Washington

Senator John Kerry's office released the following statement: WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) today applauded the United States and the European Union for signing a historic, bilateral pledge to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
 
The deal, signed by Dr. Jane Lubchenco, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator, and Maria Damanaki, European Union Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, will help protect fishermen in Massachusetts who share fish stocks with other countries and must compete in the global marketplace against illegal products.
 
“Illegal foreign fishing kills jobs in Massachusetts and this is a gut punch to those who break the rules,” said Sen. Kerry. “It’s wrong to expect Massachusetts law-abiding fishermen to compete on an unlevel playing field in the global market and today’s move will help even the score for the entire industry and fishermen up and down New England.  By joining forces, the United States and the European Union have taken a strong stand in the fight to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.”
 
Kerry is a co-sponsor of the International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act, legislation aimed at closing gaps in U.S. law to prevent IUU fish products from entering the country, strengthening IUU enforcement programs, and providing capacity building to other countries to address IUU fishing.
 
Globally, IUU fishing robs law-abiding fishermen and coastal communities of up to $23 billion of seafood and seafood products each year.
 

FBN's Ashley Webster sits down with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), to talk about the regulations affecting fishermen in the Northeast.

Watch the video from FOX Business News.

 

 

 

 

GLOUCESTER, Mass. — Sep 1, 2011 — Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) with FBN's Ashley Webster on how government regulations are devastating local fishing communities in Massachusetts.  The congressman argues that the problems in fisheries regulation go back several administrations and have been dealt with poorly by both parties.

Watch the video from FOX Business News.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congressman John Tierney has joined the U.S. Commerce Department's inspector general in disputing the claim of NOAA's chief financial officer, Maureen Wylie, that an auditing firm had found "no abuse" of the Asset Forfeiture Fund, which was built upon fines levied against the fishing industry.

The Asset Forfeiture Fund, which held more than $90 million during a 41/2-year period examined by Inspector General Todd Zinser working with KPMG, a so-called "big four" national auditing firm, has been a centerpiece in the law enforcement scandal that has rocked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and led to the replacement of its law enforcement leadership.

NOAA's reported mismanagement and poor oversight of the fund under now-ousted national fisheries law enforcement chief Dale Jones, as documented by Zinser and his investigators, also led to public apologies and reparations to 11 fishermen and waterfront businesses — including the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction — most hurt by excesses in enforcement and penalties.

On Thursday, Wylie issued a press release and released the reports of the auditing firm Clifton Gunderson, which was paid $427,000 to examine micro-transactions — those involving less than $3,000 — over a five-year period ending in early 2010.

 

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times

 

 

 

 

 

The Department of Commerce has submitted its plan to comply with President Obama’s Executive Order 13563, "Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review".   The General Counsel of the Department of Commerce, Cameron Kerry, will be responsible for overseeing execution of the retrospective analysis laid out in the Plan.

According to the plan:

Many of NOAA’s statutory mandates emphasize the need to base decisions on best scientific information available and require periodic review of regulatory actions. In addition, many of NOAA’s activities require analyses under the National Environmental Policy Act. The Council on Environmental Quality has indicated that environmental impact statements that are more than 5 years old should be carefully reexamined to determine if supplementary analyses are required per 40 C.F.R. § 1502.9 of the CEQ regulations. See http://ceq.hss.doe.gov/nepa/regs/40/40p3.htm (explaining need for supplements to old EIS at question # 32 of “NEPA’s Forty Most Asked Questions”).

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) intends to reinforce the existing culture of retrospective analysis through increased outreach to the Regional Fishery Management Councils that develop fishery management plans pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The Councils’ fishery management planning process entails significant public participation and opportunities for soliciting thoughts on needed modifications to or repeal of regulatory actions. NMFS has begun, and will continue, to coordinate with the councils, emphasizing the need for scrutiny of proposed and existing regulations consistent with Executive Order 13563, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other relevant laws, and the need to make fisheries management regulations simpler and easier to follow. NMFS intends to encourage such scrutiny of regulatory actions through its meetings with the Council Coordination Committee and during meetings of the councils and their subcommittees.

