Washington

April 24, 2015 — A bipartisan group of 29 senators is urging the Food and Drug Administration to finalize its guidance on how much fish is safe for pregnant women to eat.

The FDA had previously cautioned against pregnant women eating too much fish because of mercury levels that can harm fetal development.

In June 2014, the agency issued a draft of updated guidance that kept in place certain limits but also recommended a minimum level of lower-mercury fish that pregnant women should eat to avoid missing out on certain nutrients.

Read the full story at The Hill

April 24, 2015 — Striper action may be just getting started but many fishermen are already looking ahead to the opening of fluke season on May 17.

This year's regulations for the delectable summer flatties allow anglers to keep five fish per day with an 18-inch minimum size limit and a season stretching through Sept. 21.

Many anglers I've spoken with this spring find the current fluke regulations "tolerable" but believe we can still do better — and that New York needs to protect gains it has made in recent years which have seen a shift to regional management of the species and a more equitable distribution of the summer flounder quota in the tri-state area.

With those goals in mind, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) have each reintroduced "Fluke Fairness" bills to the Senate and House of Representatives.

Read the full story from Newsday

 

April 22, 2015 — Modern-day slavery persists around the world, including the abuse of fishermen in the Thai seafood industry whose catch can end up in U.S. markets, a congressional panel was told Wednesday.

"As has been reported for years, the Thai fishing industry is rife with forced labor, both on the high seas and within seafood processing and packing plants," Mark Lagon, former State Department ambassador for trafficking in persons, told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.

Lagon, who now heads Freedom House, a nonprofit organization that advocates for human rights, said it remains to be seen whether the Obama administration will impose sanctions it is authorized to deploy, which would bar Thai seafood from U.S. markets.

The State Department's key weapon for combatting human trafficking comes in a politically charged annual ranking in "tiers"— Tier 1 is best, 2 means more could be done, and 3 is a blacklist that can spark sanctions. The House global human rights subcommittee urged the Obama administration to come down hard on those countries that violate human rights when it releases the report in June.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News and World Report

 

SEAFOODNEWS.COM — April 23, 2015 –The FDA has removed Import Alert (IA) number 16-08, which applies to the action level of mercury in swordfish, from its enforcement list.

Import Alert 16-08 covers the "Detention Without Physical Examination (Automatic Detention) of Swordfish For Methyl Mercury" and gives the FDA authority to automatically hold all imported shipments of swordfish and processed swordfish products from any foreign country unless they were from shippers on the FDA Green List.

An email from the FDA confirmed that 16-08 enforcement is on hold.

"At this time, FDA is not enforcing the action level of 1 ppm for mercury in swordfish; therefore, IA 16-08 would not apply," the email said.

Multiple sources have indicated that it is a strange move by the FDA to completely remove an IA number from the list.

Some in the industry have speculated that the FDA may be rewriting the alert.

 

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.

April 20, 2015 — The following was released by the offices of Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Congressman Frank Pallone (D NJ-06):

Today, on the five-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Congressman Frank Pallone (D NJ-06), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced they will introduce a bill to ban offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.
 
“Imagine the devastation an oil spill in the Atlantic would cause – not just to our home state of New Jersey, but to states up and down the East Coast,” said Sen. Menendez.  “I am looking forward to re-introducing this Senate bill to ban Atlantic offshore drilling in an effort to not only protect the Garden State’s economy, but to guarantee a healthier and happier future for all East Coast citizens.  We cannot stand by and allow our coastline and our marine life to be endangered in order to inflate Big Oil’s already inflated profits.”
 
“We don’t need the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster to know that offshore drilling in the Atlantic should be completely off the table,” said Congressman Pallone.  “However, it does remind us of the detrimental and lasting environmental and economic damage that can be done by an oil spill, and that the technology does not exist to safely drill for oil offshore.  Now, with the Administration’s dangerous proposal to permit drilling off the Atlantic Coast, we must step up our efforts to protect the Jersey Shore’s environmental and economic health.”
 
The Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism (COAST) Anti-Drilling Act prohibits the Department of the Interior from issuing any lease for the exploration, development, or production of oil or gas in the North, Mid-, or South Atlantic Planning Areas.  There are planned introductions this week in the House by Pallone with thirteen co-sponsors and in the Senate by Menendez with seven co-sponsors.
 
The Obama Administration earlier this year included areas from Virginia to Georgia in its Draft 2017-2022 Five-Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program.  As the Deepwater Horizon spill clearly showed, oil spills do not respect state borders, and the proposed drilling would be a direct threat to New Jersey’s coastal communities and industries.  The Jersey Shore’s tourism industry generates $38 billion a year and directly supports almost half a million jobs – nearly ten percent of New Jersey’s entire workforce.  New Jersey’s commercial fishing industry alone generates over $7.9 billion annually and supports over 50,000 jobs, while the state also has one of the largest saltwater recreational fishing industries in the nation.
 
