Saving Seafood

New England marine monument gets bad review from lawmakers

March 17, 2017 — Members of subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee are objecting to the way President Barack Obama created a national marine monument off the coast of New England last year.

The subcommittee on water, power and oceans held an oversight hearing on the creation and management of marine monuments on Wednesday. Republican members say the creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument lacked significant local input and scientific scrutiny.

The monument is made up of nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains. A group of commercial fishermen has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of its creation.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at NH1

Congressional panel says New England marine monument hurts fishing communities

March 16, 2017 — Members of subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee are objecting to the way President Barack Obama created a national marine monument off the coast of New England last year.

The subcommittee on water, power and oceans held an oversight hearing Wednesday on the creation and management of marine monuments. Republican members say the creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument lacked significant local input and scientific scrutiny.

The monument is made up of nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains. A group of commercial fishermen has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of its creation.

The subcommittee is chaired by Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Republican. The subcommittee issued a statement on Wednesday that said the monument negatively impacts New England fishing communities.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Executive order storm may be tempest in fisheries management teapot

February 28, 2017 — President Trump’s executive order directing that federal agencies choose two regulations for repeal whenever they propose a new one raised the angst of legislators and industry members concerned with the management of the nation’s fisheries.

Trump’s executive order, Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs, directs agencies to repeal two existing regulations for every new regulation, and to do it in a way that does not increase the total cost of compliance.

In a Feb. 2 letter to the President, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl Grijalva and Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee Ranking Member Jared Huffman warned the President that his executive order would prevent the National Marine Fisheries Service from:

  • Setting and adjusting commercial and recreational fishing seasons.
  • Adjusting landings quotas or other conservation or management related measures.
  • Adopting new or amended fishery management plans without getting advance authority from the administration.

“All fisheries that take place in federal waters require regulatory action to open and close season, set catch limits, modify conservation and management measures, or adjust participation eligibility requirements,” the congressmen wrote. “We urge you to rescind the executive orders immediately and eliminate political interference with the processes that help commercial and charter fishermen earn their livelihoods, and allow recreational anglers access to well-managed stocks.”

Last Friday, Drew Minkiewicz, a Washington, D.C., attorney who represents commercial fishing interests and provides counsel on regulatory issues, said Trump’s executive order “is not going to impact or delay the operation of fisheries management at all.” Minkiewicz spoke before the White House announced the President’s latest executive order.

According to Minkiewicz, the administration’s Office of Management and Budget has determined that the executive order applies only to “significant actions” as defined in another executive order issued during the Clinton administration.

“More than 99 percent of NMFS regulations are not deemed significant,” he said. “There could be maybe one rule in the next four years this (the recent executive order) applies to.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Senate holds hearing to modernize the Endangered Species Act

February 16, 2017 — A Senate hearing to “modernize the Endangered Species Act” unfolded Wednesday just as supporters of the law had feared, with round after round of criticism from Republican lawmakers who said the federal effort to keep species from going extinct encroaches on states’ rights, is unfair to landowners and stymies efforts by mining companies to extract resources and create jobs.

The two-hour meeting of the Environment and Public Works Committee was led by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who said last month that his focus in a bid to change the act would be “eliminating a lot of the red tape and the bureaucratic burdens that have been impacting our ability to create jobs,” according to a report in Energy and Environment News.

In his opening remarks, Barrasso declared that the act “is not working today,” adding that “states, counties, wildlife managers, home builders, construction companies, farmers, ranchers and other stakeholders” have made that clear in complaints about how it impedes land management plans, housing development and cattle grazing, particularly in western states, such as Wyoming.

At least one Republican has vowed to wage an effort to repeal the Endangered Species Act. “It has never been used for the rehabilitation of species,” House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said, according to an Associated Press report. “It’s been used to control the land. We’ve missed the entire purpose of the Endangered Species Act. It has been hijacked.”

But members of the hearing said its regulations prevented people from doing business and making a living. In a comment to a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director who testified at the hearing, Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), repeated a point made by Barrasso that of more than 1,600 species listed as threatened or endangered since the act’s inception, fewer than 50 have been removed.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Read more at CNN

Congressmen Seek Investigation Of Hawaii Fishing Practices

December 14, 2016 — Four Democratic congressmen have written to officials at the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claiming that Hawaii’s longline fishing fleet is operating illegally by employing — and in some cases possibly abusing — foreign fishermen.

The congressmen said fishing boat owners who are not in “compliance with the law” should not be allowed to sell their products.

Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva’s staff convened a forum about the matter on Capitol Hill last week. Activists at the event, who described what was happening as modern-day slavery, advocated a boycott of tuna until the alleged abuses stop.

The letter was signed by Grijalva, ranking Democratic member of the Natural Resources Committee; Jared Huffman of California, ranking Democratic member of the Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee; Peter DeFazio of Oregon, ranking Democratic member of the  Transportation Committee and Infrastructure; and John Garamendi of California, ranking Democratic member of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee.

It was addressed to Adm. Paul Zukunft, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, and Kathryn Sullivan, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator, and was delivered Monday.