As part of the agency’s Catch Share Policy, NOAA has provided further guidance to the Councils regarding periodic review of all limited access privilege programs pursuant to 16 U.S.C. § 1853a(c)(1)(G). Specifically, the agency directs that Councils should periodically review all catch share and non-catch share programs to ensure that management goals are specified, measurable, tracked, and used to gauge whether a program is meeting its goals and objectives. The policy reinforces NOAA’s commitment to working with Councils, stakeholders, the Department of Commerce, the Office of Management and Budget, and Congress in improving and monitoring useful and relevant performance metrics for all U.S. fishery management policies, not just catch share programs.

Additional plan sections referenceing NMFS include:

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Regional Fishery Management Councils established under the Magnuson-Stevens Act have ongoing engagement with constituents and other members of the public on fishery management actions. NMFS and the Councils receive continual feedback on concerns regarding regulations, guidance documents, information collections, and other agency activities. Since publication of the notice, NMFS has used outreach and communication opportunities, as they have arisen, to alert members of the public to the notice and to encourage people to provide feedback.

The vast majority of NOAA’s significant regulations involve marine fishery and protected resources issues. These regulations are subject to change frequently as a result of new information and also pursuant to statutory requirements.

NOAA is currently undertaking the following actions to review its rulemaking, in many cases to streamline and reduce requirements:

    • ·  Under § 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, NOAA, conducts ongoing reviews of rules that were identified as having a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. “Significant” under this Act is defined differently than under Executive Order 12866. Most recently, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) completed a review of 36 rules from 2001-02. See 75 FR 69633 (Nov. 15, 2010). No regulatory changes were made as a result of this review. As a general matter, because the majority of entities that NMFS regulates are considered “small entities” for purposes of the Act, an important aspect of the fishery management process is considering potential impacts to such entities. NMFS has specific guidelines on addressing such impacts: Guidelines for Economic Analysis of Fishery Management, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service (2007), available at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/RFA%20Guidelines.PDF.

    • ·  In 2007, new requirements for annual catch limits and preventing overfishing went into effect in the Magnuson-Stevens Act. 16 U.S.C. § 1853(a)(15). As a result, NMFS and the Regional Fishery Management Councils have engaged in a comprehensive review of existing fishery management plans and amendments. Through this review, the Councils have undertaken substantial revisions to the existing fishery management plans, addressing inefficiencies in past processes as well as new statutory requirements. The annual catch limit requirement is effective in 2010 for fisheries experiencing overfishing and 2011 for other fisheries. In addition, in August 2010, NMFS conducted an “enforcement summit,” a national, professionally-facilitated conference with stakeholders at which issues concerning fishery management regulations were a major topic.

    • ·  Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, NMFS is required to review at routine intervals that may not exceed two years any fishery management plans, plan amendments, or regulations for fisheries that are experiencing overfishing or in need of rebuilding. Id. § U.S.C. 1854(e)(7). For many fisheries, revisions to plans and regulations occur with even greater frequency, as National Standard 2 of the Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that conservation and management measures be based on the best scientific information available. Id. § 1851(a)(2).

    • ·  The Magnuson-Stevens Act also requires that all Limited Access Privilege Programs provide provisions for the regular monitoring and review by the Regional Fishery Management Councils and the Secretary of the operations of the program, and any necessary modification of the program to meet those goals, with a formal and detailed review 5 years after the implementation of the program and at least every seven years thereafter. Id. § 1853a(c)(1)(G).

