Saving Seafood

Flounder season uncertain as New Jersey continues to fight cuts

April 14, 2017 — New Jersey’s fight against approved summer flounder measures hangs in the balance, and a meeting next month could prove critical for flounder fishermen.

The state’s Marine Fisheries Council met Thursday evening at the Galloway Township branch of the Atlantic County Library in part to discuss its strategy in opposing a federal regulatory commission’s decision to cut this year’s summer flounder catch by 30 percent.

“I’m getting questions every day,” said Dick Herb, the council’s chairman. “We just don’t know what’s going to happen there.”

“There’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes,” he added.

Earlier this year, the state council voted to go out of compliance with the federal measures, which could trigger a pivotal decision by new Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross following a federal regulatory meeting in May, Herb said.

Ross could decide to shut down recreational and commercial flounder fishing in New Jersey, or he could study the issue and allow fishing to continue, among other options, according to Herb.

“He can do what he wants to do,” Herb said. “I think we’re going to have to move awfully quickly when we get some movement on this.”

In February, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved the new reductions, which would limit New Jersey recreational fishermen to three fish at 19 inches in the Atlantic Ocean and three at 18 inches in the Delaware Bay.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

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

Former fish auction owners renew battle with NOAA

April 7, 2017 — The long and torturous legal battle with NOAA that sent the former Gloucester Fish Exchange into bankruptcy and to its ultimate sale may not be over just yet.

The owners of GFX — the forerunner to the Cape Ann Seafood Exchange on Harbor Loop — are suing NOAA in federal court to recoup about $464,000 in legal fees the company paid during its battle and ultimate settlement with the federal fisheries regulator.

The action names current Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the Commerce Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as defendants.

The suit, prompted by NOAA’s final decision on March 6 denying GFX any reimbursement for legal fees, rekindles the battle that began as far back as 2005. The long-running affair resulted in two NOAA enforcement actions against the former auction — and a subsequent apology by then Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco for the excesses of the agency’s law enforcement unit.

The former owners of GFX seek to void the settlement GFX agreed to for the enforcement actions, saying the deal should be set aside because it was the product of “economic duress” created by NOAA, and that NOAA “breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”

“The amount of attorneys’ fees and costs that GFX has had to bear, as well as the permit sanctions imposed and modified numerous times throughout the mosaic of agency actions …  which in fact caused GFX to enter bankruptcy, are arbitrary and/or excessive,” the suit claims.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

NEW JERSEY: Measuring flounder a complex undertaking with a big impact

March 27, 2017 — It’s likely few people have written more about summer flounder than Mark Terceiro.

Terceiro has published a 44-page journal article about the science, politics and litigation surrounding the species from 1975 to 2000. A 32-page follow-up covered the period from 2001 to 2010, and another article regarding developments in recent years is in the works.

But it’s Terceiro’s summer flounder stock assessment update, released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in December, that has him in the crosshairs of New Jersey politicians and recreational fishing leaders.

That’s because his report led federal regulatory agencies to reduce this year’s summer flounder catch by 30 percent.

Some say the move will cripple recreational flounder fishing, a multimillion-dollar industry in New Jersey that supports bait-and-tackle shops, boat dealerships and other businesses that cater to fishermen.

“It is based on a questionable, out-of-date stock assessment and a flawed modeling,” Bob Martin, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, wrote in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross last month.

But federal fisheries experts, including Terceiro, say they have confidence in the measurements, which show the flounder population has been “experiencing overfishing” since 2008.

“A stock assessment is one of our best ways to estimate the population and status of a resource we manage,” said Kirby Rootes-Murdy, senior fishery management plan coordinator for summer flounder at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, one of the agencies that regulate the species.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

MASSACHUSETTS: Whiting plan, marine monument suit on fish board’s plate

March 23, 2017 — With the opening of the 2017 fishing season a little more than a month away, the city’s Fisheries Commission is set to meet Thursday night to discuss potential changes to the management plans for whiting and herring, as well as national marine monuments.

The commission, scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. at City Hall, also will receive an update from J.J. Bartlett, executive director of the Fishing Partnership Support Services, on FPSS-sponsored events for the upcoming year.

The national marine monument discussion will center on the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., challenging the use of the Antiquities Act by former President Barack Obama to create the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument off the coast of southern New England in September 2016.

The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association has signed on to the lawsuit as a lead plaintiff.

The suit names President Donald Trump, new Secretary of Commerce Wilbur J. Ross and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke among the five defendants, but really sets its sights on Obama and his actions during the waning days of his presidency.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Fishermen Nationwide Sign Letter of Support for Commerce Secretary’s Fishery Goals

WASHINGTON — March 22, 2017 – The following was released by the National Coalition for Fishing Communities:

Earlier this month, shortly after being confirmed as Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross addressed Commerce Department staff and outlined his priorities for the Department. Among the top priorities listed was “obtaining maximum sustainable yield for our fisheries.” 

The Secretary had previously expressed his desire to boost domestic seafood production prior to his confirmation. In a February story featured in Politico, Secretary Ross is quoted as emphasizing the need to “figure out how we can become more self-sufficient in fishing and perhaps even an net exporter.”

In response to Secretary Ross’ early interest in working with U.S. fisheries, the National Coalition for Fishing Communities (NCFC) organized a letter of support for the Secretary’s goals. The letter was signed by over 350 members of the fishing industry from across the country. The NCFC would like to thank Commerce Secretary Ross for pledging to support the nation’s fishing communities.

