Saving Seafood

Trump administration moves to ease enforcement of Endangered Species Act regulations

August 13, 2019 — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, 12 August, announced changes in how it would administer the Endangered Species Act, a move it said would add transparency to the process.

However, environmental groups lashed out at the move, claiming it would make it harder to protect species and harm wildlife protections, given it will government officials the chance to consider economic factors when determining if action should be taken to intervene in a species’ management plan.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

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

After census debacle, White House to knock out senior Commerce official

July 18, 2019 — The White House is pushing a top aide to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross out of the Trump administration, the first round of house-cleaning after the 2020 census debacle and clashes over tech policy.

In recent months, Commerce policy director Earl Comstock has angered Trump’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, White House lawyers, members of the National Security Council and officials at the National Economic Council, according to five current and former administration officials. The irritation extends to the highest staff level of the White House, several officials stressed, citing both Comstock’s handling of the 2020 U.S. census’s citizenship question and the internal debate over spectrum policy as key areas of disagreement.

One former administration official said he could not think of anyone who “had pissed off as many senior White House officials” as Comstock, who critics allege often tried to exceed his own authority as a top Commerce policy staffer. Comstock also clashed with officials across federal agencies, according to one administration official.

While officials said the process of forcing out Comstock through a firing or resignation is underway, the date of his actual departure remains unclear. He was at the agency until the end of the day on Wednesday.

Read the full story at Politico

Secretary Ross appoints Regional Fishery Management Councils for 2019

July 1, 2019 — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the 2019 Regional Fishery Management Council appointments on Thursday, a move that was applauded by the recreational boating and fishing communities.

The appointments include Scott Lenox, Tim Griner, Dr. Tom Frazer, Troy Williamson, Peter Hassemer, Marc Gorelnik, Cora Campbell and Nicole Kimball.

A coalition of recreational and fishing groups said the new appointees have a “proven ability to balance all factors in complicated fishery management decisions.”

“These appointments are an important step forward for America’s recreational fishing and boating community, and we’re grateful that the Department of Commerce continues to move in the right direction on this issue,” said Center for Sportfishing Policy president Jeff Angers in a statement.

The Regional Fishery Councils are “where the rubber meets the road” in terms of federal marine fisheries management, said American Sportfishing Association government affairs vice president Mike Leonard.

“While the overall balance of the councils still skews toward commercial fishing despite the two sectors being on par with each other economically, we appreciate Secretary Ross making continued progress in addressing this historic inequity,” said Leonard.

Read the full story at Trade Only Today

Gov. Edwards requests Federal Disaster Declaration for Louisiana fishermen

June 26, 2019 — In a letter written to United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross by Governor John Bel Edwards, the governor requested a federal fisheries disaster declaration for Louisiana from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“The extreme duration of high Mississippi River levels since December 2018 has necessitated unprecedented efforts by the U.S. Corps of Engineers to mitigate the threat of levee failures in Louisiana. Such efforts have included the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway twice this year; first in late February and again in early May,” the letter – that was dated June 13, 2019 – reads. “That structure continues to pass large volumes of river water into Lake Pontchartrain which subsequently flows east into Lake Borgne and Mississippi Sound. The extreme influx of freshwater has greatly reduced salinity levels in our coastal waters and disrupted estuarine productivity.”

In the request, Edwards referenced information gathered by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), the organization that manages and protects Louisiana’s natural resources.

An above average oyster mortality rate in oyster reefs in St. Bernard Parish; a statewide 30 percent decline in shrimp landings (brown and white shrimp combined) for the month of March and 61 percent for the month of April, when compared to the five-year average; and a 40 percent statewide drop in landings of speckled trout, when compared to the five-year-average, were some of the LDWF findings Edwards referenced in the letter.

Read the full story at The Houma Times

Louisiana governor: Upriver floods a disaster for fisheries

June 18, 2019 — Louisiana’s governor says floodwaters from the Midwest are severely hurting people who make their living from coastal seafood, so he’s asking the federal government to declare a fisheries disaster for the state.

Floodwaters rushing from the Bonnet Carré Spillway north of New Orleans have killed oysters, hurt fish catches and damaged livelihoods, Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

The fresh water has driven crabs, shrimp and fish out of bays and marshes and into saltier water where they can survive. But oysters are stuck — glued to the bottom.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, we are 9-and-a-half destroyed,” said Brad Robin, whose family controls about 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) of oyster leases in Louisiana waters.

The full impact won’t be known for some time because the spillway, which protects New Orleans’ levees by directing huge amounts of Mississippi River water into usually brackish Lake Pontchartrain, remains open, Edwards said in a letter sent Thursday and released Monday.

