Saving Seafood

REP. FRANK GUINTA: Federal regulations are sinking New Hampshire’s historic fishing industry

March 21, 2016 — On New Hampshire’s Seacoast, Granite State fishermen tell the tale of an out-of-control federal agency more dangerous than any sea monster.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration severely limits their catch of ground fish, flounder and cod that dwell in the Gulf of Maine. International competitors face fewer rules and supply most U.S. seafood.

Dave Goethel of the Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative in Seabrook estimates that NOAA, which manages U.S. fisheries and the president’s climate change agenda, has reduced his catch by 95 percent.

He tells me many of his friends have quit or taken early retirement. Young Granite Staters interested in maritime careers no longer consider our state’s 400-year-old tradition.

What seaman nowadays would brave such treacherous regulatory waters?

On March 1, NOAA implemented fees around New England that will hit New Hampshire fishermen, mostly small boat operators, hardest. Only a few remain on the United States’ shortest coastline.

In her explanation to me, the agency’s chief administrator, Kathryn Sullivan, estimates that new fees for at-sea monitors could amount to $710 per day.

Read the full opinion peace at The Eagle-Tribune

Rep. Frank Guinta calls for NOAA to stop at-sea monitoring or pay for it

October 8, 2015 — A New Hampshire congressman is turning up the heat on the at-sea monitoring issue, filing a bill that would terminate the current at-sea monitoring program for fishing sectors in the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery until NOAA agrees to fully fund it.

U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta’s bill would exempt fishermen from having to “comply with the independent, third-party monitoring program” required by the NOAA unless the federal fisheries regulator “fully funds the program with funds appropriated from the administration.”

The goal of the legislation, Guinta said, is to preclude the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from shifting the cost of at-sea monitoring — estimated at $710 per day per trip — from its budget to the federal permit holders — of which, he said, there remain only nine active groundfish sector boats working out of New Hampshire ports.

“I really question why the federal government would force their financial obligation onto the boats,” said Guinta, who represents New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District and is a member of the House Financial Services Committee. “It’s unfortunate what the federal government is doing. If they require it, they should at the very least pay for it.”

Guinta also questioned why the at-sea monitoring is so expensive and why NOAA contracts the services out to third-party operators rather than performing the tasks with its own staff.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

“New England Fishermen Preservation Act” From Rep. Guinta to Cancel Federal Fees

October 1, 2015 — WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — The following was released from the Office of Congressman Frank Guinta (NH):

With his New England Fishermen Preservation Act (H.R. 3661) today, Congressman Frank Guinta continued his effort to stop federal fees that could extinguish New Hampshire’s fishing industry. Just nine Granite State operators still fish the Gulf of Maine, where National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) regulations have reduced their catch by 95 percent, report members of Seabrook’s Yankee Fishermen’s Co-op.  

New fees, averaging over $700 per vessel every few days, could cost fishermen in the region thousands of dollars monthly. “These are small, family businesses,” said Rep. Guinta (NH01), a member of the House Financial Services Committee. “Many are struggling to stay afloat, due to heavy regulations that seem to change from week to week. Fishermen up and down the Northeast could be sunk, when NOAA finally makes good on its threat.”

Rep. Guinta explained that under his bill “NOAA will continue to pay the costs of monitoring fishermen at sea, as the agency has for years.” Currently, NOAA pays contractors to accompany crews but has proposed shifting payment to fishermen themselves. The agency has shifted deadlines several times, recently from the end of October to December. In an email to congressional staff, NOAA regulators admit the change would be “economically challenging” for many.

“It’s economically challenging that an agency with a several-billon dollar budget is demanding fishermen pay its operating costs,” responded Rep. Guinta.

The New England Fishermen Preservation Act exempts Northeast fishermen from compliance with monitoring rules, until NOAA funds the program. Earlier this Congress, Rep. Guinta introduced the bipartisan Fisheries Investment and Regulatory Relief Act, which would re-direct existing federal money to U.S. fisheries and strengthen local control.

Read Rep. Guinta’s New England Fishermen Preservation Act here

NOAA delays new fees that fishermen say will kill industry

October 1, 2015 — HAMPTON, N.H. — New costs New Hampshire fishermen say will end their industry for good have been delayed by one month, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials announced this week.

