at-sea monitors Archives - Page 9 of 10

Fishermen File Suit in N.H. Against NOAA Over Observers

December 9, 2015 — The following is an excerpt from a story published today in the Boston Globe. The plaintiffs in this lawsuit are David Goethel, who has been a fisherman for over 30 years and has served two terms on the New England Fishery Management Council, and Northeast Sector 13, a nonprofit organization comprised of 20 active groundfishermen who are permitted in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia. They are represented in the lawsuit by Cause of Action, a government accountability organization committed to ensuring that decisions made by federal agencies are open, honest, and fair.

A group of fishermen in the region filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in federal district court in Concord, N.H., arguing that the agency violated their rights by forcing them to pay for a controversial program that requires government-trained monitors on their vessels to observe their catch.

The fishermen, who in the coming weeks will be required to pay hundreds of dollars every time an observer accompanies them to sea, argue that the costs are too much to bear and will put many of them out of business.

They’re asking the court to prevent the regulations from taking effect when the federal dollars now subsidizing the program run out early next year.

“I’m extremely fearful that I won’t be able to do what I love and provide for my family if I’m forced to pay,” said David Goethel, one of the plaintiffs, who for 30 years has been fishing for cod and other bottom-dwelling fish out of Hampton, N.H. “I’m doing this not only to protect myself, but to stand up for others out there like me whose livelihoods are in serious jeopardy.”

The lawsuit alleges that, by forcing fishermen to pay for the monitors, regulators have violated their Constitutional rights and that their actions are “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.”

It adds that agency officials are “acting in excess of any statutory authority granted by Congress” and “improperly infringing on Congress’s exclusive taxation authority.”

As a result, the fishermen claim, the government’s authority to require the payments are “void and unenforceable.”

Fishing officials acknowledge that requiring the fishermen to pay for the so-called “at-sea monitoring” program will increase the hardship of fishermen who are already struggling with major cuts to their quotas. A federal report this year found that the costs could cause 59 percent of the region’s groundfishing fleet to lose money.

But agency officials have said that NOAA no longer has the money to pay for the program, and that by law, the fishermen were supposed to start paying for the observers three years ago.

The government has defrayed the costs because of the industry’s financial turmoil, said John Bullard, the agency’s regional administrator. In February, the agency told fishermen they would have to start paying later this year.

Bullard declined to comment on the lawsuit.

“NOAA Fisheries does not discuss ongoing litigation,” he said. “Independent of any litigation, we appreciate the challenge that paying for at-sea monitoring raises for fishermen.”

He and others noted that the fishermen may end up paying less than they expect for the observer program.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Read the Legal Memo here

Read the Complaint here

Fishermen sue to block impending fishing monitor costs

December 10, 2015 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A group of East Coast fishermen is suing the federal government over a shift in the cost of at-sea fishing monitors that they say will cripple the fishery during an already difficult time.

Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have said money for monitors in New England groundfisheries such as cod and haddock will be gone by early 2016. The monitors are trained workers who collect data to help determine future quotas on certain species of commercial fish.

Under the new rules, fishermen will have to pay for the monitors, which can cost about $800 per trip. Fishermen have spoken out for months against shifting the cost, saying it will sink many who are already dealing with the dwindling New England cod population and choking cuts to quotas.

A group including more than 20 groundfishermen is suing the federal Department of Commerce, which includes NOAA, in federal court in New Hampshire with a contention that the cost shift is illegal. The group is from New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia and it is seeking an injunction to protect fishermen from having to pay up.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at San Francisco Chronicle

Region’s struggling fishermen may get break on monitors

December 8, 2015 — The region’s fishermen, who have railed for months against the possibility of having to pay for the government observers who monitor their catch, may be getting a bit of a reprieve.

The New England Fishery Management Council, which oversees the region’s industry, approved measures last week to alleviate some of the burden fishermen are facing to cover the costs of the observers monitoring their catch.

Earlier this year, federal regulators decided to end the multimillion-dollar subsidy that paid for the program, handing off the cost to the fishermen. The observers, under federal mandates, accompany fisherman on about a quarter of their trips as a way to curb overfishing.

