WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — May 26, 2015 — Long-simmering frustrations in the fishing community with the accuracy of NOAA’s stock assessments and the quality of the management based on their findings became a focal point of a recent hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, when Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) questioned NOAA Administrator Dr. Kathryn Sullivan about federal regulations that have sharply reduced catch levels for cod by 95 percent over the last five years.
During the hearing, Sen. Ayotte cited a petition delivered to Congress by nearly 150 Northeastern groundfishermen, which declared a vote of no confidence in the NOAA assessments. The petition states that the official status of Gulf of Maine cod, as determined by NOAA’s most recent 2014 assessment, “does not remotely match what fishermen (we) have seen on the water over the past year.”
“Fishermen have little faith in what is being reported,” said Jackie Odell, the Executive Director of the Gloucester, Massachusetts-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, which represents the majority of the New England groundfish fleet and organized the petition. “They have been consistently catching fish that, according to the assessment, do not exist.”
Sen. Ayotte also questioned the rationale behind the cuts, as well as noting to Dr. Sullivan the legal requirement, under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, for NOAA to factor into its decision-making the economic costs of its regulations. This year’s Gulf of Maine cod quota is a 75 percent reduction over the 2014 quota, and overall, the cod quota has been reduced a total of 95 percent in this decade.
“I do not know a business that could take a 95 percent cut and continue to operate,” the Senator said. “How do we justify [cutting the catch limits] 75 percent in one year, and then 95 percent over five years?”
Sen. Ayotte expressed her support for one of the key recommendations of the Northeast Seafood Coalition’s petition: the creation of an independent blue ribbon panel, coordinated by either the National Research Council or the Government Accountability Office and comprised of scientists, academics, government officials, and industry leaders, to examine the underlying problems with NOAA stock assessments. The panel would present binding recommendations to improve groundfish stock assessment science and management.
“Allocations have been set so low that fishermen have spent most of their time trying to avoid fish, fish that NOAA says aren’t there,” Odell said. “We do not have the luxury of waiting 3 to 5 years for a new assessment.”
View the petition signed by the groundfish industry delivered to the US Senate here
View the petition signed by the groundfish industry delivered to the US House here
View a release on the hearing from Senator Kelly Ayotte here