Saving Seafood

Enforcement

Fishermen Challenged to Come Forward and Speak to Inspector General’s Team

Bill Lee challenged fishermen to overcome their worry about retribution and either register their complaints — he said fishermen should give the IG a chance to force corrections in the system — or forever hold their peace. "Don’t tell me in Dunkin’ Donuts," Lee said in a telephone interview after the end of the closed-door interview yesterday." Stand up for your rights.

"I’m proud to be an American fisherman. We are an honest, hardworking community." Bill Lee said that was the theme of his presentation yesterday to a team from the Inspector General of the Department of Commerce.

He also told them the industry had been turned into an adversary of the enforcement arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has insured violations by piling mountains of bureaucratic requirements on fishermen, making compliance virtually impossible.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Judge Demands NOAA Explain Gloucester Auction Closure Publicity

The publicity campaign that accompanied the latest enforcement action against the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction has become the subject of a federal judicial inquiry.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock has demanded affidavits by Friday from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to explain NOAA enforcement’s aggressively orchestrated media campaign regarding its move last month to try to force the auction to close for 10 days.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office and attorneys for the auction yesterday declined to comment on the judge’s announcement of his inquiry.

Read the complete story The Gloucester Daily Times.

OPINION: Asbury Park Press praises changes on Mid-Atlantic Council as “More Balance”

Anglers both commercial and recreational in New Jersey may have reason to anticipate a sea change in fishing regulations in the next few years as the board that governs fishing in the Mid-Atlantic feels the effects of three new members with strong connections to environmental causes or organizations — members who may well bring a better balance to a group long influenced by the industry.

Environmental groups long have complained that the 25-member Mid-Atlantic Regional Fishery Management Council has been dominated by people with direct economic and personal stakes in fisheries issues. That dominance could erode somewhat as the council next month replaces a trio of fishermen with three people with activist backgrounds and little fear of speaking their minds.

Christopher J. Zeman of River Vale is an attorney who represented the environmental group Oceana on issues including the sea turtle’s interaction with scallop fleets. He is replacing Ed Goldman, a recreational angler from Absecon, in a New Jersey seat. Steven Schaefer, who works for Wild Edibles fish stores in New York and is a tireless promoter of sustainable fishing practices, is replacing Montauk commercial tilefish boat owner Laurie Nolan. Peter L. deFur, a wildlife toxicologist and professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Environmental Studies who has worked on coastal restoration issues, is replacing fisherman Jeff Deem. All have three-year terms.

Read the complete story at APP.

Gloucester vigil & march planned to ‘send message’ to feds Wednesday

As the Department of Commerce Inspector General’s office investigates the enforcement practices of federal fishing regulators — and as fishermen out of Gloucester and throughout New England brace for a sea change in the industry’s regulatory system — city and local legislative leaders are organizing a community show of support for local fishermen and the industry.

State Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, D-Gloucester, state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester and Mayor Carolyn Kirk are planning to host a community candlelight vigil and march in support of the fishing community Wednesday beginning at 7 p.m.

The vigil is slated to begin at City Hall, with a march to the Fishermen’s Memorial’s Man at the Wheel on Stacy Boulevard. The event is being organized as a community statement against "unfair fishery enforcement practices," according to a joint statement issued by Ferrante, Tarr and Kirk.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

BLOG: New England Fish Forum on Amendment 16

As you know, last week the New England Fisheries Management Council approved a sector/catch share program for groundfish management (Amendment 16). The Council approved 17 new sectors in addition to the existing two Cape Cod sectors. Sectors will develop their own sets of rules but must operate within a Council-provided quota on each sector’s harvest level, based on historic catch levels by each sector member between 1996-2006, using landing data. Fishermen who do not join sectors (fishermen in the “common pool”) will be subject to the current Days-At-Sea management program, closed area system and gear-type specific rules. (For a more detailed summary, see the bottom of this email.)

Draft Amendment 16 must still be approved and implemented by the National Marine Fisheries Service. It is expected to be submitted to NMFS later this summer, with a proposed rule published in fall or winter and implementation on May 1, 2010.

The NEFMC and NMFS both have acknowledged that there are challenges to the success of the approved program, which must be addressed with improved science and more effective monitoring and enforcement.

Read the complete story at the New England Fish Forum.

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree statement on Glenn Libby, New England Fisheries Council

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree issued the following statement on the appointment of Glenn Libby to the New England Fisheries Council and the New England Fisheries Council meeting in Portland.  (Pingree wrote a letter to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco supporting Libby’s selection to the Council)

“I am very happy that Glen Libby was appointed to the New England Fisheries Management Council.  Glen’s 30 years of experience in the fishing industry and his commitment to sustainability and sustainable fishing will make him a good addition to the Council.

“Over the next few years, the Council must work together to solve the fundamental problems facing the fisheries – overcapacity , misalignment of economic incentives and a highly complex regulatory system.  All Council members must be up for the challenge and to be willing to work towards sustainability.  Glen is a perfect candidate for the job.

Read the complete statement at Congresswoman Chellie Pingree’s website.

LETTER: Standing up against government ‘bullying’

This is an open letter that has been sent to NOAA Fisheries: We have seafood processor clients all over the world, including the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction, and are absolutely appalled by the outrageous abuse of your agency’s administrative power.

"Guilty until proven innocent" is not American — and is expensive to defend.

Which agencies are trying to bankrupt the fishing industry at taxpayer expense? The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration? The U.S. Department of Commerce? The National Marine Fisheries Service? The U.S. Coast Guard?

What is the umbrella agency and hierarchy? How many taxpayer dollars have been spent on this vendetta?

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Navy says sonar impact on endangered whales negligible at planned training site off Florida

The Navy believes sonar in a planned training range for submarine warfare off the coast of north Florida will not disturb calving by endangered North Atlantic right whales, it said in an environmental impact statement Friday.

Environmentalists reacted with disappointment that the Navy plans to go ahead with development of its Undersea Warfare Training Center in Atlantic waters 75 miles off the coast of Mayport.

The coasts of north Florida and south Georgia are the primary calving grounds of the right whales, who travel to the area from New England during the winter to give birth and nurse their calves.

Read the complete story at Taragana.

Lawyer poised to make fishermen’s case to feds

A leading fishing industry lawyer due to meet next week with the Inspector General’s investigators probing the alleged heavy-handed tactics of federal fishery enforcement says the Inspector General’s office already has two key reports he’s prepared detailing how the aggressive enforcement and judicial system hovering over the industry is rigged to drive fishermen out of business.

Attorney Steve Ouellette said yesterday that the law enforcement system imposed on the industry — while constantly monitoring fishing vessels and making cheating nearly impossible — also leaves fishermen open to unintentional violations of nearly incomprehensible, layered and often contradictory rules.

And these unintentional violations, the fishing industry and admiralty lawyer said, are prosecuted with zero tolerance and inflexible zeal, bankrupting and impoverishing fishermen driving them out of the industry.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Feds step up probe of NOAA actions

Federal inspectors from the nation’s capital — evaluating "allegations of excessive penalties and retaliatory actions" against New England fishermen by fishery law enforcement and regulatory officials based here — are set to begin private interviews with fishermen and their representatives on Monday.

A team of five from the Inspector General’s Office in the U.S. Department of Commerce, where fishery regulation is based, will be on the North Shore for an uncertain period.

An e-mail sent to contacts offering testimony and evidence of mistreatment at the hands of the fishery service’s agents indicated that separate surveys will be scheduled for residents of New York, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.