Saving Seafood

Bill’s changes would allow industrial-scale oyster farming in N.C.

June 6, 2018 — Should oyster farming in North Carolina be a cottage industry or marine industrial operations owned by nonresident corporations?

That is the question facing legislators working on changes to the state’s oyster aquaculture statutes enacted in 2017.

Senate Bill 738, sponsored by Sen. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow and Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, drew strong opinions when it was discussed on May 30 at a meeting of the Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Committee co-chaired by Cook and Sanderson.

The meeting was announced late the afternoon before and caught many by surprise because the bill is still assigned to the Rules Committee.

Proposed changes include removing the residency requirement and allowing individuals or companies to own up to a total of 300 acres in water column/bottom leases. Now, individual leases can range from .5 acre to 10 acres.

Oyster aquaculture consists of suspending bags or cages of oysters in the water column while they grow to an acceptable size. Traditional oyster leases involve leasing the bottom and planting oyster shells to attract spat — baby oysters.

In a rare instance of unity, the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) and commercial fishermen attended the meeting to voice objections to lifting the residency requirement and the increase in total leases from 50 to 300 acres.

Read the full story at The Outer Banks Voice

Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act Receives Broad, Growing Support

May 21, 2018 — A growing coalition of industry groups, conservationists, scientists, and other stakeholders are rallying behind a bill that promotes global shark conservation, while protecting responsible U.S. fishermen. The bill, Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act, is undergoing a markup before the Senate Commerce committee on Tuesday, May 22. Similar, bipartisan legislation from Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) is under consideration in the House.

Introduced by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the bill would require that all countries exporting shark fins to the U.S. receive certification that their shark fisheries have an effective ban on the practice of shark finning, and adhere to sustainable management practices like those in U.S. fisheries. The new certification program would be similar to the existing U.S. shrimp certification program.

The United States has been praised for having among the strictest and most conservation-minded shark management in the world; all shark species are required to be harvested at sustainable rates, and the practice of shark finninghas long been banned.

The bill’s approach to conservation, which would preserve the jobs of responsible, law-abiding shark fishermen in the U.S. while promoting a high standard of shark conservation abroad, has won support from a broad cross-section of shark fishery stakeholders, including the Sustainable Shark Alliance. It is joined in its support by leading conservation groups, such as the Wildlife Conservation Society; shark experts at the Mote Marine Laboratory; 62 leading shark scientists; recreational fishing organizations such as the American Sportfishing Association, the Center for Sportfishing Policy, and the Coastal Conservation Association; the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; and the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association.

“The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act allows the United States to continue its role as a global leader in shark conservation and management,” says Shaun Gehan, a representative for the Sustainable Shark Alliance. “Unlike other bills that would ban the sale of shark fins outright, this bill maintains our own rigorous conservation standards, while allowing U.S. fishermen to maintain their livelihoods by responsibly utilizing every part of the shark.”

About the Sustainable Shark Alliance
The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA) is a coalition of shark fishermen and seafood dealers that advocates for sustainable U.S. shark fisheries and supports healthy shark populations. The SSA stands behind U.S. shark fisheries as global leaders in successful shark management and conservation. The SSA is a member of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities.

 

Sportfishing and Conservation Groups Latest to Support Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act

May 9, 2018 — Three sportfishing and conservation groups have thrown their support behind a bill aimed at improving shark conservation worldwide while maintaining sustainable U.S. shark fisheries.

In a letter to the bill’s sponsors, the American Sportfishing Association, the Center for Sportfishing Policy, and the Coastal Conservation Association praise the bill, which they state will “reduce the overfishing and unsustainable trade of sharks, rays and skates around the world and prevent shark finning.” The bill was introduced in the House by Congressmen Daniel Webster (R-FL) and Ted Lieu (D-CA), and in the Senate by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

The bill would require that all countries wishing to import shark products into the United States receive certification from the U.S. Secretary of Commerce that confirms they have effective prohibitions on the practice of shark finning, where a fin is removed from a shark at sea and rest of the shark is discarded. Countries seeking certification must also have shark management policies comparable to those in force in the United States, which has been praised for being a global leader in sustainable shark management and which has long outlawed the practice of shark finning.

“Recreational fishermen and the sportfishing industry are constantly striving to improve fishing practices that minimize harm to fish,” the letter states. “Shark finning flies in the face of the sportfishing community’s conservation ethic, and we fully support efforts – such as your legislation – to curtail this practice.”

These groups join a growing list of supporters of the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act. The bill has already received the support of commercial shark fishermen, conservation groups such as the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Mote Marine Laboratory and 62 prominent shark scientists.

Read the full letter here.

 

Opinion: Chefs respond to column on fisheries management

February 13, 2018 — We read David Cresson’s op-ed “Chefs push half-baked fisheries agenda” and were immediately struck with how little he seems to appreciate the real problems in Gulf fisheries.

As chefs who rely on healthy fisheries to run our businesses, we know it is possible to have fish for both the commercial and recreational sectors to catch and eat while also preserving this resource for the future. We know this because we already have a system that is doing just that: the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary federal law managing our nation’s fisheries.

