Washington

Your board voted at the annual meeting to fully support the march on Washington February 24, 2010. Below is information related to this march and a place to sign a petition supporting the flexibility. Please join with us to tell Congress they have to make changes NOW.

As we are sure you are well aware, the Magnuson Stevens Act and subsequent NMFS restrictions have had a crippling impact on both the recreational and commercial fishing industries and are in dire need of revision. On February 24, 2010, a united gathering of recreational and commercial fishermen and fishermen's associations-United We Fish- is scheduled on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC, to rally support for an amendment to the Magnuson/Stevens legislation through the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2009.

We realize it's a long way to DC, but it is vital to America's fishing industry that this Act gets passed and that our legislators know how much support is behind it. Please consider helping to make this event more widely known by promoting it to your members and the wider public and help ensure the future of recreational fishing for current and future generations.

Read the complete endorsement at United We Fish.

Ostensibly, the Magnuson-Stevens Conservation and Management Act (MSA), signed into law by President Bush in 2007, was supposed to right the wrongs of decades of poor management while helping to restore and sustain fisheries.

Instead, asserts Jim Donofrio of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, it has been used to bludgeon recreational anglers and the economies of coastal communities dependent on sport fishing. Two of the most damaging blows were delivered by closing black sea bass and red snapper fisheries.

"Black sea bass was at 200 percent over its projected biomass, and yet NOAA (National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration) closed it down because we may overfish it," Donofrio said. "Some in NOAA are career people and there's some balance there, but these actions (fishery closures) are being driven by the administration, which is carrying out the Pew agenda and that is to close the oceans down."

The Pew Oceans Commission is a private, independently funded, organization. Jane Lubchenco, who served on that commission, now is head of NOAA.

To combat what it perceives as an assault against both recreational and commercial angling, RFA is leading a Feb. 24 "United We Fish" rally on the steps of the Capitol.

Read the complete story at ESPN Outdoors.

N.C. Congressman Walter Jones has called for an overhaul of U.S. Fisheries law enforcement, “The IG has confirmed what North Carolina fishermen have long known to be true: federal fisheries law enforcement is out of control, terribly mismanaged and needs a major overhaul."

Washington, D.C. Jan. 21, 2010– Today U.S. Representative Walter B. Jones (R-NC) called for a major overhaul of federal fisheries law enforcement after the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Commerce released the findings of its 7-month investigation into the programs and operations of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – the federal agency responsible for enforcing U.S. fishing laws.  Today’s IG report came in response to requests made in mid-2009 by Congressman Jones and the majority of the North Carolina congressional delegation, as well as the Massachusetts congressional delegation, for an investigation into allegations of overzealous commercial fisheries enforcement by NOAA.

Among other things, the Inspector General report found:

• “. . . systemic nationwide issues adversely affecting NOAA’s ability to effectively carry out its mission of regulating the fishing industry.  These issues have contributed significantly to a highly-charged regulatory climate and dysfunctional relationship between NOAA and the fishing industry”;

• NOAA’s “civil penalty assessment process is arbitrary and unfair”;

• NOAA’s workforce composition is dramatically misaligned to its mission – “only about 2 percent of its caseload has been criminal-investigative, yet over 90 percent of its enforcement personnel are criminal investigators – a clear imbalance”; and,

• NOAA’s Asset Forfeiture Fund – which contains proceeds from civil penalties it collects – has a balance of $8.4 million as of December 31, 2009, but Department officials “are not aware of the fund’s having ever been audited”, and “the account under which they are maintained has weak internal controls” leading the IG to launch a pending “forensic review of the fund”.

“It is appalling that a federal law enforcement agency is this poorly run,” said Congressman Jones.  “Systemic problems as outlined in this report cannot continue to be ignored.  This Administration needs to act immediately to overhaul the policies, procedures, and personnel responsible for this mess.  I will do everything in my power to see to it that they do just that.”