NOAA said this summer fishermen would have to begin paying roughly $700 per day for 24 percent of their fishing days starting Nov. 1, covering the cost of at-sea monitors to observe fishermen’s compliance with regulations. That November deadline is now pushed to Dec. 1, NOAA spokesperson Jennifer Goebel said. NOAA currently pays for the at-sea monitoring.

Fishermen have said the costs are too much for them to bear, as they don’t gross $700 in a single day. The costs also come as fishing regulations on cod have diminished the commercial fleet to just nine active vessels, many having left the business completely.

Hampton fisherman David Goethel said the delay is good news, but not good enough to remove the threat of ending the New Hampshire fishery. He said he believes NOAA will eventually force the fishermen to pay for the monitors.

NOAA Greater Atlantic Regional Administrator John Bullard said his agency has delayed shifting the payment to the industry because the budget has allowed it to do so, but that it would eventually need to stop funding the at-sea monitoring program.

Read the full story at the Portsmouth Herald

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Congressional delegation stands with fishermen

September 20, 2015 — PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Fishermen have said this month that the U.S. Congress is their last hope in preventing federal regulations from destroying their industry.

So it was a boost of confidence this week when three New Hampshire congressional legislators took a stand for the fishing industry. They filed legislation, sent letters requesting action and held a roundtable that placed themselves, fishermen and federal officials in the same room to discuss the fate of the fishing industry.

“I think they’re all believable,” said Peter Kendall, a former New Hampshire commercial fisherman. “I think they’re all behind us.”

On Friday, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., held the roundtable meeting at Pease International Tradeport that put fishermen across the table from officials from the federal agency imposing what fishermen say are back-breaking regulations and costs, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. At the meeting, Ayotte spoke in support of the fishermen, saying those fees and regulations fly in the face of federal law.

Ayotte and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., on Thursday wrote a letter asking the U.S. inspector general to investigate an at-sea monitoring program that fishermen are expected to pay for as soon as Nov. 1. The program will require observers go to sea with fishermen for 24 percent of their fishing days, monitoring their compliance with groundfishing regulations. Cost is expected to be roughly $700 a day, more than fishermen gross in a day’s work, they say.

Ayotte also filed legislation to terminate the observer program unless it was funded by NOAA, which currently covers the cost.

This past Monday, U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta, R-N.H., met with commercial fishermen at Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative in Seabrook to promise them he’d file a bill to delay the Nov. 1 deadline, if not kill the program altogether.

Read the full story at New Bedford Standard-Times

 

 

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Commercial fishermen balk at new fees

September 13, 2015 — SEABROOK, N.H. — New Hampshire’s commercial fishing industry could vanish soon, industry members said, as the state’s last nine active boat operators face what they call new back-breaking costs imposed by the federal government.

Commercial fishermen will meet Monday at 4:30 p.m. with U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta, R-N.H., at Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative in Seabrook to discuss the new costs, which pay for regulatory observers.

David Goethel, a Hampton-based fisherman, said New Hampshire’s congressional delegation is the industry’s last hope to get federal regulators off its back.

Guinta, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., each expressed concern for the New Hampshire fishing industry as a result of the regulations in the last year.

“The only leverage we have is Congress,” Goethel said.

Regulations have become more stringent in recent years to help Gulf of Maine cod stocks bounce back from what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association called dangerously low numbers. Goethel said the regulations reduced the amount of allowable catch for commercial fishermen by 95 percent over the last four years.

Half the New Hampshire fishermen became inactive this summer because of the regulations, said Dan Salerno, sector manager for fishermen on the New Hampshire coastline. Fishing vessels are divided into sectors by NOAA to keep track of regulations. New Hampshire fishermen fall into Sector 11.

But the new costs scheduled to begin Nov. 1, require fishermen to pay hundreds of dollars a day for 24 percent of fishermen’s days at sea for observers to monitor them while they work. Up until this point, NOAA covered the cost, paying an average of $710 a day for at-sea monitoring, but this year NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Administrator John Bullard announced the cost would be picked up by the industry.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times