Cresson is right when he states, “It’s time to set the record straight. The United States manages its fisheries better than anyone else in the world.” MSA has rebuilt 43 fish stocks since 2000, all while increasing their economic output.

He also correctly points out that Louisiana’s senators and congressional representatives support the proposed Modern Fish Act, a bill that would weaken fishery management and is supported by Cresson’s Coastal Conservation Association.

But it makes sense that the Louisiana congressional Delegation would stand with CCA once you follow the money.

CCA, through the lobbying firm Adams and Reese, has rewarded the Louisiana delegation handsomely. CCA paid Adams and Reese more than $110,000 each of the last three years to dole out campaign contributions to Louisiana politicians.

Cresson attempts to paint MSA defenders’ focus on red snapper as overblown, even irrational. But it is CCA’s champion, U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, who introduced a bill titled the Red Snapper Act that would exempt that single species from the protection of MSA, the very legislation that rebuilt the stocks.

Despite CCA’s claims that the commercial sector is taking more than its fair share, recreational fishers are allocated 49 percent of the red snapper quota. And still they have exceeded their quota 7 out of the last 10 years. Meanwhile, the commercial sector is intensely monitored to stay within its quota and the charter for-hire component of the recreational fishery (captains who take individual, paying anglers out on fishing trips) has developed separate management that is keeping them in their limit.

If Cresson is indeed interested in leading the fight for conservation, perhaps he could explain to the public why the Louisiana politicians his lobbyists influenced pushed the Commerce Department to open up the federal recreational season this summer for an extra 39 days, knowingly allowing overfishing by upwards of 50 percent, or 6 million pounds.

Read the full opinion piece at Houma Today

 

Trump team may have broken law to score red snapper win

December 19, 2017 — The Trump administration scored last week when a House panel voted to give Gulf of Mexico states more power in managing the popular red snapper, but court records suggest it may be a tainted victory.

Internal memos show that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and a top adviser may have knowingly violated federal fisheries law in June when they extended the Gulf red snapper season, hoping the move would pressure Congress to act.

In a June 1 memo, Earl Comstock, the Commerce Department’s director of policy and strategic planning, told Ross that a longer season “would result in overfishing” of the stock by as much as 40 percent and possibly prompt a lawsuit.

But Comstock urged Ross to extend the season anyway, saying it could lead to “a significant achievement” by forcing Congress to liberalize the federal law and transfer more authority to Gulf states.

“It would allow a reset in the acrimonious relationship and set the stage for Congress to adopt a long-term fix,” Comstock told Ross.

Comstock followed up with a second memo on June 7, reminding his boss that both the White House and a dozen congressmen from Gulf states had asked Ross to explore the possibility of a longer fishing season.

The next week, Ross decided to extend the season from three to 42 days, much to the joy of recreational anglers in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama (Greenwire, Sept. 20).

Critics say the memos offer proof that Commerce and NOAA Fisheries plotted to bypass the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, a 1976 law that sets quotas as a way to rebuild overfished stocks, including the red snapper.

“I appreciate it when people are transparent about their intentions,” said Janis Searles Jones, the CEO of Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental group.

Commerce made the memos public as part of its response to a lawsuit filed in July in U.S. District Court in Washington by Ocean Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund. The complaint accuses Ross, NOAA and NOAA Fisheries of mismanagement by allowing overfishing.

Read the full story at E&E News

 

US seafood industry, ocean groups in unison against red snapper bill

December 19, 2017 — The National Fisheries Institute and ocean conservation groups don’t always see eye to eye on legislation, but they do with regard to HR 3588, the Red Snapper Act, which has been advanced by the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources.

They are both against it.

The bill, which the panel approved by a 22-16 vote following a brief markup hearing on Wednesday, along with two amendments to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, would transfer management of the red snapper recreational fishery in the Gulf of Mexico from a federal fisheries management council to several gulf states, including Louisiana. Representative Garrett Graves, who introduced the bill, represents the Republican districts of northern Terrebonne and Lafourche, in Louisiana.

Graves’ bill must still get to the House floor for a vote. And its companion bill, S. 1686, introduced in August by Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, also a Republican, in the upper chamber’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, has just two co-sponsors (Republicans John Kennedy, also from Louisiana, and Luther Strange, from Alabama).

But the recreational fishing industry is excited.

“The need to update our nation’s fisheries management system to ensure the conservation of our public marine resources and reasonable public access to those resources is abundantly clear. We look forward to the full House consideration of the bill,” said Patrick Murray, president of Coastal Conservation Association, one of the nation’s largest sport fishing groups, in a written statement following the vote.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Red snapper measures advance in Congress

December 14, 2017 — Measures that will impact how much red snapper recreational fishermen will be able to catch in the Gulf of Mexico advanced today in Congress.

Proponents, including recreational fishing groups and Louisiana lawmakers, say the two bills approved by the House Natural Resources Committee would eliminate overly restrictive catch limits and unnecessarily short seasons for red snapper. The measures would give Gulf states more authority to regulate the popular species off their coasts.

Environmental and conservation groups counter that the measures will hamper efforts to help red snapper rebound from years of severe overfishing.