If a long-range forecast of little rain holds up, spillway closing might begin in about four weeks, Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Matt Roe said Monday.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Florida senators back push for federal help with red tide

May 31, 2019 — Florida’s senators are pushing the Commerce Department to issue a disaster declaration over Florida’s wildlife-killing red tide.

Florida’s latest bout with red tide brought images from up and down the state’s Gulf Coast of dead fish washing ashore after being choked by a surge of oxygen-hogging algae.

“Southwest Florida’s coasts have provided an important source of opportunity for generations of families who have built their livelihoods on these productive waters,” Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, both Republicans, wrote in a Wednesday letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “To best support these working families in their time of need following the recent significant and persistent red tide events, we ask for your assistance in promptly fulfilling the State of Florida’s request for a federal fishery resource disaster declaration.”

Read the full story at The Hill

Secretary of Commerce Appoints Three New Committee Members to NOAA’s Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee

May 3, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has appointed three new advisors to NOAA’s Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee, bringing the group’s membership to the full complement of 21. Terms for the three members commence immediately. The Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee, or MAFAC, advises the Secretary of Commerce and NOAA on all living marine resource matters that are the responsibility of the Department of Commerce. These three individuals were chosen from a pool of highly qualified applicants who submitted nomination packages during an open, publicly announced process. A nomination process is announced when vacancies occur.

MAFAC members draw on their expertise to evaluate and make recommendations on national living marine resources policies.  The members represent a wide spectrum of fishing, aquaculture, protected resources, environmental, academic, tribal, state, consumer, and other related national interests from across the U.S., and ensure the nation’s living marine resource policies and programs meet the needs of these stakeholders.

The three new members are:

  • Thomas Fote, Toms River, New Jersey
    Retired veteran and longtime recreational fisherman advocate         
  • Don McMahan, Pensacola, Florida
    Owner, Pensacola Bay Oyster Company, LL, and Pensacola Bay Oyster Hatchery, LLC  
  • Patrick Sullivan, PhD, Ithaca, New York
    Professor and Chair, Department of Natural Resources, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University

MAFAC provides advice and recommendations on NOAA and Department initiatives and programs. MAFAC recently identified priority initiatives for incoming NOAA and Commerce leaders to improve seafood businesses and trade, support recreational opportunities, strengthen science and fishery data, enable adaptive management, and recover protected species.

In recent years, MAFAC has also provided advice and input on:

  • Enhancing seafood production and promotion, and identified major challenges to healthy oceans and thriving industries that need addressing.
  • The NOAA Aquaculture Strategic Plan for 2016-2020, highlighting the need to substantially increase domestic aquaculture production, and supported the development of an effective national aquaculture initiative.
  • Implementation of the Recreational Fisheries Policy.
  • Improving species recovery and section 7 pre-consultation processes;
  • How NOAA can best meet resource, habitat, and socio-economic resilience needs of fishing communities and sectors, particularly in a changing climate.
  • Long term salmon and steelhead conservation and recovery through its Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force.

For more information about the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee, visit this web page.

Read the full release here

Feds seek to get S.C. claims tossed in seismic testing suit

April 25, 2019 — As cross-arguments continue between the many parties in a federal lawsuit seeking to block seismic testing off coastal waters of East Coast states, three more municipalities in the Carolinas will get their voices heard, while the federal government tries to get some of South Carolina’s specific claims tossed.

Conservation groups, including Georgia’s One Hundred Miles, filed the suit in December in order to stop the seismic testing that is the precursor to offshore oil and gas drilling. The federal government already awarded five companies permits for incidental harassment of marine mammals that would occur during seismic testing.

The federal defendants — the National Marine Fisheries Services, NMFS Assistant Administrator Chris Oliver and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — argue in a Monday filing that South Carolina “states four novel and legally baseless theories raised by no other party in this suit.”

Those claims, according to the federal attorneys, are that 2017 orders by the president and the Commerce secretary were invalid because “they retract putative policies” from the Obama administration, that they seismic testing is a public nuisance, that any survey activities would constitute trespassing and that the survey activities violate admiralty law.

Read the full story at The Brunswick News

Tuna Fishermen Say Agencies Rejected Input on New Rules

April 12, 2019 — Representing large net-fishing vessels in the Pacific Ocean, the American Tunaboat Association filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming government fishery regulators left industry experts in the dark about a forthcoming biological opinion that could limit commercial tuna operations.

The complaint, filed by Baker Botts attorney Megan Berge in Washington, D.C., federal court, names as defendants Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS.

According to the lawsuit, NMFS is preparing a biological opinion that could impose new permit requirements and limits on tuna fishery operations in the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the American Tunaboat Association says it was denied the ability to provide input during an informal phase of the assessment process.

The fishing advocacy group claims the NMFS violated the Administrative Procedure Act by not allowing it to review any drafts or provide first-hand, expert recommendations for the developing opinion that could directly impact its members.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service