A federal report this year found the new costs could cause 59 percent of the region’s once-mighty groundfishing fleet to lose money. Many of the estimated 200 boats remaining are already struggling, given sweeping government-imposed cuts to quotas of cod and other bottom-dwelling fish.

The council’s recent action, if approved by federal regulators, could reduce by half the number of trips that observers are required to take with the region’s groundfishermen. The new regulations — which the government has estimated could cost fishermen as much $710 per trip with an observer — would reduce that requirement from nearly a quarter of trips to as low as 13 percent.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

NOAA to pay for at-sea monitors into 2016

December 3, 2015 — NOAA Fisheries again has extended the timetable for shifting the cost of at-sea monitoring to the groundfish industry, saying one of its monitoring contractors will have sufficient funds to continue paying for the program into 2016.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Wednesday that one of its three at-sea monitoring contractors has enough money remaining to fund at-sea monitoring for an estimated 250 to 300 sea days into 2016 and that the other two contractors will sub-contract to provide the necessary number of monitors to ensure full coverage for all groundfish vessels until the final allotment of funds runs out.

A sea day is defined as a calendar day which any monitor spends at sea on a covered fishing trip.

Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for NOAA, said approximately $200,000 remains for at-sea monitoring and the agency estimates that money will last until sometime early in 2016 — possibly around the end of February.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Federal funding for at-sea monitoring likely to extend into 2016

December 2, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

We are pleased to announce an update on the status of federal funding for at-sea monitors in the New England Groundfish fishery. We have been informed that industry has facilitated an initial agreement among the three at-sea monitoring contract providers that may allow the remaining contract funds remaining to cover at-sea monitors after December 31 across the fleet, until those funds are expended, through sub-contracting arrangements.

We have continued to track the expenditures of the three at-sea monitoring contract providers through the month of November and, as we anticipated, two of the contract providers have been on target to expend all monies by December 31, 2015. However, the third contract provider continues to spend funds at a slower rate because this company provides observers for only a small percent of the fleet (approximately 2% of the effort).

Approximately $200K is currently available on this at-sea monitoring provider’s contract. This would allow for approximately 250 to 300 sea days of at-sea monitoring. (A “sea day” is a calendar day that the monitor spends at sea on a covered fishing trip. The rate at which those days will be used depends on how much fishing occurs.)

Following the use of the remaining 250-300 sea days of at-sea monitoring, the industry will be required to begin paying for all at-sea monitoring. We anticipate this occurring in early 2016.

It is important to note that if the subcontracting arrangement the industry has negotiated is not effective, the transition of costs would occur as previously announced. NOAA cannot compel the companies to enter into such an arrangement, nor would it be equitable for NOAA to continue to cover only a portion of the fleet while requiring the rest of the fleet to pick up observer costs.

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD: Electronic catch monitors would improve fishery

November 27, 2015 — Managing the decline in New England’s commercial fishery has long been a delicate dance among fishermen, regulators and scientists.

The scientists estimate how many fish are available for harvest, and regulators use those estimates to allot catch shares among various groups of fishermen, called “sectors.”

Fishermen question the validity of the science, saying that they see more fish than the estimates would indicate. Regulators are influenced by members of Congress, who represent fishing communities, not fish, and are concerned with the communities’ economic survival.

Scientists say that they are doing the best they can with the data available, but what they can see paints a much darker picture than what the fishermen report.

Fortunately, there may be a way to produce data that everyone can be confident in: electronic monitoring.

Currently, professional monitors go out on fishing boats about 20 percent of the time, cataloging what the boats pull up in their nets and what they throw overboard.

The information they bring back is valuable, but there are problems with the system. The fishermen have to pay for the live monitors, and they are expensive. That’s especially true for boats leaving from rural areas, where the captain has to pay the travel expenses and accommodations for a monitor who is not locally based.

Read the full opinion piece at the Portland Press Herald

Fishermen facing huge cost to pay for at-sea monitors as federal dollars dwindle

November 11, 2015 — QUINCY, Mass. — The Northeast Fisheries Service Center said Wednesday that money to pay for at-sea monitors on fishing vessels is almost depleted, leaving fishermen and companies that own fishing vessels to cover the cost come January.

