Management & Regulation

Sea scallop management measures for the fishing year (FY) March 1, 2010 February 28,2011 (FY 2010).  To learn more see attached letter from NOAA.

Eric Schwaab, the new chief at National Marine Fisheries Service, is stepping into the job at a time when frustration with federal fisheries policy is bubbling over in coastal towns from Maine to Alaska.

Schwaab was sworn in as the assistant administrator for fisheries in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on February 16, only a little more than one week before commercial and recreational fishermen stage a protest rally in Washington, D.C.

Fishermen are asking Congress to revisit the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the framework for federal fisheries management. The law sets out a time schedule for rebuilding fish stocks that is rigid enough that regulators must ban fishing for some species altogether, resulting in what fishermen describe as irreparable damage to coastal economies and communities.

Read the complete story at The Outer Banks Sentinel.

February 24, 2010: Congressman Frank Pallone, D-NJ, author of the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2009 (HR 1584), addresses the United We Fish rally in Washington, DC. The rally is intended to express support for revisiting the Magnuson-Stevens Act to foster greater flexibility.

[click here to listen now]

 

 

 

February 24, 2010: Congressman Barney Frank, D-MA, who represents the Port of New Bedford, addresses assembled fisherman at the United We Fish rally in Washington, DC. The rally is intended to express support for revisiting the Magnuson-Stevens Act to foster greater flexibility. This bill, introduced by Congressman Frank Pallone and supported by Barney Frank and many others, is the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2009 (HR 1584).

[click here to listen now]

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Barney Frank told a rally of several hundred fishermen in Washington today, including a number from New Bedford, that their advocacy was an important step in rewriting unfair provisions of the Magnuson Act which affect the fishing industry.

“I appreciate the effort here, I am encouraged by it.  We’re going to fix that law,” Frank told a cheering crowd.

“I have a sharp disagreement with regulators who think they have to tell fishermen how important it is to have fish ten years from now.  Fishermen have more of an interest and more of an understanding of keeping the fish around than the people who are regulating them.  It’s absolutely backwards.”

Frank told the fishermen that regulators have been too hard on the fishing industry.  “I wish, because I am on the Financial Services Committee, that the federal government had treated some of the people in the financial industry as harshly as the NMFS [the National Marine Fisheries Service] has treated fisherman.  They got it backwards.  They have it absolutely backwards.”

Frank also stated that current policies which increase costs to fishermen could have unintended impacts on millions of Americans.  “One of things that we are told is that we should combat obsesity and promote healthy eating,” he said.  “Making it more expensive for people to catch and bring in fish you undercut efforts to promote healthier eating habits.”

In 2006, when the Magnuson Act was in the process of being re-enacted, Frank had fought for changes to mitigate its effects on the fishing industry.  When his efforts to increase flexibility were defeated he voted against the bill.  Since then, Frank has been working to amend the law closely with a bipartisan coalition of members of Congress who represent fishing ports.

Frank and his colleagues have achieved some success in getting the New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) to recognize that the regulations had gone too far and were hurting the industry without a good environmental reason.

Because of the importance of this issue, Frank recently postponed an important national hearing on the future of housing finance set for March 2nd so he can attend a meeting that morning in Gloucester about NOAA enforcement of fishing regulations.

In a formal statement Frank made earlier today, he said that “Changes in the law are necessary to provide the kind of flexibility needed to prevent undue economic harm to the fishing industry and the communities where it is located.  A rigid ten-year rebuilding of all stocks makes no environmental sense and creates undue economic damage.  Revising the Magnuson Act will remain one of my highest legislative priorities.”

If the uninformed or misinformed general public don't know why we, as fishermen, are so upset, allow me to present, for your consideration, a hypothetical analogy for the moment.

Let's suppose that Magnuson-Stevens Act landed on shore regulating a variety of issues. What would be the implications of it implementation, as it is currently interpreted and applied, mean to the general public?

Would we be required, within a 10-year time frame to rebuild native flora and fauna to their historic levels of abundance?

