Other News

11/13/2009 – If you thought we saved the whales in the 1980s, think again. Although supposedly rescued by a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, they’re still struck by ships, caught in discarded nets, poisoned by pollution and harassed by the booming noise of underwater oil and gas exploration.

Beyond that, however, thousands upon thousands of whales have been studied to death — quite literally — by a branch of the long-entrenched Japanese bureaucracy.

The new prime minister of Japan, however, has promised to change many practices of the last 50 years of rule by his political opposition. So perhaps when Yukio Hatoyama meets President Barack Obama on Nov. 12-13, they can also discuss how best to finally end this thinly justified enterprise.

Each year, Japan sends a fleet of ships, including a huge processing factory, to the waters around Antarctica, an area declared a whale sanctuary by the international community in 1994. These vessels hunt and kill almost a thousand whales annually, with the entire operation paid for by Japanese taxpayers through the benign-sounding Fisheries Agency of Japan.

Read the complete story at Pew Charitable Trusts.

At a pivotal moment for the New England fishing industry, theEnvironmental Defense Fund, a lead advocate of catch shares, and twofishing industry news publishers are co-sponsoring informationalmeetings this week — one in New Bedford, one in Gloucester — on thehotly-disputed fishery regulatory system and its economic shift fromone of public-resource competition to managed market commodities.

EDF and the meeting sponsors, Seafood.com News andSaving Seafood (Savingseafood.org), assert the meetings are strictlyinformational and not promotional. The meetings, which are free to thepublic feature two Alaskans with experience in the catch share systemsin Alaskan fisheries.

EDF has agreed to underwrite the meetings. Seafood.comNews and Saving Seafood, which is published from New Bedford, arehelping with publicity. Both meetings will run from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.,with the Gloucester meeting set for Wednesday at The Gloucester Houseoff Rogers Street.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

See also: Panel Discussion on Financial Issues related to catch shared Nov 10-11 in New Bedford and Gloucester

This year’s mid-August to mid-October U.S. Grand Banks swordfishery period has generally left its catchers, consumers and purveyors smiling.

"The fishes’ quality was typical for then, but the volume (landings) was higher this year," explained Joe Mason, a seafood buyer for Pigeon Cove Whole Foods in Gloucester.

The East Coast’s remaining distant-water swordfish longliners began arriving on the areas open to U.S. fishing around the Grand Banks off Newfoundland — namely, the tail of the Bank, about 800 miles from Gloucester, as well as The Flemish Cap — around May to longline swordfish until the end of October.

The Flemish Cap is about 1,200 miles east of Gloucester. Several in the fleet, vessels which range in length from the 55-foot Big Eye to the 110-foot White Water, were featured in Discovery Channel’s recent swordfish series.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

While a regional fishermen’s protest progressed peacefully Friday morning outside the front door of the headquarters for federal fishery managers in Blackburn Industrial Park, congenial, sympathetic Gloucester police officers patrolled the private area to control parking and traffic.

But behind them, hidden from casual view, was a coalition of state and federal police forces mobilized in the weeks since the protest demonstration was announced by Amanda Odlin, a Scarborough, Maine, commercial fishing boat co-owner and suburban karate mom, to deal with a worst-case scenario — a demonstration turned violent.

There were no arrests or untoward incidents in what was the largest fishing protest in memory, drawing fishermen from distant ports to the hub of the Gulf of Maine.

Police estimated 250 people were at the site, though organizers insisted there were at least 350.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times. 

Ignored early on, recreational anglers finally seemed to have gained the attention of a key member of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force.

Dr. Jane Lubchenco acknowledged their collective voice at the American Sportfishing Association’s Sportfishing Summit on Oct. 27 in San Diego. Lubchenco is Undersecretary of Commerce and administrator of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, as well as one of the "senior policy-level officials" charged by President Barack Obama with developing a management policy for the nation’s "oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes." "As NOAA’s administrator, I am committed to adopting policies that will ensure that current and future generations have the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful activity," Lubchenco said.

"We are responding to the concerns expressed by your leaders that we don’t pay enough attention to recreational fishing. I’m here to tell you that we do think you are important, that we will pay attention, and that we will work with you. It is my intention to improve our relationship."

"I look forward to a new era of cooperative relations between NOAA and anglers across the country."