Congressman Pallone discussed the legislation today in Long Branch, NJ at a press conference to commemorate the anniversary of the spill and to oppose the new proposal to open the Atlantic to drilling.  He was joined by Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, and representatives from Clean Ocean Action and Waterspirit.

Read the full release online at Politicker NJ

 

April 16, 2015 — After more than a decade of delays, the government is moving toward allowing the sale of U.S.-raised organic fish and shellfish. But don't expect it in the grocery store anytime soon.

The Agriculture Department says it will propose standards for the farmed organic fish this year. That means the seafood could be available in as few as two years – but only if USDA moves quickly to complete the rules and seafood companies decide to embrace them.

Organic seafood would be welcome news for the increasing number of organic shoppers – and for retailers that have profited from their higher prices. It also could help the U.S. farmed fish industry find a premium as it struggles to compete against cheaper imports.

Among the seafood that is commonly farm-raised in the United States and would be covered: salmon, tilapia, catfish, shrimp and mollusks such as mussels, oysters and clams.

The United States is "trying to play catch-up on organic aquaculture," says Miles McEvoy, who heads up USDA's organic program. The European Union and Canada, along with other countries, have been exporting their own organic products to the United States.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

 

April 15, 2015 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration submits its annual fisheries report to Congress Wednesday. By law (the Magnuson-Stevens Act), NOAA Fisheries must report annually on fish populations within 200 miles of the coast. The agency is also tasked with rebuilding depleted stocks.

Last year, NOAA Fisheries brought two fish species, (considered depleted), back up to healthy levels, and removed several others from the overfishing and overfished lists.

Regional fisheries managers in the Northeast say cod, a mainstay in the New England fishery, is in the worst shape they’ve seen in the 40 years they’ve monitored this species.

Read the full story from Rhode Island Public Radio

April 8, 2015 — Moulton also helped convince the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to reconsider the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund’s cod management proposal, which would replace harsh regulations imposed in the Gulf of Maine last year. The local proposal opens new areas to fishing, among other changes.

 Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton has landed three House committee posts, joined Republicans to support bipartisan legislation and even bucked some of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy initiatives.

Reflecting on his first 100 days in Congress, Moulton said he is fulfilling a campaign pledge to reach across the political divide on thorny issues including healthcare, veteran affairs and the battle against Islamic insurgents.

“It’s hard to get things done in Washington, but I’m optimistic about the opportunities,” he told a Salem News editorial board on Wednesday. “Even as a freshman in a minority party, you can have an impact.”

Many of the congressman’s initiatives to date focus on economic development.

He is co-sponsoring GOP-backed legislation — with four other Massachusetts Democrats — to repeal a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices created under Obama’s expansion of healthcare.

Read the full story at the Salem News

March 27, 2015 — WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — March 27, 2015 — Last night, a bipartisan group of Senators representing New England successfully introduced and passed a unanimously approved amendment to provide financial support for at-sea and dockside monitoring for fisheries that were included in a 2012 economic disaster declaration, such as the New England groundfish fishery.

The following is a joint press release from the offices of Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Angus King (I-Maine), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.):

Last night, the Senate passed by unanimous consent a budget amendment introduced by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Angus King (I-Maine), and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) to support at-sea and dockside monitoring for fisheries that have received economic disaster assistance.  A fishery disaster declaration was declared in 2012 for the Northeast.

"Many fishing families across Massachusetts are facing significant hardship because of the ongoing fisheries disaster," Senator Warren said. "Our hardworking fishermen should not be forced to pick up the costs for required at-sea and dockside monitoring–paying for monitors should remain a federal obligation."

"Fishermen are having a hard enough time keeping up with their bills because of this fishing disaster. They need help, and paying for these costs can give fishermen and families some assistance in staying afloat," said Senator Markey.

In 2007, the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, in coordination with NOAA Fisheries, developed a standardized bycatch reporting methodology (SBRM) for all Fishery Management Plans in the Northeast Region. A U.S. Court of Appeals decision required NOAA to provide funding for SBRM out of the same discretionary funding used to cover the costs of the At-Sea Monitoring (ASM) program to pay for observers.

NOAA's upcoming payments to fund the SBRM could result in the at-sea observers program running out of money sometime before the end of the fiscal year. This would result in the struggling groundfish industry having to bear the full cost of at-sea observer coverage, which can cost nearly $1,000 per day.

Text of the budget amendment is available here.

Read more coverage of the amendment here