the Secretary and the administration will make a goal for export advancement. Increasing exports is a great way to grow our economy.”

Video of Senator Cantwell’s opening statement can be found HERE and audio is HERE.

Video of Senator Cantwell’s Q&A with Raimondo can be found HERE and audio is HERE.

NOAA Fisheries reaches out to fishermen by phone; conducting surveys for scientists to assess impacts on commercial/for-hire fishing operations and seafood dealers/processors related to COVID-19

January 22, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

KEY MESSAGE:

NOAA Fisheries and our partner, the University of Florida, are teaming up on a phone survey to assess the impact of COVID-19 on commercial/for-hire fishing operations and on seafood dealers and processors. The phone survey is a follow-up to an earlier on-line survey conducted in July and August on economic impacts for the first half of 2020. The upcoming survey will assist us in assessing economic impacts over the entire calendar year.

Survey participants were randomly selected to participate. If you receive a phone call from the University of Florida with a 352 area code, your response is very important to the success of this survey. It will take less than 10 minutes, and the information you provide is strictly confidential.

PURPOSE OF THE SURVEY:

We are using this multi-region survey to inform NOAA Fisheries, the Department of Commerce, Congress, fishery management councils, state fishery managers, and stakeholders about the economic and social impacts that the recent economic downturn has had on the fishing industry.

NOAA Fisheries will draft reports for the public detailing the revenue losses and recovery of fishing-dependent businesses over the past year. Here is a look at what we have already been able to capture and release in a series of snapshot reports. You helped make this information available to us.

Read the full release here

ALASKA: Borough to ask feds for fishery disaster declaration

January 21, 2021 — The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly voted Tuesday to ask the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to declare a sockeye salmon fisheries failure and economic disaster in the Upper Subdistrict of the Central District of Cook Inlet in response to a year that saw fewer and smaller fish, as well as lower-priced fish.

According to a memo to the assembly from Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce, the borough has not received a response from the state regarding a request from the assembly last month for Gov. Mike Dunleavy to declare an economic disaster in the Upper Cook Inlet fisheries region.

The same memo says that a provision in the Magnuson-Stevens Act authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to determine whether or not there is a commercial fishery failure “due to a fishery resource disaster as a result of natural causes” or “man-made causes beyond the control of fishery managers to mitigate,” among others.

Read the full story at The Peninsula Clarion

RHODE ISLAND: As Commerce Secretary, Raimondo to play key role in offshore wind

January 19, 2021 — In the selection of Gina Raimondo as the next U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the offshore wind industry would get a champion in Washington.

What influence she could bring to bear for the emerging energy sector remains to be seen, but if confirmed to her new position in the Biden cabinet, Raimondo would oversee federal fisheries regulators who have raised some of the concerns about potential negative impacts of erecting what could be many hundreds of wind turbines in the ocean waters off southern New England.

It’s those concerns that have played a major role in delaying the approval process for the first set of large wind farms proposed in the nation.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an arm of the Department of the Interior, has permitting authority over the multibillion-dollar projects, which are all planned for the Atlantic Ocean waters off Rhode Island and Massachusetts. But both federal fisheries management and coastal zone management are under the aegis of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the Department of Commerce.

“I think it’s fantastic to have someone that does have experience with offshore wind and knows the extent of the conflicts,” said Annie Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a group representing fishing interests in the development of offshore wind. “She understands coastal communities and their concerns. I think there is a real opportunity here.”

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Term limits bumping four from fish council

January 15, 2021 — The New England Fishery Management Council will assume a decidedly different composition later this year when four councilors with almost 40 years combined tenure exit because of term limits.

On Aug. 10, the terms of Chairman John Quinn of Massachusetts, Matthew McKenzie of Connecticut, Vincent Balzano and Terry Alexander, both of Maine, are set to expire.

Each is in his third term and will have served the maximum nine consecutive years when the terms expire.

“The new members will come onboard on Aug. 11,” said Janice Plante, council spokeswoman. “We expect the Commerce Department will make an announcement on the new members around the end of June.”

The U.S. Commerce Department manages the nomination and appointment process for all eight U.S. fishery management councils through NOAA Fisheries. It also relies on nominations from the governors of individual states represented by the councils.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times