Senator Olympia Snowe has issued the following release noting that the report from the Department of Commerce Inspector General found widespread  issues in NOAA’s Office for Law Enforcement and Office of General Counsel for Enforcement and Litigation.  Senator Snowe said she is "appalled at the stunning breadth and depth of the Inspector General’s findings of gross mismanagement…"

WASHINGTON, D.C. Jan 21, 2010 – U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard, today blasted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the egregious mismanagement by the Office of Law Enforcement for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).  According to a report released today by the U.S. Department of Commerce Inspector General, there are systemic nationwide issues adversely affecting NOAA’s ability to regulate the fishing industry. In addition, the report found that these same issues have “contributed significantly to a…dysfunctional relationship between NOAA and the fishing industry – particularly in the northeast.”

“I am appalled at the stunning breadth and depth of the Inspector General’s findings of gross mismanagement within all levels of NOAA’s law enforcement community,” said Senator Snowe.   “That the Agency would allow its agents to continue running roughshod over hardworking fishermen, employing a law enforcement force consisting of 90 percent criminal investigators when the vast majority of its cases are civil in nature is by all accounts a travesty.”

“At her confirmation hearing before the Commerce Committee, Dr. Lubchenco pledged to help ‘rebuild the climate of trust’ between the National Marine Fisheries Service and our fishing communities.  I understand she is directing her agency to take steps to rectify these deep flaws in its enforcement practice.  I pledge to do all in my power, including pursuing legislative action, to ensure that our fishermen are treated fairly while necessary regulatory enforcement practices are carried out.”

“I’m all for fish, we need to have fish.  But I’m more concerned about fishermen than I am about fish. We need to make sure we have a healthy fishery, but we can’t close down these hard-working men and women who have small businesses here" said Florida Senator George Lemieux.

Senator George Lemieux came to the Bay County Chamber of Commerce Tuesday, January 12, to hear concerns from the panhandle’s fishermen over federal regulations on their work.  Many fishermen spoke up, and appeared to be angry over the 2007 renewal of regulations in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

“People say we’re about to be under the Guillotine, well our neck is there,” Bay County charter boat captain Mark Kelley said.  “We’re just waiting for it to fall.”

Variations of the act date back to the 1970s.  But the most recent version of the act, the one that concerns the fishermen, was passed in 1996 and renewed in 2007.  The fishermen say the quotas imposed by it on both commercial and recreational Fisherman are crippling their businesses.

See the video at WMBB News 13.

Florida Fishermen express concerns about regulation and Magnuson to Senator LeMieux

Captain Mike Eller, with the Destin Charter Boat Association, said, "We're looking for that happy balance. We're going to come out of the overfishing category, whether we make it in 10 years, which is a non-scientific arbitrary date, or whether we make it in 12 or 13 years."  Sen. LeMieux says he wants to bring officials to Florida to see the fish and the economic ripple effects of their regulations.

See the complete video at News Channel 7 WJHG.

In a victory that challenged conventional wisdon, Republican Scott Brown has won the special Senatorial election in Massachusetts and will succeed liberal "lion" Ted Kennedy, filling a seat held by Democrats since JFK defeated Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. 58 years ago in 1952.

The Associated Press called Senator-elect Brown's victory a "stunning embarrassment for the White House".  The Boston Globe said "It is difficult to overstate the significance of Scott Brown’s victory".

Last week, Brown came out in support of the fishing industry's goal of amending the Magnuson-Stevens Act to allow greater flexibility in rebuilding fish stocks, according to the Gloucester Daily Times.

In a January 15 endorsement of the Senator-elect, The Gloucester Daily Times noted: [d]uring a Wednesday meeting in Salem, Brown not only said he'd support revisiting and reforming the Magnuson-Stevens Act — the federal legislation that governs New England's and America's fisheries, he said Magnuson "must be" reopened and reformed.  

The Senator-elect's comments demonstrate a willingness to join the bipartisan effort aimed at Magnuson reform led by Democratic Congressman Barney Frank and including fellow Massachusetts Democrat John Tierney.

The Obama Administration has not yet named an appointment for the position of NOAA Fisheries Administrator, which remains filled by Acting Administrator Jim Balsiger.  Congressman Frank has actively supported the candidacy of UMass Dean Emeritus Brian Rothschild for the position.  Six months ago, over fifty industry members wrote to Senator John Kerry and the late Senator Kennedy endorsing Dean Rothschild.