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear Secretary Ross,

As members of our nation’s fishing communities, we want to express our gratitude for making the attainment of maximum sustainable yield in our fisheries a priority for the Commerce Department. We are also most appreciative of your publicly stated goal to increase domestic seafood production, which is a priority of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities.

It is most encouraging that we have a Secretary of Commerce who understands the importance of sustainably harvested seafood. As you know, the U.S. fishing industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, and is a vital economic engine for our coastal communities. The industry is ready and willing to work with you and your department to achieve the goals you have set forth for American fisheries, and we want to build a successful relationship between the Commerce Department and commercial fishermen. 

We know it is within our means to sustainably increase harvests and achieve maximum sustainable yield. A vibrant fishing industry will pay dividends not only to the coastal communities, but also to the millions of consumers who rely on the nutritional benefits of domestic sustainable seafood.

Read the letter here

Could fisheries policy change under Trump and Commerce Secretary Ross?

March 15, 2017 — Since January, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the nation’s fishery regulators, has offered hints that changes to U.S. fishery policy might be in store.

A formal fisheries policy has yet to emerge, and these are, of course, still early days for the Trump Administration. But some observers read in Ross’s recent statements a potential desire to increase fishing.

During the campaign, Trump railed repeatedly against the United States’ trade deficit. And Ross, during his Senate confirmation in January, expressed a wish to reverse the nation’s seafood trade deficit – a tall task given that the U.S. imports 90 percent of the seafood eaten here and has a USD 11 billion (EUR 10.3 billion) seafood trade deficit.

“Given the enormity of our coastlines, given the enormity of our freshwater, I would like to try to figure out how we can become much more self-sufficient in fishing and perhaps even a net exporter,” he said at his confirmation hearing in January, according to Politico.

Then, during his first address to the department’s 47,000 employees, on 1 March, he listed a key challenge for the department of “obtaining maximum sustainable yield.” It was his only reference to the nation’s fisheries during the short speech.

“The Secretary’s remarks reflect the importance our nation’s marine and coastal fisheries resources, and his commitment to ensuring these resources are sustainable for generations to come,” John Ewald, a spokesman for NOAA Fisheries, told SeafoodSource in an email.

How Ross views fisheries matters, since his department oversees both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Ross will make appointments to the nation’s regional fishery management councils, and the policies he advances will have profound effects on recreational and commercial fishermen.

Those policies could mark a sharp departure from the conservation-driven policies of the last eight years. The Recreational Fishing Alliance, an early supporter of Trump’s campaign for president, sees the potential for a new day under Trump, and hopes Ross will reverse the Obama administration’s policies.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Sean Horgan: New Commerce secretary says US should be first in seafood

March 6, 2017 — The U.S. Senate took time out from its annual handball tournament last week and confirmed Wilbur Ross as the new commerce secretary, adding yet another billionaire to the Trump cabinet that has more of them than Danny Ainge has draft picks.

Ross is estimated to be worth about $2.9 billion, which means Commerce’s NOAA Fisheries might want to bypass Congress and put the arm on the new boss the next time its runs out of cash for at-sea monitoring.

Still, fishing stakeholders had to take some measure of comfort from his intention to make America first in the world in seafood by the reversing the trend of massive annual seafood imports.

“Given the enormity of our coastlines, given the enormity of our fresh water, I would like to figure out how we can become much more self-sufficient in fishing and perhaps even a net importer,” Ross told the senators during his confirmation hearing in January.

Bully for him. But how will he do it? Will his crusade translate into fewer regulations? Higher fishing quotas? Declaring war on seafood competitors?

The Politico website had its own suggestion:

“One action Ross could take to curb the amount of seafood the U.S. imports each year is to follow through on the Seafood Monitoring Program which the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration established during the waning days of the Obama administration,” it wrote in an analysis of the Ross confirmation. “That regulation, supported by environmental groups like Oceana, is aimed at reducing billions of dollars in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing each year by creating a traceability program to track imported seafood from point of harvest to point of entry in the U.S.”

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Times

NEW JERSEY: Fluke situation looking better

March 6, 2017 — The new Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, has been confirmed — and the path to a fluke season during which the public will have a reasonable chance at catching a legal fish seems a little clearer.

The following release from the governor’s office emphasizes the Christie administration’s commitment to maintaining status quo regulations rather then the 19-inch minimum which the ASMFC has imposed:

“The Christie Administration has formally requested the new U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, to put a hold on severe restrictions on recreational summer flounder fishing adopted recently by a regional fisheries commission, a move that would effectively cripple the state’s fishing industry and have far-reaching impacts on the shore tourism economy, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin announced today.

Read the full story at NJ.com

New Jersey asks new Commerce boss to stop fluke cut

March 3, 2017 — Wilbur Ross meet New Jersey’s summer flounder fishermen.

Ross is the newly appointed U.S. Secretary of Commerce. As the department’s boss, he oversees management of fisheries through its Fisheries Office and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

He’s the person the Christie Administration, and state delegates are now trying to hook, and win over to their side on the summer flounder issue.

They wasted no time to petition Ross this week and ask him to put a hold on the new summer flounder regulations approved by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission on Feb. 2.

The regulations call for a 30-percent reduction in the coastwide harvest of summer flounder on the Atlantic Coast. The regs were voted on after federal regulators reported the coastwide summer flounder population from Maine to North Carolina declined and fishermen overfished their quota last year.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press