U.S. Rep. Garrett Graves, R-Baton Rouge, whose district includes northern Terrebonne and Lafourche, sponsored one of the bills and helped craft the other.

“As the stock has rebuilt, recreational anglers have unfairly seen fewer and fewer fishing days,” Graves said in introducing the Red Snapper Act of 2017 this summer. “Something has to change. It is time to replace the status quo with a management system that more accurately reflects today’s red snapper private recreational fishery.”

Read the full story at the Daily Comet

 

Southeastern Fisheries Association: Keep Federal Management of Red Snapper

June 14, 2016 — The following opinion piece was released by Southeastern Fisheries Association Executive Director Bob Jones, concerning H.R. 3094, the Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority Act. The bill “amend[s] the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to transfer to States the authority to manage red snapper fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico.” The bill will be subject to full committee markup by the House Natural Resources Committee tomorrow, June 15:

HR 3094 will scuttle, by action and precedence, the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). We believe the MSA has done much to make US fishery resources sustainable.

Before there was a federal fishery management zone, commercial fishermen brought their issues before the state legislatures. They were assured fair hearings by legislative committees. Then some state fish commissions, in Florida for example, assumed the management without legislative oversight. The Florida Marine Fisheries Commission did come under the Governor and SIX elected Cabinet Officers for a few years where fishery issues were fully discussed. Then an autonomous Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission was established so the commercial fishermen came under a SEVEN person group. In Florida we started out under a 160 member legislature, then down to a SEVEN member commission and now HR 3094 places us and a billion dollar seafood industry under the whims of THREE people with no federal oversight for managing federal resources. Is any other food producing industry subject to THREE unelected people in control of their livelihood?

When the MSA was enacted it established management of Gulf red snapper under a SEVENTEEN person fisheries council composed of all state members except one. The council operates under a mandated set of National Standards. For the most part it operates under the rule of law.

HR 3094 changes the rule of law to the rule of man by creating a FIVE member authority with no elected official oversight. On a FIVE member authority THREE votes is a majority.

“(502 (a) (1) of HR 3094 (says:) Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority that consists of the principal fisheries manager of each of the Gulf coastal States.“

“{c) (i) of HR 3094 (says:) any recommendation by the GSRSMA to reduce quota apportioned to the commercial sector by more than 10 percent shall be reviewed and approved by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.”

This means the ‘Gulf States authority’ will reallocate 9.99% of the red snapper each year from the commercial harvesting sector to the anglers. This Texas/Louisiana CCA inspired ‘authority’ will allocate all the red snapper for themselves in about a decade. That is the true goal of this bill. 

HR 3094 was already killed when it was proposed as an amendment to the MSA legislation. It has “risen from the ashes” to once more attempt to reward the only fishing sector without accountability. 

HR 3094 needs to be killed just as it was at full committee earlier in the Congress.

View a PDF version here

High rollers, big names back CCA agenda across U.S. & N.C

September 17, 2015 – “The CCA has nothing to do with conservation unless you consider sport fishermen having all of a certain species allocated to themselves as conservation.”

Those are the words of author Robert Fritchey, who wrote the definitive book tracing the history of the Coastal Conservation Association, titled “Wetland Riders”.

The CCA traces its roots to Texas in 1977 and was originally founded by mostly wealthy anglers in Houston.

Fritchey describes the group as consisting entirely of “about twenty sportsmen, some wealthy, some not” who were convinced commercial fishing was killing sport fishing in Texas bays.

The group of men named their organization the Gulf Coast Conservation Association (GCCA). And it didn’t take long for the wealthier sport fishermen to take over.

Analysis

Fritchey ticked off the names of those early leaders in the first chapter:

  • Walter Foundren III, a Houston oil executive and Exxon heir, was named chair of the Executive Committee.
  • Perry R. Bass, another billionaire Texas oilman who in 2005 was rated by Forbes at the 746th wealthiest American, also served on the committee.
  • The GCCA’s first president, David Cummings, was a Houston real estate investor.
  • The vice president was Clyde Hanks, another wealthy resident of Houston described as an “insurance magnate.”

Read the full story at The Outer Banks Voice 

 

 

RUSS LAY: CCA’s small numbers has large grip on N.C. politics, fisheries

September 15, 2015 — Approach any recreational angler wetting a line from the surf, a pier, a bridge or a boat and ask, “Are you a member of the CCA?”

It’s far more than an even bet that not only will the response be “No,” but more than likely, “What is the CCA?”

But visit legislators in Raleigh and ask them about the Coastal Conservation Association. Chances are every single lawmaker knows of the CCA and has likely been lobbied by a representative of the group.

When Sam Walker and myself traveled to Raleigh in 2014 to interview Sen. Bill Cook and Rep. Paul Tine, we brought with us a basket of questions.

At that time we both were researching the Marine Fisheries Commission in North Carolina and how the CCA might be influencing the panel.

We were also interested in the Game Fish Bill, legislation pushed by the CCA almost every legislative session to ban the commercial sale or harvest of three popular fish species in North Carolina: red drum, striped bass and speckled trout.

Read the full opinion piece at The Outer Banks Voice