Washington

BOSTON (AP) — February 19, 2013 — New England fishermen facing a dire future for their industry asked Congress in a letter Tuesday for immediate help surviving deep and impending cuts to their catch limits.

The letter, signed by 173 fishermen in ports from Connecticut to Maine, came as the industry prepares for May 1 catch reductions that fishermen warn could finish off the fleet.

A 77 percent cut in the catch limit for cod in the Gulf of Maine and a 61 percent decrease in the cod limit in Georges Bank, off southeastern New England, are the most significant in an array of 2013 catch reductions on bottom-dwelling groundfish.

The letter described the situation as ‘‘simply unbelievable’’ following rosy promises by regulators of healthier fish stocks and economic stability if previous regulations were enacted.

‘‘There is no stability,’’ said the letter, which was sent to 14 regional Congressmen and 12 U.S. Senators. ‘‘There are only repeated, record reductions in catch limits. Prosperity is a discarded dream. This is a real disaster.’’

The letter blamed ‘‘the failure of government policies and programs’’ to accept that current science is inadequate to effectively manage the fishery. It said the fleet has fished within government-set catch limits on every species for nearly a decade.

 

Read the full story by Jay Lindsay of the Associated Press in the Boston Globe 

 

 

 

 

February 19, 2013 — After issuing a series of investigative reports exposing excessive enforcement on the part of federal fisheries agents, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General has now turned to auditing how NOAA carried out and implemented policies that have transformed fisheries into commodity markets — and are being blamed for job losses and consolidation throughout the industry.

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, who has resigned effective at the end of February, was the moving force for the so-called catch share commodification in President Obama’s first term, having promoted it zealously while serving as a board officer with the Environmental Defense Fund.

“The objective of our review,” Andrew Katsaros, assistant inspector general for audits, said in a Feb. 11 memo to Lubchenco, “is to determine the adequacy of controls NOAA has in place to make decisions related to catch share allocations.”

Inspector General Todd Zinser said in a telephone interview Friday that the word “controls” as used is meant to cover the “adequacy of established procedures. “

“It’s a fairly broad objective that will allow the auditors to examine the catch share program as implemented by NOAA,” Zinser said.

A post-2008 election policy paper by Environmental Defense and signed off by Lubchenco — financed primarily by the Walton Family Foundation, rooted in Wal-Mart, promised that converting the wild resources to trade-able catching rights would ensure sustainability and restore profitability to the nation’s fisheries. And EDF vice president David Festa had also predicted that profits of 400 percent were to be had from timely investment in catch shares.

Yet, three years after the Northeast groundfishery was transformed into a catch share system, Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank in September declared the fishery, the nation’s oldest commercial industry and one long centered in Gloucester, to have collapsed into a socio-economic “disaster.”

Recent stock assessments have been discouraging, and drove the decision last month by NOAA’s New England Fishery Management Council to reduce landings of inshore cod — the most essential stock for the fleet — by 77 percent, augering the possible demise of the industry spread along the coast from Maine to New York’s Long Island.

The rigid rebuilding language written into the Magnuson Stevens Act that has crushed the size of the total catch to be distributed to fishermen has no scientific basis, Lubchenco conceded in testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee in October 2011. But she also said she would not support changes in the law that would eliminate the language requiring 10 year rebuilding regimens for distressed stocks.

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

 

February 19, 2013 — On Tuesday, February 19, 175 active fishermen and members of the Northeast Seafood Coalition wrote to 12 Senators and 13 Members of Congress from Northeastern states “to express [their] very serious distress over the recent decision by policy-makers to accept the lowest of low allowable catches for our fishery in 2013 and beyond while simultaneously expecting an industry on the brink of economic ruin to absorb monitoring costs.”

The fishermen wrote:

– “The forced transition of our New England groundfish fishery to catch share management and hard TACs came with all sorts of rosy promises of resource abundance and economic stability,” they write. They also noted that many businesses were unable to survive the transition.