In late October, Congressman Frank wrote to the Obama Administration's NOAA director Jane Lubchenco raising a number of concerns.

 

 

 

Government regulations imposed on recreational fishing for red snapper, amberjack and other Gulf of Mexico fish have decimated the region’s charter boat industry, area fishermen told Sen. George LeMieux, R-Florida, Tuesday, January 12, during his Bay County visit.

After listening to the fishermen’s complaints about the application of the Reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (RMSA) of 2007, particularly its lack of emphasis on accurate data collection and socioeconomic impacts caused by government regulations, LeMieux said he would push for more flexibility in the law to preserve jobs threatened by reduced fish catches and shortened Gulf of Mexico fishing seasons.

“We need help, sir, and we need it now,” said Chuck Guilford, a former Mexico Beach mayor and charter boat owner, to LeMieux at the start of Tuesday’s meeting.

Part of Tuesday’s discussion between LeMieux and the fishermen centered around RMSA’s national standard 8, a provision of the act that addresses the balancing of conservation needs with a fishery’s social and economic importance to communities affected by management actions.

Several participants at Tuesday’s meeting complained to LeMieux that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) failed to acknowledge the economic hardship brought on by its regulations and needed better funding to produce more accurate data.

Read the complete story at The Panama City News Herald.

Earlier this week, Lois J. Schiffer was named to the post of chief counsel for NOAA. Attorney Schiffer served as Assistant Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division in the Clinton Administration.

According to her DoJ biography, "her goals as AAG included better developing the Division's environmental crimes program and improving relationships with U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the states.  A review and restructuring of the Department's environmental crimes program occupied much of Schiffer's first years as AAG."

In the private sector, she has worked for the Audubon Society, as a partner at Baach Robinson & Lewis, and as general counsel for the National Capital Planning Commission.  She is an adjunct professor of environmental law at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Schiffer, born on February 22, 1945,  graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in the District of Columbia, and graduated from Radcliffe College in 1966 and Harvard Law School in 1969.

Her complete bio and career summary is available on the Department of Justice website.

The text of the Preserve Fishing Coalition release is presented below…

Fix Magnuson Now is the title of the introductory page to a petition posted on the internet by an ad hoc group of 14 leaders of the recreational, commercial and party/charter fishing sectors called the Preserve Fishing Coalition. Intended to reinforce the message that will be taken directly to Congress on the steps of the US Capitol in Washington on February 24^th by fishermen from around the country, the petition is in the form of a letter to the twenty-six House Members and two Senators who are sponsoring The Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2009, legislation introduced by Congressman Frank Pallone (HR 1584) and Senator Charles Schumer (S 1255). The Act will allow managers some much needed discretion in determining what are now arbitrary and unnecessarily rigid stock rebuilding timelines.

The letter thanks these legislators for their continuing support of fishermen and the businesses that depend on them and for taking what will be a critical step in the process of allowing independent fishermen and women to once again resume significant roles in the fisheries management process.

It also recognizes the part that multi-billion dollar philanthropic foundations with strong corporate connections have played in inflicting massive and unnecessary damage on fishermen, fishing businesses and fishing communities, in marginalizing in the media and the management process those that are still holding on, and of undermining the original intent of the Magnuson Act, which was to balance the inadequacies of the science underlying fisheries management with the on-the-water experience of working fishermen.

The letter ends “the increase in our seafood trade deficit, which went from $6 billion in 2000 to $9 billion in 2008 and is still rising, is in the largest part due to the unnecessarily harsh and inflexible management regime that is now afflicting our fishermen.”

By 3:00 pm on Tuesday the petition had been signed by well over 800 fishermen and associated businesspeople from Alaska to Maine. It will remain on the web at http://fs16.formsite.com/FixMagnusonNow/form793561462/ until the Washington rally. Anyone who fishes or who owns, operates or is employed by a fishing dependent business is encouraged to visit the site.

Updates on the petition and the Washington rally will be available at the Commercial Fishing – the Rest of the Story blog at http://fishnetlite.blogspot.com/.