Saving Seafood

Washington

Senators working to block fishery new rule

EXCERPT:  "This legislation is about the survival of an industry that has been central to Massachusetts for centuries – We cannot allow this rule to be implemented."  [Spokesperson for Senator Ted Kennedy]

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 10, 2009) – A coalition of U.S. senators and representatives is trying to legislatively block an impending, stepped-up one-year crackdown on commercial fishing in New England by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The congressional amendment would negate a proposed Interim Rule by NMFS that has been widely — though not universally — analyzed as pushing the industry toward insolvency in the effort to restore the vitality of the 19 mixed stock fishery.

Melissa Wagoner, spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, said in an exchange with the Times yesterday that "the agency’s proposed Interim Rule would be catastrophic for our fishermen and the economies of our fishing ports."

Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full

 

Fisherman accused of harassing whale

BOSTON, MA (March 10, 2009) – A Chatham commercial fisherman was charged in federal court yesterday with harassing a humpback whale, in violation of the Endangered Species and Marine Mammal Protection acts.

Robert J. Eldridge Jr., 39, owner of the 35-foot Unicorn fishing boat, could face up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine if he is convicted of the three federal counts. Eldridge, reached by phone at his home yesterday afternoon, said the charges were untrue but he declined to comment further.

The US Attorney’s Office released little information on the case other than to say that it happened on or around July 10 in US waters and that Eldridge was being summoned to appear before a judge, probably within the next several weeks.

Read The Boston Globe story in full

 

Feds weigh a fishing ban on Atlantic red snapper

SAVANNAH, GA (March 5, 2009) – After three decades as a charter fishing guide, Steve Amick says he’s never seen red snapper as large or plentiful as he did last year off Georgia’s Atlantic coast. Soon, catching them could be illegal.

Scientists for the federal government say the bountiful catch reported from Florida to North Carolina is a shallow illusion. The red snapper population, they say, is dwindling and needs a break from decades of overfishing.

A federal agency — the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council — voted 7-6 Thursday in favor of a six-month ban on red snapper fishing off the southern Atlantic seaboard, despite cries from fisherman that the fish are plentiful and their business will sink under any ban.

Read the Associated Press story in full

 

Massachusetts Legislators Urge Federal Inquiry of NMFS Enforcement Actions

MARCH 10 UPDATE:  Opinion: Lawmakers should heed state call for full NMFS probe

PRIOR COVERAGE:

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 7, 2009) – The Democratic leaders of the Massachusetts Legislature have appealed to Congress for an independent investigation into ­— and relief from — what they describe as rogue enforcement actions designed to grind down and denigrate commercial fishermen.

"For too many years," lawmakers wrote to the state’s two U.S. senators and three fishing port congressmen, "we have been presented with complaints from local elected officials and fishing industry members detailing overzealous and intimidating enforcement practices and vindictive behavior (by enforcement officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)."

Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full

View the official letter requesting an investigation of the NOAA and NMFS [PDF]

Please contact your elected officials to express your thoughts on the accusations and the request of these Massachusetts legisltors.  To find and contact your elected officials, enter your zip code at www.congress.org   

 

 

A fisherman’s life: ‘It’s always something’

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 7, 2009) – Beyond what everyday life hands out, the fisherman’s wear and tear, weather-dependant and highly-regulated and mechanical vocation often gives him additional "it’s always somethings."

Four Gloucester and Maine fishermen and a shore engineer share their latest "always somethings."

The Day Only Worsened….

Sal "Sal-Sans" Sanfilippo of Gloucester experienced one of those fishing days this winter aboard his 77-foot steel dragger Janaya & Joseph — a day where "you couldn’t do anything right," he said.

Read "Ebb & Flow" in full from the Gloucester Daily Times

 

“One More Dead Fish” to be Screened in Gloucester

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 5, 2009) – The story of fishermen struggling with the changing industry is a focal part of the Gloucester scene these days.

Next Wednesday, it will be a film featured as part of the Cape Ann Community Cinema as well.

The screening of the award-winning film "One More Dead Fish" will be followed by discussion from Cape Ann residents, including local authors Ron Gilson, who spent his life working on the waterfront, and Joseph Garland, a local historian.

Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full

 

Sea of bad tidings

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 5, 2009) – In a case that has driven a deeper wedge between the fishing industry and the government, federal officials are charging that one of New England’s largest seafood auctions purchased fish caught illegally more than 200 times between 2004 and 2006.

Larry Ciulla, who co-owns the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction, said he would appeal the charges – which carry a $355,200 penalty and a 120-day shutdown. He has 30 days from Feb. 13, when the charges were issued, to file the appeal.

"I absolutely am going to defend it vigorously," said Ciulla. "We record everything to the pound, and report everything we unload to the government to make sure, and ensure that we’re in compliance with the law."

Read The Boston Globe story in full

 

Obama’s science picks on hold

WASHINGTON, DC (March 5, 2009) – Anonymous senators are putting President Barack Obama’s science advisors on ice, reports Congressional Quarterly. White House science advisor John Holdren and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration head Jane Lubchenco await confirmation, following Feb. 12 Senate confirmation hearings. The anonymous "holds" are a Senate prerogative used in the past to delay naming Presidential appointees.

 “It’s infuriating,” Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, Dem., W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, told Congressional Quarterly. Overriding the holds by the unnamed senators would require 60 votes.In unrelated federal news, the National Institutes of Health today posted online "Challenge" grant requirements for "jumpstart funds" available to researchers under the recently-passed 2009 stimulus bill. At least $200 million will go to two-year grants to study, "knowledge gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation, or research methods," says a NIH statement.

Read the USA Today science blog in full

 

Inspector General Criticizes NMFS for “unclear communication and misunderstandings”; says fish stock studies are legitimate

MARCH 11 UPDATE:  U.S. Inspector General: ‘Trust’ gap hurts, but science good

PRIOR COVERAGE:

PORTLAND, ME (March 4, 2009) – Fish-population estimates that are driving severe fishing restrictions in New England waters are based on the best available science, despite persistent criticism of those findings, according to a new federal report.  [SAVING SEAFOOD NOTE:  Senator Snowe responds by saying the fisheries service is failing to work with the industry and that its science, even if it is the best available, isn’t good enough.]

However, the report also says that federal officials need to work better with the fishing industry to erase doubts and expand research.

The U.S. Commerce Department’s Office of the Inspector General presented that assessment late last week to the U.S. senators from Maine and Massachusetts. Last summer, the senators called for a federal review of groundfish science, citing a growing distrust in the National Marine Fisheries Service among fishermen.

Read the Portland Press Herald story in full

View the Inspector General’s report in full [PDF]

 

Fisheries center report card: Communications needs improvement

NEW BEDFORD, MA (March 4, 2009) – An investigation into the scientific practices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center found that the Woods Hole-based center uses the best available science but must take steps to improve how it communicates that science to the groundfishing industry, according to the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

NOAA Fisheries Service has until March 28 to submit an action plan to Inspector General Todd J. Zinser, detailing how the agency, which falls under the Commerce Department, will improve transparency with fishermen based on recommendations outlined in a 42-page report on the investigation.

Read the Standard-Times story in full

Vew the official Inspector General report

For additional coverage, read the Portland Press Herald