– Rather than producing the promised benefits, the transfer of the groundfishery to sector management has led to a prolonged period of economic instability. “There is no stability. There are only repeated, record reductions in catch limits. Prosperity is a discarded dream.”

– They blame the current state of the groundfishery on failed government management, writing: “Three weeks ago, NMFS Regional Administrator John Bullard told us at the Council meeting that this was our day of reckoning. This is not our day of reckoning – we’ve done nothing wrong to reckon. We didn’t cause this problem.” Instead, they maintain that the government does not have the science and data necessary to properly manage the fishery. “For too long we’ve been subjected to the volatility and futility of pretending to know the unknowable.”
                  
– “For nearly a decade now our fishery has fished at or below every catch limit set by the government on every stock. We lived within their quotas, but it is now our businesses, our families and our communities that will be paying the price.”

–  “Government cannot expect our industry to continue to be subjected to drastic cuts in allowable catches while placing additional, government-imposed expenses upon us.”

– They noted that, as the current catch share management system was being implemented, the Northeast Seafood Coalition publicly made clear that adequate federal funding and catch allocations would be needed for the system to properly function. They added: “Sure enough, here we are – less than 3 years after sector implementation – and the agency is telling us there is not enough money to monitor or enough fish to sustain our fishery. It’s difficult for many of us to believe that this was just a coincidence.”
 
The fishermen made four requests:

1) The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) should reconsider their decision to reject the Council’s request for interim measures on Gulf of Maine cod and haddock and should adopt the Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) for Georges Bank yellowtail as recommended by the Council for fishing year 2013. “How are we – those who have endured the brunt of efforts to rebuild groundfish stocks for over two decades now – expected to survive until all those promises of stock abundance are fulfilled?” they wrote. They added: “Did the NMFS lawyers really get it right? Or, was this just an unfortunate policy decision influenced by [Non-Governmental Organizations] or the threat of litigation?”

2) NMFS must cover the cost of at-sea monitoring in FY 2013 and continue to do so until the economic situation in the fishery improves.

3) NMFS must fix their stock assessments. The fishermen noted that the science on which management of the fishery depends is riddled with flaws and the law overreaches. “The Magnuson-Stevens Act now demands more from the science than it can produce,” they write. “That law also needs to be fixed, and Congress can do it.”

4) Congress should continue its work to find a way to fund fishery disaster declarations. “We have seen this great nation step up time and time again to help those that have suffered disasters at the hands of nature to get back on their feet—from hurricanes to droughts to tsunamis. Our disaster is the same,” they write.

 

Read the full letter to the Members of Congress here

Read the full letter to the Senators here

 

 

February 16, 2013 — Asserting that the federal government has the responsibility to provide relief in fisheries that have been declared disasters, 13 U.S. senators — including Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren and William Cowan — have urged President Obama to introduce special budget funding for the Northeast groundfishery and three others in Mississippi and Alaska.

The bipartisan letter was heavily weighted with Democrats, including Warren and Cowan, Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Charles Schumer and Kirstin Gillibrand of New York, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Mark Begich of Alaska. Begich is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

Republicans on the letter were Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Independent Angus King of Maine also signed the letter.

In September, Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank declared the Northeast groundfishery a disaster — 11 months after Gov. Deval Patrick submitted a second, expanded appeal that included two socio-economic studies. Blank also issued disaster declarations for the blue crab and oyster fishery of Mississippi and the Chinnock salmon fishery of Alaska.

But by September, the national elections loomed and at the end of October Hurricane Sandy created a different kind of disaster which proved hurdles too high for advocates who got no help from the White House or the Commerce Department. Once Blank issued her declarations, the administration remained mute on the subject of the need for assistance.

”We believe that it is the responsibility of the administration, after declaring these disasters, to request the funding to respond to them,” the senators wrote. “Until funding is made available for these declarations, the affected fishermen will continue to struggle during a critical time of need. For those that are suffering and the fishing communities they live in, time is of the essence. They simply cannot wait for another funding cycle for help to arrive.”