Bringing along a monitor to watch over the daily catch will cost local fishermen more than $700 a day.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program started five years ago, but the NOAA and taxpayers picked up the tab at a total cost of $18.4 million since 2010, said Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the Gloucester-based fisheries service said.

Frady was unable to say how many fishing boats in the state are currently mandated to have a monitor.

Marshfield fisherman Ed Barrett said the regulation affects any fishing boat working under the federal catch share program.

“No one can afford to do this,” said Barrett, who is president of the Massachusetts Bay Ground Fishermen’s Association. “There’s just not that kind of profit margin in this.”

Forced to pay $710 to bring along an approved monitor, some fishermen would actually lose money depending on the day’s catch, he added.

It was unclear Wednesday whether Congress would vote to restore funding to the program.

Read the full story at the Marshfield Mariner

Money for New England fishing monitors to end by Dec. 31

November 10, 2015 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Federal officials say money for some at sea fishing monitors will run out by Dec. 31 and the cost will then transition to industry.

The monitors are trained workers who collect data to help determine future quotas on certain fish. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say the money for monitors in New England fisheries such as cod and haddock is going to be gone by the end of the year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at San Francisco Chronicle

NEW BEDFORD STANDARD-TIMES: Fishery science will make all the difference

October 29, 2015 — The message coming to New Bedford fishermen from federal regulators isn’t all bad.

On Tuesday, the top administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, visited New Bedford to meet with local members of the fishing community and spoke in a way that suggests the regulators understand the industry’s perspective.

“We are committed to working with the best science and trying to find the right way forward to sustain the health of the fisheries and the fishing community,” she said following a closed-door meeting, a harbor tour and a discussion at the School for Marine Science and Technology in the South End.

There are short-term crises for the Northeast Multispecies Fishery as well as long-term crises. A brief postponement of industry-funded observers takes some pressure off the fishermen and allows more work to find a compromise that satisfies the requirement of the law without driving boats out of business. In the meantime, while the right folks work out that short-term crisis, there is a necessity to keep working on the long-term issues.

The industry can hardly focus beyond the looming requirement that they pay for the implementation of at-sea monitors on groundfish boats and the immediate economic effect it will have on marginally profitable permit holders.

For too long, the message from the courts, some environmental groups and older NOAA enforcement actions had been concerned with only the resource, not the impacts of trying to sustainably harvest that resource. Administrator Sullivan’s statement of NOAA’s commitment to keeping both strong — and underpinning that work with science — opens great opportunities for collaboration and success.

Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard-Times

A message From Eileen Sobeck On At-Sea Monitors

October 14, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

I frequently share my admiration for the many talented and passionate people who make up the NOAA Fisheries workforce. I want to take this opportunity to recognize a cadre of highly trained, dedicated individuals who are part of the NOAA team and play a critical role in supporting our fisheries science and management.

At-sea fisheries monitors and observers are our eyes and ears on the water. They may spend days or weeks aboard commercial fishing vessels gathering first-hand information on what’s caught and thrown back.

The work is intense. Observers undergo a rigorous training program to be able to identify and take samples of the myriad ocean life that might come aboard. Getting it right is important because the stakes are high. The high-quality data they collect are used to monitor fisheries, assess fish populations, and inform management.

The working conditions are tough. Observers work alongside fishermen in stressful, strenuous and at times hazardous conditions. Fishing is one of the most dangerous professions in the world. NOAA’s observers and monitors are right there with those doing the dangerous work. This was tragically underscored recently when a member of our observer community, Keith Davis, went missing while at sea on a foreign vessel. There is an ongoing investigation into his disappearance led by the Government of Panama that is supported by the U.S. Embassy in Panama, the US Coast Guard investigative unit and the FBI.

Cooperation is critical. Deploying observers safely and collecting data at sea requires an active partnership between NOAA Fisheries, observers, observer providers, and the fishing industry.

We understand that at times, there can be tension among these parties. Observer safety is of utmost importance for me and NOAA as a whole. I understand tensions have been on the rise recently, but we must maintain respectful relationships. I have asked our law enforcement officers to remain vigilant and ensure the safety of our at-sea monitors and observers. Threats to these individuals will not be tolerated.

At-sea observers and monitors are dedicated professional scientists. They make a valuable contribution to our knowledge of fisheries and deserve our respect.