    • ·  NMFS is required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1387(c), to publish a list of commercial fisheries based on whether they have frequent, occasional, or a remote likelihood or no known incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals. The Act further requires NOAA to annually reexamine the classification of commercial fisheries and other determinations on this list of fisheries and publish any necessary changes in the Federal Register. Each year, NOAA publishes an annual rule describing changes to the list of fisheries based on the best available current scientific information, including the reclassification of fisheries and additions or deletions of marine mammal stocks to the list of stocks killed or injured incidental to certain commercial fishing operations.

    • ·  Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), NMFS publishes an annual determination of commercial and recreational, federal and state, fisheries that are required to carry observers. Fisheries remain on an annual determination for 5 years; at the end of 5 years a fishery listed is no longer requested to carry observers pursuant to the ESA unless NOAA re-proposes that fishery. Each year NOAA evaluates whether to include additional fisheries on the annual determination.

    • ·  NMFS and the Fish and Wildlife Service jointly administer regulations for implementing the ESA listing process, including designation of critical habitat, and the interagency consultation process. The agencies are considering the following changes to the joint ESA regulations that are expected to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the implementation of the statute:

    • ·  Minimize requirements for written descriptions of critical habitat boundaries in favor of map- and internet-based descriptions. Map- and internet-based descriptions are clearer and more accessible methods of showing critical habitat boundaries. Additionally, reducing written boundary description requirements will save taxpayer money.

    • ·  Clarify, expedite, and improve procedures for the development and approval of conservation agreements with landowners including habitat conservation plans.

    • ·  Expand opportunities for the states to engage more often and more effectively in the implementation of the ESA’s various provisions, especially those pertaining to the listing of species.

    • ·  With input from the regulated, conservation, and other stakeholder communities, review and revise the entire process for designating critical habitat to design a more efficient, defensible, and consistent process.

    • ·  Clarify the definition of the phrase “destruction or adverse modification” of critical habitat, which is used to determine what actions can and cannot be conducted in critical habitat.

    • ·  Clarify the scope and content of the incidental take statement, particularly with regard to programmatic actions or other actions where direct measurement is difficult. An incidental take statement specifies the impact of an incidental taking of an endangered or threatened species and provides reasonable and prudent measures that are necessary to minimize those impacts. Greater flexibility in the quantification of anticipated incidental taking could reduce the burden of developing and implementing biological opinions without any loss of conservation benefits.

    • ·  NOAA, FWS and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formed an interagency workgroup of senior policy leaders to craft a multi-faceted strategy to address the challenge of the conservation of endangered species and the administration of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). One major element of this effort is to address core scientific issues underlying the effective integration of FIFRA and ESA responsibilities.

 

Read the complete document

 

 

 

 

 

A group of Democratic Massachusetts lawmakers asked the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday to continue using its science-based approach in its approval process of biotechnology applications, intensifying the political debate over the FDA’s consideration of genetically engineered salmon for food.

Although Reps. Edward Markey, Barney Frank and James McGovern did not advocate for or against genetically engineered salmon, they did implore FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to conclude the approval process.

"We are aware that some have argued that the review process for one particular application – for genetically-engineered farm raised Atlantic salmon submitted by AquaBounty Technologies Inc. – should be terminated before FDA has finalized its conclusions,” they wrote in a letter to Hamburg. “While we take no position on the merits of the AquaBounty application, we strongly encourage the agency to permit the review process of this application to proceed to completion.”

The letter comes more than a month after eight senators representing coastal states asked the FDA to abandon its approval process of AquaBounty’s product – which the FDA has been studying for 15 years – threatening to push legislation to strip the FDA's funding to study the fish if the agency did not comply.

The senators, including Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), cited threats to public health and the environment as reasons to halt the approval process.

 

Read the story from The Chicago Tribune

 

 

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON — Congressman Barney Frank and Congressman John Tierney today released a letter sent to Todd Zinser, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Commerce, requesting that he investigate the rulemaking process at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the New England Fisheries Management Council.

Tierney and Frank’s efforts come on the heels of a similar letter by New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang in which he also calls for a review of the rulemaking process.