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

 

OCEAN CITY, Md. — February 15, 2013 — A potential plan to effectively zone vast areas of ocean along the nation’s coastlines will not get $150 million in federal funding after the House last week voted to remove the appropriation hidden in a much-larger Hurricane Sandy relief bill.

Last week, the House took up a massive federal funding bill intended to help victims of Hurricane Sandy and discovered some unintended pork had been added to the appropriation including $150 million in federal funding to start implementing the Obama Administration’s plan to zone vast areas of ocean off the nation’s coasts for different uses. However, the House Natural Resources Committee sniffed out the rather obscure addition to the Sandy relief bill and was able to garner the votes to kill the expenditure with an amendment.

In 2010, based on recommendations of the Interagency Task Force on Ocean Policy, President Obama issued an executive order calling for a National Ocean Policy, a proposal that included a somewhat controversial “marine spatial zoning” of the seas off the nation’s coastlines including here in Ocean City and the mid-Atlantic. The president called for the creation of a National Ocean Council, an organization of stakeholders to coordinate the federal regulation of activities along the nation’s coasts including among other things recreational and commercial fishing.

A pillar of the recommendations is the creation of a plan to implement the same type of planning and zoning practices applied on land to open areas of ocean off the coast. In essence, if the plan comes to fruition, some areas of the ocean could be zoned to allow for industrial uses such as offshore drilling, shipping and alternative energy, while others could be set aside for recreational uses such as fishing and boating.

More simply put, while industrial and commercial interests currently share the ocean with recreational uses such as fishing and boating in a kind of peaceful coexistence, the president’s plan for a national ocean policy including marine spatial zoning could create a grid of sorts off the coast designating where some activities are allowed and others are not. From the outset, the plan received mixed reviews from the public and private sectors, but the ocean zoning proposal has been more conceptual than practical.

 

Read the full story at the Maryland Coast Dispatch

 

 

BOSTON (AP) — February 15, 2013 — The state’s interim U.S. Senator William ‘‘Mo’’ Cowan is trying to make the most of his brief stint in Washington.

The Massachusetts Democrat says he’s trying to highlight the importance of the state’s agricultural and fishing industries.

Cowan sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee and recently attended his first committee hearing. Cowan is the first Massachusetts senator to sit on the committee since 1879.

Cowan said that while Massachusetts is not a corn or wheat belt state, it’s an important food producer. Besides being home to roughly 8,000 farms, he said Massachusetts also has over 80,000 fishermen.

 

Read the full story from the AP in the Boston Globe

 

 

BOSTON (AP) — February 14, 2013 — A group of senators from New England, New York, Mississippi and Alaska is asking President Obama to request disaster aid for fisheries in their states.

In a letter Thursday, the 13 senators told Obama it was the administration’s responsibility to request the money, since it had declared disasters in fisheries in the three regions.

The declaration in the Northeast came as fishermen face huge cuts in catch limits as stocks continue to struggle, even though fishermen have followed strict rules.

 

Read the full story from the AP in the Boston Globe

 

 

February 15, 2013 — The following was released by Oceana:

WASHINGTON – February 11, 2013 – Oceana, the largest international advocacy group working solely to protect the world’s oceans, commends Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) today for introducing two bills aimed at strengthening efforts to fight pirate fishing and help keep illegally-caught fish out of U.S. markets. Oceana now calls on Congress to move this legislation forward and help protect American fishermen and seafood consumers.

If passed, the International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act and the Pirate Fishing Elimination Act would improve critical government resources aimed at fighting pirate fishing. This includes establishing a system to track and monitor illegal fishing vessels, as well as creating harsher penalties for the mislabeling of seafood and the sale and trade of illegal products. Oceana campaign director Beth Lowell issued the following statement about the bills’ introduction today:

“Pirate fishers commonly dodge the law by fishing in closed areas or during prohibited times, often catching threatened species and using illegal gear. This behavior not only hurts law-abiding fishermen, but it also rips off seafood consumers and adds to the overexploitation of our oceans.

