March 21, 2012 – Today, Senator Brown gathered with fishermen from across the country and spoke at the United We Fish Rally II.
March 21, 2012 – Today, Senator Brown gathered with fishermen from across the country and spoke at the United We Fish Rally II.
Washington, DC – March 19, 2012 – Representative Frank Guinta (R, NH-01) is joining with Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank to introduce legislation that supports the long-term future of New Hampshire’s fishing industry.
H.R. 4208, The Fisheries Investment and Regulatory Relief Act, was introduced in the House of Representatives on Monday evening. Rep. Frank is the lead Democratic sponsor; Rep. Guinta is the lead Republican sponsor. Bipartisan companion legislation was introduced in the Senate last week. It is sponsored by Senators Kerry, Scott Brown, Snowe, Rockefeller and Whitehouse. It would remedy a growing problem that has been siphoning important funding from efforts to support New England’s struggling fishing industry.
The Saltonstall-Kennedy Act of 1954 imposed a special duty on fish and fish products imported into the U.S. The law requires 30 percent of that money be spent supporting fisheries, research and development projects and other efforts to give long-term stability to New England’s fishing industry. However, a disturbing trend has developed in recent years; those funds have been diverted into the operating budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The problem has grown so bad, that of the $113 million of duties collected for this purpose in 2010, more than $104 million was redirected to NOAA’s operating fund. That left only $8 million allocated for the intended purpose.
“That’s hurting the very people the original law was designed to help,” Rep. Guinta said. “Instead of funding fisheries and other research and development projects to protect this historic industry, it was spent propping up NOAA’s bureaucratic administrative costs. That’s wrong, and it must stop. Our fishing industry is struggling, and the Fisheries Investment and Regulatory Relief Act can do a lot to protect fishing jobs.”
The Fisheries Investment and Regulatory Relief Act would require the full 30 percent of duties collected under the Saltonstall-Kennedy Act go to fisheries and research and development projects as required by existing law.
“This bill shows Democrats and Republicans are capable of working together for the common good,” Guinta said. “Our fishermen have never faced more challenges than they do today with government over-regulation, skyrocketing fuel and insurance costs, and competition from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. By setting aside partisan differences and working together, Members in both the House and Senate are showing we care about the needs of our beleaguered fishing industry.”
The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources for consideration. Guinta says he will continue working with his colleagues from both sides of the aisle to secure passage for this important piece of legislation.
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NEW BEDFORD — March 20, 2012 – Fishermen from around the country and Mayor Jon Mitchell will make their presence felt in Washington on Wednesday when they gather for a rally at the Capitol.
While those expected to attend come from different parts of the country and different fisheries, the rally is intended to alert politicians to the industry's overall dissatisfaction with the way they are being regulated by the federal government.
Many recreational fishermen also will attend.
New England fishermen will board a bus leaving from the Waterfront Grille in New Bedford at 2 a.m.
Read the complete story from The Standard-Times.
March 18, 2012 – Fishermen from California to New England plan to rally for their struggling industry in Washington this week with an election year message for Congress: helping the fishing industry will save jobs.
Organizers expect a roster of lawmakers to speak before about 5,000 commercial and recreational fishermen in a park next to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
The crowd is expected to include fishermen from all the Atlantic coast states plus Alaska and California.
From New Jersey, Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund, an advocacy group for the commercial and recreational fishing industry, is to send four buses with an expected 200-plus people to the rally, said Tony Bogan, whose family owns Bogan’s Basin in Brielle and is a rally organizer.
Read the complete story from The Asbury Park Press.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 14, 2012 – Senator John Kerry and Congressman Barney Frank will join Saving Seafood executive director Bob Vanasse today on WBSM's Saving Seafood Radio.
Last week, Senator Kerry and Sen. Olympia Snowe introduced legislation to restore funds collected under the Saltonstall-Kennedy Act of 1954 to "help the fishermen and communities for whom it was originally intended."
The Saltonstall-Kennedy Fund has supported fishery research and market development projects in the 58 years since its passage. However, beginning in 1979 increasing amounts of Saltonstall-Kennedy dollars have been transferred to help fund NOAA. Since FY1982, the S-K program has never allocated the minimum amount (50% after FY1980 and 60% after FY1983) specified by law for industry projects.
The bill is being sponsored in the House by Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Frank Guinta (R-New Hampshire). It has received widespread support from both industry and environmental groups. Rick Robbins, chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Council, and Lee Crockett of the Pew Environment Group will also be guests on the show.
WASHINGTON — March 19, 2012 – Responding to a plan by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to do away with federal aid to marine mammal stranding programs, U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., is appealing to fellow legislators to preserve the funds.
"My district bore witness to the vitality of the Prescott Grant Program this past winter," Keating wrote to congressional colleagues, referring to funding that NOAA last month proposed to eliminate as part of its budget request for the 2013 fiscal year.
Several Cape organizations have received Prescott funds, including the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Yarmouthport, the National Marine Life Center in Buzzards Bay and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This has been a record year for dolphin strandings, according to IFAW.
Read the complete story from The Cape Cod Times.
NEW GRETNA, N.J., March 19, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — With just three days to go until the Keep Fishermen Fishing Rally near the U.S. Capitol on March 21, organizers expect thousands of recreational and commercial fishermen – and their families – to be in Washington this week in support of coastal fishing-related jobs.
Coastal fishermen last assembled in organized protest in February of 2010 to show their dissatisfaction with federal fisheries management, though organizers say that Congress has been slow to react to their concerns.
Despite previous congressional mandates, there has been no improvement in the science underlying federal fisheries management and no adherence by the federal agency to the statutory requirements that federal fisheries data collection be improved. Instead, NOAA Fisheries enforcement is in a shambles, as are the assurances of transparency and rebuilt relationships that Dr. Jane Lubchenco promised Congress when she took over at NOAA in 2009.
Read the complete story from The Wall Street Journal.
March 18, 2012 – The Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and the Viking Fleet will co-sponsor a bus charter from Montauk to the Keep Fishermen Fishing rally in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.
This is the second national fishing rally, uniting fishermen from across the country. The first was held in 2010 under the banner United We Fish. Fishermen will be pressing legislators for reform of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the regulatory law which governs all U.S. fishing.
For more information or to sign up, call the Viking Fleet at 631-668-5700 or visit www.vikingfleet.com .
Read the complete story from 27 East.
BOSTON — March 16, 2012 – Fishermen from California to New England plan to rally for their struggling industry in Washington next week with an election year message for Congress: helping the fishing industry will save jobs.
Organizers expect a roster of lawmakers to speak before about 5,000 commercial and recreational fishermen in a park next to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
The crowd is expected to include fishermen from all the Atlantic coast states plus Alaska and California.
They represent diverse interests who chase a mix of species and haven't always agreed. But Jim Donofrio, head of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, a rally organizer, says they share concerns that federal regulators are using flawed science to make cutbacks that are killing fishing jobs around the country.
Read the complete story by Jay Lindsay of The AP at The Boston Globe.
Recreational and commercial fishermen, and those in coastal communities who rely on the sea for a living, are all set for the Keep Fishermen Fishing Rally set for next Thursday, March 21, in Washington D.C.
Jim Hutchinson, managing director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, one of the organizers of the rally, expects the turnout to exceed a similar rally held in February 2010, which drew more than 5,000 supporters of reform to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to the nation’s capitol.
Hutchinson said the rally has received broad legislative support and that congressional delegations from New Jersey, New York, Florida and Massachussets will be addessing the gathering on Wednesday.
Read the complete story from The Asbury Park Press.