In April, Preston Pate and the SRA-Touchstone Consulting Group issued a report titled A review of the New England Fishery Management Process. The report identified a number of serious rulemaking issues as well as scientific shortcomings within NOAA’s new fishery management systems.  The report also stated that the agency had abandoned its core missions of “development of the commercial fishing industry” and “increasing industry participation.”

Because a previous investigation by the Office of the Inspector General led to improvements in the conduct of the NOAA/NMFS enforcement division, Frank and Tierney hope that an OIG investigation into the rulemaking process will also yield positive results.

Both Congressman Frank and Congressman Tierney plan to work to secure additional funding for the Office of the Inspector General through the Congressional appropriations process in order to help recoup the cost of these investigations.

 

 Read the letter to Mr. Zinser from Representatives Tierney and Frank

 

 

 

 

 

August 12, 2011 (Gloucester Times) U.S. Sen. John Kerry has agreed to join Sen. Scott Brown in attempting to dislodge from NOAA and make public a suite of documents including those that then-Commerce Secretary Gary Locke relied upon when he "chose not to discipline" members of the law enforcement force implicated in carrying out injustices against the fishing industry. 
 
"As one of the most senior members of the Commerce Committee, Sen. Kerry is asking the Department of Commerce to respond to the questions in Sen. Brown's letter so we can get answers about the Asset Forfeiture Fund, the Office of Law Enforcement, and the impact of NOAA law enforcement on our Massachusetts fishermen," Kerry's press secretary, Jodi Seth, told the Times in an email Thursday. 
 

Seth was referring to a July 29 letter from Brown to Eric Schwaab, administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service that described the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's refusal to turn over documents as "disrespectful to the American people, Congress and the Massachusetts fishermen who have suffered because of NOAA's mismanagement of the fisheries."

She said Kerry had renewed Brown's request in a telephone call to Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank, who has taken the request under advisement. 
 
Kerry's office declined to speculate on subsequent steps available to Kerry should he, like Brown, be rebuffed. 
 
Seth also said Kerry was working to reschedule a hearing in Massachusetts for September or October on Amendment 16, the contentious groundfishery regimen that includes the catch share management system. Kerry, like many fishing advocates has said that the system, which allocates "shares" of fishermen's assigned catch under a system that encourages outside investment, large-capital fishing businesses and driving out small boat businesses. 
 
In an op-ed column this week, fisheries scientist Brian Rothschild of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth asserted the new system had killed "hundreds if not thousands" of industry jobs.   
 
Oft-frustrated in his effort to extract documents from NOAA, an effort that began in May as he prepared to host a Senate subcommittee hearing in Boston, Brown, a Republican, was left without obvious recourse when faced with NOAA's limited responses and outright refusals. 
 
Unless a government agency asserts "national security," "executive privilege" or some arcane exemption, it is required to comply with formal congressional committee and subcommittee requests, but arguably is not similarly compelled by an individual member's request such as Brown's. 
 
NOAA and Brown had also clashed over NOAA's insistence that he needed to use the Freedom of Information Act. 
 
After Brown's rebuff by NOAA, the subcommittee chairman, Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat, declined to pursue the query; instead, he said he believed the material Brown sought was "outside the purview" of the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security. 
 
"To the extent that there are abuses," said a spokeswoman for Carper, "that issue falls under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee because they have the oversight of the operations of NOAA." 
 
Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, does not head a Commerce Committee subcommittee but is a member of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries  and the Coast Guard, which is chaired by Sen. Mark Begich, an Alaska Democrat.
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine is the Ranking Republican on the subcommittee, whose other New England member is Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. 
 
In his July 29 letter to Schwaab about his "continued disappointment with your office's unresponsiveness to my numerous requests for documents concerning systemic problems at NMFS," Brown reviewed the history of his efforts, dating to May 27 when his subcommittee staff began listing documents "germane" to the June 20 field hearing of Carper's subcommittee.