Since Obama organized the task force in June, angling advocates have feared that preservationists and environmental organizations, along with their allies in the Obama administration, will use this opportunity to orchestrate an aggressive campaign to close public waters to recreational angling. With the Great Lakes included in the directive, they could provide an opening for federal management — and closures to recreational fishing — on inland lakes and rivers as well.

Read the complete story at ESPN.

Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator, Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., met with sportfishing industry leaders during the American Sportfishing Association’s (ASA) 2009 Sportfishing Summit on October 27. ASA was encouraged by Lubchenco’s words and looks forward to working with her to ensure that recreational fishing’s voice is heard at NOAA.

"As NOAA’s Administrator I am committed to adopting policies that will ensure that current and future generations have the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful activity," Lubchenco said in her remarks. "We are responding to the concerns expressed by your leaders that we don’t pay enough attention to recreational fishing. I’m here to tell you that we do think you are important, that we will pay attention and that we will work with you. It is my intention to improve our relationship. I look forward to a new era of cooperative relations between NOAA and anglers across this country."

"We are encouraged by the remarks that Under Secretary Lubchenco gave at the 2009 Sportfishing Summit," ASA President and CEO Mike Nussman said. "Dr. Lubchenco told us that she will be our champion. We look forward to seeing actions come from those words and look forward to working with her and NOAA staff."

In September the Obama administration issued a draft policy, the Interim Report of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force. ASA has significant concerns with the direction the Obama administration is going in managing the United States’ marine and freshwater public resources, choosing a tone of preservation over conservation. At the Summit, Lubchenco spoke about this concern.

Read the complete story at World Fishing Network News.

A plan that puts a large area of the Arctic off-limits to commercial fishing goes into effect Dec. 3, federal officials said.

The plan was approved by Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke in August.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday that the plan establishes an orderly process to consider requests to develop fisheries in the Arctic, and it provides time for science to catch up to changing Arctic conditions, specifically global warming and the loss of sea ice.

"We need a rush of scientists into the Arctic, not an armada of cargo ships, oil platforms and fishing trawlers," said Chris Krenz, Arctic project manager for conservation group Oceana.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

A few weeks ago, I came to Gloucester to meet the talented and dedicated team that works for NOAA’s Fisheries Service at the Northeast regional office. They share my commitment to preserving and restoring America’s fishing industry. I was inspired to learn first-hand about their expertise and commitment to public service.

As a regulatory agency mandated to manage our fisheries, NOAA makes difficult and often unpopular decisions. We carry out our responsibilities mindful that, each and every day, fishermen and women in Gloucester and around the country work hard to bring healthy seafood to our tables and provide for their families.

During my visit to NOAA’s office in Gloucester, I met employees who are committed to the region’s long-term economic, social and cultural vibrancy. They demonstrate that through their tireless work for NOAA and through their involvement in a broad range of community activities.

As we all work together to rebuild our fisheries and restore our coastal communities, it is important that we acknowledge and respect the contributions each of us offers, whether we work behind a desk or on the water.

Read the complete editorial at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Nancy Sutley, the White House’s point person on the environment, got an airboat-level view of Louisiana’s eroding coastal marshes Tuesday. In a photo from Big Branch Refuge near Lacombe, the boat appears to be in open water, but there is a small strip of green marsh grass in the distance.

Louisianians who have fished and worked the coast for decades can point to broad expanses of water and describe the stands of trees and fields of grass that once grew there.

Byron Encalade, a fisher from East Pointe-a-la-Hache, talked recently about the dramatic loss of land. "I used to travel at night on my boat from St. Bernard all the way across the Mississippi line with only a compass, because we had landmarks we could navigate by," said Mr. Encalade, who fishes for oyster and shrimp. "You can’t do that anymore. All the small islands, all the passes, they’ve all washed away."

Read the complete story at NOLA.

Hawaii regulators have approved a Honolulu startup company’s plan to build the nation’s first tuna farm in waters off the Big Island.

Hawaii Oceanic Technology aims to create an environmentally friendly open ocean farm for bigeye tuna, a favorite source for sushi and sashimi that’s overfished in the wild. The project would also be the world’s first commercial bigeye farm.

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources voted 4-to-1 to give Hawaii Oceanic permission to install three large underwater cages for the tuna.

"I’m concerned on a global level and a local level that we have severe overfishing going on, and something needs to be done," said board member John Morgan, who voted in favor of the project.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.