Would neighborhoods be bulldozed and families dislocated to replenish spotted salamanders? Would it be mandated that we bring back wolves, panthers, and other high level predators, to their former niches in the ecosystem?

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Phil Paleologos of WBSM radio interviews Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk about the Washington, DC fisheries rally.

[click here to listen now]

 

 

 

To the editor:

If the uninformed or misinformed general public don't know why we, as fishermen, are so upset, allow me to present, for your consideration, a hypothetical analogy for the moment.

Let's suppose that Magnuson-Stevens Act landed on shore regulating a variety of issues. What would be the implications of it implementation, as it is currently interpreted and applied, mean to the general public?

Would we be required, within a 10-year time frame to rebuild native flora and fauna to their historic levels of abundance?

Would neighborhoods be bulldozed and families dislocated to replenish spotted salamanders? Would it be mandated that we bring back wolves, panthers, and other high level predators, to their former niches in the ecosystem?

Perhaps most importantly, consider the indigenous people of this continent: Would we return their traditional lands?

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

The West Coast fishing industry rooted for Arne Fuglvog, a commercial fisherman from Alaska who works as a legislative assistant for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. In July, Fuglvog dropped his name from consideration, citing conflicts presented by the long vetting process.

On the East Coast, fishermen joined U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., in advocating for Dr. Brian Rothschild, a fisheries scientist and former NOAA Fisheries policy advisor who collaborates with the fishing industry in his work at UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology in New Bedford, Mass.

Lubchenco finally made the appointment this month, choosing Eric Schwabb to head up the fisheries agency. Schwabb, who has spent the past 23 years working in various roles (most recently as Deputy Secretary) for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Winning the support and trust of commercial fishermen will prove difficult, especially in New England where the industry was surprised and upset by Lubchenco’s decision to overlook Rothschild and appoint someone lacking a background in  fisheries science.

Schwabb, who holds a bachelor’s in biology and a master’s in geography and environmental planning, admitted he is “just a regular guy,” not a scientist. But he said his management experience speaks for itself. He has directed Maryland’s Fisheries Service, Forest Service and its Forest, Wildlife and Heritage Service. Outside of state work, he served as the resource director for the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies in Washington, D.C.

“I think he’s got good experience for the job,” said Lee Crockett, fisheries policy director for the Pew Environment Group. “He’s had a long career here in Maryland as a natural resources manager and he’s worked in enforcement. I am more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Read the complete story at Three Beats Word Press.

Chatham fishermen worry that bureaucratic red tape will keep them from catching the fish they say will allow them to survive another year.

Usually, scientific studies showing fish population declines drive harsher regulations. But this year, new rules due to be implemented in May slash the catch of skates and pollock even though the scientists have information that those populations may actually be more robust than previously believed.

In the case of dogfish, the stock is booming and has even been declared "rebuilt" by one major regulatory body, but strict quotas remain in place because of a decade-old numbers dispute between the federal fisheries service and the regional fishery management councils.

"If we can't find a way to get higher skate and dogfish quota, and to get more pollock … we'll see fishing businesses go under in 2010," said Thomas Dempsey, a policy analyst with the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association.

Read the complete story at Cape Cod Times.

Members of the federal fisheries board who voted to consider increasing the coastal commercial striped bass harvest had to know they'd just thrown a brick at a hornet's nest. At its winter meeting the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Striped Bass Management Board approved an addendum that could give commercial fishers a larger quota, igniting an impassioned debate.

It's not surprising that commercial fishermen and sport anglers would squabble over allocation. Yet, despite the recent coastal stock assessment that found healthy numbers of stripers, this motion is contentious because it comes at a time when rockfish face serious challenges.

Unlike the crash of the early 1980s when overfishing was the obvious culprit, today's problems are more insidious. Chief among them is mycobacteriosis, a potentially fatal disease that causes Chesapeake stripers to lose body mass and mars them with nasty lesions. Myco was first diagnosed in the bay in 1997, and subsequent studies in Virginia and Maryland found the disease in more than two-thirds of the stripers sampled.

Read the complete story at Hometown Annapolis.