Facing re-election in 2012, Brown had become a high priority target of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and multiple fishing industry figures told the Times of partisan pressure being put on them to avoid making Brown look good in the days before the hearing in Faneuil Hall.
Brown and Carper bonded across party lines during a trip to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan soon after Brown surprised the political world winning a January 2010 special election to fill out the term of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. 
 
Brown released a statement Thursday in response to news of Kerry's decision to join in the document quest. 
 
"As he has said before, Sen. Brown believes that fighting for the fishing industry transcends politics and party labels, and he will continue to work across the aisle to help bring accountability to NOAA," said Colin Reed, Brown's spokesman. 
 
"He believes that the documents he requested for his field hearing in June will shed more light on NOAA's improper use of the Asset Forfeiture Fund, and is hopeful he will receive them soon."
"It is clear that NOAA has thus far failed to honor President Obama's stated commitment to transparency," Brown wrote to Schwaab. "It is concerning to me that an agency which has issued large fines to fishermen for paperwork errors has not produced documents when requested to do so by a member of Congress." 
 
Brown focused in on the decision by Locke, now the Ambassador to China, to not hold anyone in the law enforcement system accountable for the miscarriages of justice documented by Special Judicial Master Charles B. Swartwood III. Swartwood's findings helped trigger a public apology issued by Locke to 11 fishermen and fishing-related businesses on May 20. 
 
Locke explained the decision not to sanction, punish, fire or prosecute anyone including Dale J. Jones Jr., who presided over 200 agent Department of Law Enforcement for the decade of violations, writing in his decision memo that "at bottom, these problems were not the product of individual bad acts, but rather the result of conduct enabled and encouraged by the management and enforcement culture in place at the time." 
 
Locke instead prescribed intensified training. 
 
Jones and the entire office of agents and litigators in the Northeast regional office in Gloucester were either transferred or allowed to resign. 
 
FLEOA, the Federal Law Enforcement Officer's Association that representing the agents angrily wrote to NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco asserting that she has allowed the line agents' reputations to be harmed without defense by the findings in Swartwood's report to Locke.

Administrative law judges also have protested in various ways about the Swartwood reports findings. 
 
And the National Weather Service Employees Organization's attorney Richard Hirn has scoffed at the administration's assertion that NOAA litigators, represented by the union, were undertaking actions against the fishing industry without the knowledge and approval of management.

In its July 12 letter to Lubchenco, FLEOA said it looked forward to a public discussion of the issues at the Senate field hearing in Boston "later this month," apparently referring to the previously scheduled field hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee that Kerry's office's statement refers to. 
 
Kerry had first announced plans for a hearing in the spring, but it was put off  more than once for unannounced reasons. 
 
The hearing now slated for September or October "will explore the progress that has been made under the plan, the struggles that continue to plague the industry, and the improvements that must be made to ensure a sustainable, profitable and well managed groundfishery in New England," Seth, Kerry's press secretary, said in her email.

Richard Gaines can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3464, or at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.

A bill before Congress would stop the commercial fishery management regime of catch shares now at work in New England from being extended to more waters without support from fishermen.

“This bill will ensure that catch share programs are shut down if they are forcing people out of work,” said Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J., who co-sponsored bill HR-2772 with Reps. Walter Jones, R-NC, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.

Catch share programs are designed to control excessive fishing pressure, by assigning groups of fishermen set annual limits on their catches, and then allowing them to largely decide when and where to catch the fish.

Read the complete story from The Asbury Park Press.

 

 

 

 

 

New catch share programs on the East and Gulf coasts could be started by the federal government only with approval of the members of the fishery under legislation that has now been filed by three representatives in the U.S. House.

The legislation also requires the termination of existing programs — such as the catch share regimen for New England groundfish — when the total number of fishermen in the program drops by 15 percent.

The "Saving Fishing Jobs Act of 2011" was filed last week by Republican Reps. Jon Runyan of New Jersey, Walter Jones of North Carolina and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.