State and Local

Lieutenant Governor Murray and Secretary Bowles join meeting. During a visit to New Bedford on Friday, January 8, 2010, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick spoke with fishing industry representatives in a meeting organized by New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang's Oceans and Fisheries Council.  Mayor Lang termed the discussion "very productive" and noted that also participating were Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray and Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles.

“Governor Patrick and Lieutenant Governor Murray had a very positive meeting with fishermen in New Bedford today about the ongoing crisis facing the industry,” said Secretary Bowles. “Working together over the past three years, we have obtained unprecedented financial relief for the groundfishing fleet and shell fishermen impacted by red tide. Today, we all agreed to keep working together to fight for the fishing industry in Massachusetts as well as protect the natural resource the industry and our fishing communities depend on, based on sound science and fairer federal regulation.”

"The Governor was clear that he wanted an open channel of communication between himself and the citizens of the Commonwealth who are concerned about fisheries," said Bob Vanasse, executive director of the Project to Save Seafood and Ocean Resources. "Secretary Bowles made suggestions as to how we could make that happen, and we have already begun to act on them."

Richie Canastra, of the Whaling City Seafood Display Auction, said "the industry needs to do its part to bring issues to the table and keep the Governor informed.  The Governor told us that if we do our job, he will do his."  Canastra continued "Our draggers are about to move to sector management with all of its uncertainty.  They have made sacrifices over the last 15 years, with the promise that when the stocks return, they will profit.  When they see their brother fishermen in scallops — a species that has recovered and has excellent biomass — still being cut back, they are understandably discouraged, and wonder if the promises made by federal regulators are true."

"We appreciate the support that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is providing to the industry at this time of difficulty," said Drew Minkiewicz, of the Fisheries Survival Fund  "and we remain hopeful that reconsideration of the scallop limits will be added to the agenda of the upcoming Council meeting."

"The Governor's participation and engagement is important to keep the pressure on federal regulators to ensure that our fishing families are represented and their economic concerns are weighed appropriately," said Kristen Decas, Executive Director of the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission.  "The governor is stepping up to the plate at a most critical time."

Rodney Avila, a member of the New England Fisheries Management Council, said it was "a very constructive discussion."

The mayor of the state's other leading commercial hub said Wednesday, January 6, it was time to "open up the hood" and expose the way decisions are made at the New England Fishery Management Council, which this week kept off the January meeting agenda a move to reconsider tight — and disputed — scallop restrictions.

New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang said the decision of the council at its November meeting to cut the fishing days allowed scallopers from 37 to 29 and reduce special area trips from 5 to 4 was inexplicable and without scientific justification.

The more restrictive catch limit by government estimate is expected to cost the economy $40 million.

An allegation similar to Lang's was also made in writing yesterday by Ian Bowles, the state secretary of energy and environmental affairs, in a letter to council Chairman John Pappalardo.

In a broad Freedom of Information request filed a week ago, Lang sought documents including e-mails, telephone records and all internal correspondence between federal officials ranging from Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Jane Lubchenco, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, down to the council level.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

The Associated Fisheries of Maine has joined what it termed the "chorus of voices" asking that the New England Fishery Management Council reconsider its November vote on Scallop Framework 21.

The Maine group is primarily composed of groundfish vessels.  They stated in its letter that November vote represents a loss in landings of approximately 300,000 lbs. They argue that this "significant loss in potential IFQ allocation would mark a bad start to the first true 'catch share' program in New England."

Read the letter from the Associated Fisheries of Maine to the New England Fishery Management Council.

A letter from Ian Bowles, the Massachusetts Energy and Environment cabinet secretary with responsibility for fisheries issues to NEFMC chair John Pappalardo and members of the NEFMC, has been obtained by Saving Seafood.

The letter requests reconsideration of the November decision at the upcoming January 26th meeting (a request apparently denied in the agenda circulated yesterday to council members).