Illegal fishing costs us billions of dollars each year around the world and can have real, harmful impacts on the health of our marine ecosystems. Unfortunately, the United States has become an easy target for pirate fishers dumping illegal product due to poor import controls and the lack of a nationwide seafood traceability system.

Oceana commends policymakers for introducing these important bills, which mark a great step forward in protecting honest fishermen, ocean ecosystems and consumers who wish to make responsible seafood choices.”

Oceana also applauds Sens. Mark Begich (D-AK), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) for co-sponsoring these important bills.

 

Read the full release here

 

 

WASHINGTON — February 15, 2013 — Below is Rep. Bill Keating’s statement in response to NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard’s announcement today that New England’s groundfish fishermen will be able to carryover 10 percent of current quota to the 2013 fishing year with the exception of Gulf of Maine cod.

“In the face of severe catch reductions, approving the quota carryover is a small but positive step toward providing flexibility to our fishermen.  While this is some progress, there are other opportunities we should be exploring – such as complete coverage of at-sea monitoring costs – to continue mitigating the hardships our fishermen are facing.  I encourage NOAA to do just that.”

 

 

The following was released by the office of Senator William “Mo” Cowan (D-Mass.):

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator William “Mo” Cowan (D-Mass.) today highlighted the importance of Massachusetts’ agriculture sectors, and the challenges faced by local farmers and fishermen, at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on “Drought, Fire and Freeze: The Economics of Disasters for America’s Agricultural Producers”.
 
This hearing was Senator Cowan’s first Senate Agriculture Committee hearing. It also marked the first time a Massachusetts Senator has sat on the Senate Agriculture Committee since 1879 and only the third time since the Committee was established in 1825.
 
Senator Cowan’s hearing statement, as delivered, is below:
 
Thank you Madame Chair.  I am pleased to join this honorable committee today. I have a question, but I want to preface by saying, the last time a Massachusetts Senator sat on this committee was 1879, and I am only the third Senator from Massachusetts to serve on this committee. And if you’re wondering why I’m here, I’m going to tell you. We in Massachusetts are not unfamiliar with agricultural issues and the importance of agriculture to this nation, and certainly the Commonwealth.  Personally, I spent much of my childhood in North Carolina on my grandparents working farm, where almost everything we ate was either grown or born on that farm.
 
Though Massachusetts is not a corn or wheat belt state, it is an important food producer for the nation.  In the Northeast, specialty crops and dairy are our largest agriculture sectors, and we are the nation’s leaders in sales of locally grown products, with a growing and dynamic population of organic and new and first time farmers.  We’re also the second largest producer of cranberries.  Not only do we have roughly 8,000 farms, we also have over 80,000 fishermen, the farmers of the sea.  These farmers and fishermen have a combined production of 7.2 billion dollars in annual sales.

I recognize that some aspects of our fisheries are not in the jurisdiction of this committee, but fishermen from the Northeast who risk their lives to put food on our tables must be treated with the same respect as farmers across the nation.  Our fishermen are struggling too and are currently facing drastic stock reductions.  Many fishermen, through no fault of their own, are in dire straits. I will continue to push for provisions in the Farm Bill that my predecessor, now Secretary John Kerry advanced to ensure that fishermen are eligible for disaster assistance programs just like the other important farmers in this nation.
 
As we look to reauthorize the Farm Bill this Congress, we must make sure farmers and fishermen have the tools they need to manage risk, that we protect our natural environment for future generations, and that we preserve federal nutrition and other programs that ensure that no child is forced to go to bed hungry.
 
We also need to be thinking about new threats that our farmers and fishermen are facing.
Climate change and more frequent and intense extreme weather events threaten our agricultural economy, and I am pleased the committee is discussing this important issue today.  According to the Climate Vulnerability Initiative, the U.S. is among the top-10 countries that will be most adversely affected by desertification and sea-level rise and this does not bode well for either our farmers or fishermen.

Again, I am honored to join this Committee and I look forward to representing the interests of Massachusetts citizens, farmers and fishermen and working with you all to solve our challenges.