Saving Seafood

Law

Herring industry seeks role in lawsuit

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 23, 2009) – The herring industry is fighting back, seeking "friend of the court" status in a federal lawsuit aimed at keeping their boats out of areas closed to groundfishermen and pointing to the Pew Charitable Trust as the agent provocateur.

The Sustainable Fisheries Coalition, representing the herring and midwater trawl and purse seine fishermen from Maine to New Jersey, filed for amicus status in the federal case on Thursday.

The Midcoast Fishermen’s Association, a group of groundfishermen in Port Clyde, Maine, initially sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to bar the big industrial herring boats — including those based in Gloucester — from the areas closed by the service to the groundfishing fleets.

Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full

 

Ready for NO NE fishing?

THE INTERNET (March 22, 2009) – The National Marine Fisheries Service wants to implement the "Interim Rule" which would make all of the waters south of New England, from Long Island to deep into the Georges Bank, a no take zone for a year leading up to the imposition of catch shares. Expect delays.

The NMFS reports into NOAA the new head of which is Jane Lubchenco, a Pew Fellow who worked on the infamous, later discredited, Boris Worms faith based "scientific" report, now refered to as the "Jellyfish Report" which predicted empty seas by 2048, except for jellyfish.

Read the bog commentary in full in The Hull Truth

 

Chamber audience disagrees with marine reserve speaker

GOLD BEACH, OR (March 19, 2009) – Speaking on marine reserves, the Chamber luncheon speaker, Dave Lacey, South Coast organizer for the environmental group Our Ocean met a roomful of Chamber members who disagreed with his views.

Our Ocean is a coalition that works to preserve Oregon’s coastline. They are conservationists, scientists, ocean users, local leaders and business people from around the state working towards establishing marine reserves. The coalition’s members are the Audubon Society of Portland, the Coast Range Association, Environment Oregon, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oceana, Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, Pacific Marine Conservation Council, and the Pew Environment Group.

Read the Curry County Reporter story in full

 

Deadliest Catch Star Keith Colburn to Testify Before Congress, Urges Protection For America’s Fish Basket

THE INTERNET (March 21, 2009) – Environmental groups (Alaska Wilderness League, Oceana and World Wildlife Fund) issued the following: Captain Keith Colburn, star of the Discovery Channel hit series Deadliest Catch, will testify before a joint congressional oversight hearing on Tuesday – the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill – and urge Congress to protect Alaska’s most productive fisheries from oil exploration.

Each member of the two subcommittees holding the joint hearing will be presented with a jar of rocks collected last month from the shores of Prince William Sound, the site of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. Two decades after the accident, the rocks remain coated in oil. Dr. Jeffrey Short of Oceana, an internationally recognized expert on oil impacts to the ocean, will testify about lessons learned from the Exxon Valdez and the need for a science-based precautionary approach to protect fragile Arctic ecosystems from industrialization.

Read the Financial 24 news story in full

 

Crackdown on foreign fishing fleets backed

WASHINGTON, DC (March 21, 2009) – A bill that would help prevent depletion of dwindling stocks of fish by strengthening enforcement against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing has been endorsed by industry groups and the Coast Guard, which would be charged with enforcing its provisions.

Their testimony came Thursday at a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing.

"Unsustainable fishing practices by foreign fishing fleets adversely affect stocks that migrate" between the high seas and U.S. waters, said Guam Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo, who introduced the legislation last month.

Read the Standard-Times story in full

 

LETTER: Captain Describes Concerns About Enforcement Actions and Behaviors

ROCKPORT, MA (March 21, 2009) – This is a letter I have sent to Dr. Jim Balsiger, acting assistant administrator of fisheries for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, after his column appeared in the Times last week.

Dr. Balsiger, thank you for taking the time to address the concerns of the fishermen of the Gulf of Maine.

I do agree that cooperative research is very important, but I feel that the issues of law enforcement and Coast Guard boardings are more critical and should be addressed first.

Read Captain Bill Lee’s commentary in full

 

Marine biologist with Pew ties to head fisheries

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 21, 2009) – Jane Lubchenco, a marine biologist whose career path has followed the borders of academe politics, and foundation funding, has been confirmed — quietly, and after a long delay — to head up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The U.S. Senate confirmed the Oregon State University professor late Thursday by unanimous consent. No overt comments — and few pointed questions — were raised.

With an unannounced plan, Lubchenco takes her place as scientist cum laude in a Democratic administration that sees itself engaged in desperate struggle to bring humanity belatedly into a sustainable relationship with the natural world, degraded by human-induced global warming and overfishing, among other smudges.

Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full

For additional coverage of this story, please see our main Lubchenco package

 

BLOG: Flexibility In Rebuilding – Southern Offshore Fishing Association

THE INTERNET (March 20, 2009) – Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) have introduced the 2009 version of the Flexibility In Rebuilding American Fisheries Act.  Now, before we all get too excited, bear in mind that essentially the same bill has been introduced and died in committee in both of the last two years.

That said, the bill is cause for some hope because it actually advocates using a bit of common sense and logic along with good science (as opposed to Pew Spew) in regulating our fisheries.

Read the commentary in full, from "The Way You See It" blog

 

 

Lubchenco’s Goals on Oceans and Climate

WASHINGTON, DC (March 20, 2009) – Jane Lubchenco, an ecologist focused on oceans and climate at Oregon State University, is now undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

She had been unable to speak with the press while her nomination was being weighed by the Senate but has now answered a few questions. There’ll be a lot more here from Dr. Lubchenco and other members of the Obama team on climate, energy and the environment — hopefully including answers to questions posed recently by Dot Earth readers. (John Holdren, the new science adviser to the president, has posted an interesting video message on his priorities.)

Read the New York Times story in full

 

Changing Climate: Ecologist now leads NOAA

WASHINGTON, DC (March 19, 2009) – Pity the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It has certainly suffered insults over the years, beginning in 1970 when President Nixon decided to tuck the newly formed agency inside the Commerce Department. Why? Because he was miffed at Walter Hickle, his man in charge of the Interior Department.

The oceans and atmospheric agency has grown over the years to make up 60% of the Commerce Department budget, and federal officials have resisted calls to make it a separate agency. Its multi-syllabic name commonly gets shorted to an acronym. But even the colloquial NOAA gets lampooned, as shorthand for "No Organization at All," or "National Organization for the Advancement of Acronyms."

The slights grew more serious during the presidency of George W. Bush. Scientists and policy wonks working on global warming or protecting rare and endangered whales and fish increasingly found their work questioned, delayed or altered because it ran afoul of official White House policy.

Read the Los Angeles Times story in full