The secretary states that he believes the "Council's decision was not based on the best available science" and continues pointing out that the decision will have "dire and unnecessary economic impacts on communities that are already severely stressed."

Shortly after Secretary Bowles' letter was made public by Saving Seafood, The Fisheries Survival Fund praised Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and his administration for calling for the immediate reconsideration and reversal of the New England Fishery Management Council’s decision to restrict fishing opportunities for the Atlantic sea scallop fishery in 2010.

In a press release The Fisheries Survival Fund stated "As Secretary Bowles so correctly explains in his letter, the decision imperils the economic and social health of the scallop industry and fishing communities in Massachusetts and throughout the region, and would cause unnecessary damage to local, regional and national economies during these troubled economic times.”

Mayor Scott Lang of New Bedford, Massachusetts — the nation's highest revenue seaport — has written to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke regarding what he termed the "arbitrary and capricious decision" of the New England Fisheries Management Council to reduce the days-at-sea for the Atlantic Scallopers from 37 to 29, and to reduce the access area trips from 5 to 4.

The Mayor included a FOIA request "seeking communications between NOAA and all of the Council Members and all third parties that may have played a role" in the decision including outside groups and lobbyists.

The Mayor stated that "The SSC provides the best scientific data available when implementing a fisheries management plan. The New England Fisheries Management Council chose to completely ignore the data submitted by the SSC. The economic impact on the fishing families and fishing industry in New Bedford will be devastating if these new reductions are implemented. I do not believe that the scientific data regarding the state of the scallop fishery was considered appropriately, nor do I believe that any appropriate economic impact was considered by the Council."

Enclosed with his letter was a request, submitted under the Freedom of Information Act, "seeking communications between NOAA and all of the Council Members and all third parties that may have played a role" in the decision." He stated that he was submitting the FOIA request because of the "…abrupt and irregular manner in which the Council conducted its work.."

Mayor Lang is an attorney by profession and a former Superior Court prosecutor.  His private sector experience includes sports and entertainment law, labor law, personal injury, catastrophic personal injury and workers’ compensation, state and federal labor and employment law and Civil Rights. In addition, he has represented employers and business entities on statutory issues.

The following individuals, staff and outside interest groups including lobbyists are to be covered by his FOIA request:

Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke

Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator; Dr. Jane Lubchenco

Acting Assistant Administrator of NOAA for Fisheries; Dr. James W. Balsiger

Regional Administrator of the Northeast Regional Office of the National Marine Fisheries Service; Pat Kurkul

Director and Deputy Director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center; Dr. Nancy Thompson and Dr. Frank Almeida

Chairman of the New England Fisheries Management Council; John Pappalardo

Executive Committee of the New England Fisheries Management Council; John Pappalardo, Rip Cunningham, James Odlin, Dr. David Pierce, Terry Stockwell and Pat Kurkul

Members of the New England Fisheries Management Council; George Lapointe, Dr. W. Michael Sullivan, Paul Diodati, David G. Simpson, Doug Grout, Patricia Kurkul, Terry Stockwell, Mark Gibson, David E. Pierce, Mark Alexander, Cheri Patterson, George Darcy, Frank Blount, Rip Cunningham, James F. Fair, Jr., Michael P. Leary, Glen A. Libby. John W. Pappalardo, Mary Beth Nickell-Tooley, Rodney Avila, Dave Goethel, Sally McGee, James Dolin, Dave Preble, John Vince O'Shea, Joe Mimic, Dr. Marvin Moriarty, Ms. Deirdre Warner-Kramer, Bob Beai, Capt. Peter Decoma, Dr. James Geiger, Mr. Langdon Baronet.

Science and Statistical Committee of the New England Fisheries Management Council; Dr. John Annals, Dr. Steven Cardin, Dr. Victor Cresco, Dr. John Gates, Dr. Daniel Georgiana, Dr. John Hoenig, Dr. Les Kaufman, Dr. Jacob Kritzer, Mr. Jean-Jacques Maguire, Mr. Robert O'Boyle, Dr. Robert Robertson, Dr. Andrew Rosenberg, Dr. Michael Sissenwine and Dr. Patrick Sullivan

Plan Development Team(s) of the New England Fisheries Management Council; Groundfish PDT, Scallop PDT

Any persons affiliated with the Environmental Defense Fund

Any persons affiliated with the Pew Environment Group and related projects

Any persons affiliated with the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fisherman's Association

Read the Mayor's letter and FOIA request.

 

 

 

 

This video was released by the Charlie Baker 2010 committee.

On December 2, 2009, Paul Diodati, the Director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries wrote to NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Administrator Patricia Kurkul regarding "the furor created by the New England Fishery Management Council's recent decision to allocate far fewer days to the limited access sea scallop fishery…"

Director Diodati observed that the Council unintentionally failed to use Plan Development Team and Science and Statistical Committee advice. He asked Regional Administrator Kurkul to "take appropriate steps to account for the PDT and SSC analyses of uncertainty" and asked that the decision of the Council be adjusted to F = 0.24, placing the probability of overfishing at less than 20%.

Read Director Diodati's letter to Regional Administrator Kurkul.

Representatives of several federal agencies reviewing ways to speed ecosystem restoration efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi got an earful of advice from coastal residents on Monday during the first of three days of meetings in the two states.

The Louisiana-Mississippi Gulf Coast Ecosystem Working Group was created in part to prioritize ecosystem restoration projects that are awaiting construction in Louisiana, said Nancy Sutley, working group co-chair and chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

But the panel of senior agency officials also is working on ways to get other agencies to add their expertise to water resource projects that often are designed and built only by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Read the complete story at The Times-Picayune.

Four months after putting in a request for a federal fishery disaster declaration with the U.S. Department of Commerce, the state of Alaska is still waiting for an answer. Closures to the Yukon River king salmon fishery this summer shut off crucial income opportunities for fishermen, and also impacted their ability to fish for food. An answer from Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke is expected soon, but approval of the request doesn’t itself guarantee financial relief to the families that need it.

The process of declaring a disaster can take from several weeks to a number of months, according to Gaylen Tromble, chief of the Domestic Fisheries Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. Fisheries disaster assistance is administered by NOAA through the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Department of Commerce. Once a determination is made, NOAA acts as a conduit between any money set aside by Congress for relief and the state. No congressional appropriation is currently in place for Yukon River fisheries disaster assistance; however, congressional delegates often wait for a declaration to be made before moving forward with requests for financial relief, Tromble said.

Already saddled with few jobs and a high cost of living, Yukon River fishermen received a triple blow this summer. In May, a huge spring flood sent water and ice crashing through many communities, damaging boats, homes and in some communities, city infrastructure. Fishing for king salmon — the most prized and valuable catch — was shut down to ensure enough of the fish made it across the border into Canada, thus meeting U.S. treaty obligations. And another typically abundant but far less valuable fish, chum salmon, saw its lowest run in nearly 14 years, forcing a closure on it and also deeply curtailing access to silver salmon traveling upriver at the same time. To make matters worse, all of this came after the 2008 fishing season, which was also a terrible year for king salmon.

Read the complete story at The Alaska Dispatch.

The state’s fishing industry lost an important ally with the death of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy in August. But commercial fishermen would find a sympathetic audience with at least one of the politicians campaigning to fill Kennedy’s seat.

Martha Coakley doesn’t deal much with fishing in her current role as the state’s attorney general. But when she met today with Patriot Ledger editors, she expressed some frustration with the overly aggressive approach that the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration has taken with enforcing federal fishing rules.

The truth is, though, that the substantive relief for the industry would need to happen in Congress. That’s where U.S. Rep. Barney Frank has been trying unsuccessfully to institute more reasonable timetables for the rebuilding of depleted groundfish stocks. Without a change in federal law, the noose around the New England fishing industry will probably continue to tighten for the foreseeable future.

Read the complete story at Wicked Local.