“This illegal activity does not represent American values and has dealt a blow to U.S. credibility as a global leader in fighting (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing and human trafficking,” the congressmen wrote.

John P. Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute, a trade group, told Civil Beat the industry is looking forward to the response by the Coast Guard and NOAA, saying that it would allow a “clarification” of employment law affecting foreign fishermen working in Hawaii.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

MATTHEW DALY: Congress must help Hawaii fishermen confined to boats

December 7th, 2016 — Congress should act immediately to improve slave-like conditions for hundreds of foreign fishermen working in Hawaii’s commercial fleet, speakers at a congressional forum said Tuesday.

“These fishermen are treated like disposable people,” said Mark Lagon, a scholar at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, who told the forum the fishermen live like modern-day slaves. Crew members earn less than $1 per hour, and total costs for crews of nine or 10 men are less than the cost of ice to keep the fish fresh, Lagon said.

“Slavery is not just some abstract concept,” said Lagon, the former director of a State Department office to monitor and combat human trafficking.

Slavery “is something that touches our lives. It goes into our stores, and it goes into our mouths,” Lagon said.

Lagon was one of several speakers at a forum Tuesday on slavery and human rights abuses at sea. The forum, sponsored by Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee, followed an Associated Press investigation that found fishermen have been confined to vessels for years without basic labor protections.

The AP report found that commercial fishing boats in Honolulu employ hundreds of men from impoverished Southeast Asia and Pacific Island nations who catch swordfish, ahi tuna and other seafood sold at markets and restaurants nationwide. A legal loophole allows the men to work on American-owned, U.S-flagged boats without visas as long as they don’t set foot on shore.

Fishing “is used as a tool for slavery,” said Kathryn Xian, executive director of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, a Honolulu-based advocacy group.

Read the op-ed at The Seattle Times 

House panel approves bill to shift red-snapper management to states

June 19, 2016 — The House Natural Resources Committee has passed a bipartisan bill that would move the management of red snapper in Gulf states from federal oversight to the states.

The Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority Act (H.R. 3094) also requires approval from the full House and Senate and President Obama’s signature.

“Once it becomes law, the mechanism in the bill for the transfer of management authority is very simple: Once the states agree on their management plan, then the responsibility moves to the states,” Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Coastal Conservation, told Trade Only Today.

The CCC is one of several groups that have worked to change the way red snapper is regulated for recreational anglers. This year’s red snapper fishing season was nine days.

Angers said he hopes the current administration will pass the bill.

“The House has stepped up on challenging fisheries issues already this Congress. They passed the bill to fix [the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act] last year, so the leadership is surely up to the challenge,” Angers said.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act regulates saltwater fish stocks. The law has long lumped commercial fishing in with recreational fishing. Recreational fishing and boating stakeholders have been trying to change that in recent years.

“The current federal model is clearly not working, and it’s time for a more balanced approach to the management of this fishery,” Jeff Crane, president of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, said in a statement.

Read the full story at Soundings Trade Only Today

House Hearing: Ocean Stakeholders Discuss National Ocean Policy

May 20, 2016 — WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – Earlier this week, ocean stakeholders – representatives from fishing, offshore power, agricultural industries – testified regarding their disparate experiences working with the Obama Administration’s National Ocean Policy. Their testimonies were part of an oversight hearing by the House Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans, “The Implications of President Obama’s National Ocean Policy.”

“I have to wonder,” said Representative Tom McClintock (R-CA), “if perhaps some stakeholders are more equal than others.” The question of who benefits from current ocean policy framed the entire hearing.

Bob Zales, a fisherman of 50 years and president of the National Association of Charterboat Operators emphasized in his testimony the exclusion of fishery stakeholders from the formulation and implementation of the National Ocean Policy. In one telling anecdote, Mr. Zales described how his only means of participation in the planning process was a one-minute testimony during the public comment period of a hearing New Orleans.

“I drove from Panama City Florida to New Orleans – and back – in one day, to give one minute of testimony,” he said. “That one minute does nothing.”

Meghan Lapp, who represents commercial fishing company Seafreeze Ltd., echoed Mr. Zales’ testimony in her own statement, discussing the limited and frustrating interactions Seafreeze had had with planners during the formation state of the National Ocean Policy.

“They’ll listen to your comments, but they don’t do anything with them. They don’t incorporate them into whatever they are doing,” said Lapp.

In contrast, Jim Lanard, CEO of Magellan Wind, when questioned by Representative Tom McClintock about the level of input offshore power companies have had on the National Ocean Policy, protested, saying regulators had in fact listened to him. “No, that has not been my experience at all,” said Mr. Lanard.

Representative Rob Bishop (R-UT), Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, spoke for many at the hearing when in his comments he summarized the confusion created by the National Ocean Policy.

“This National Ocean Policy was created six years ago,” he said, “and six years later they [the Obama Administration] still don’t seem to know what they’re doing.”

Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Turns 40

April 4, 2016 — Forty years have passed since Congress first passed sweeping legislation that changed the landscape of the American seafood industry from Bristol Bay to Beaumont to Boston.  In 1976, the Fishery Conservation and Management Act (FCMA), later to become the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, was the first legislation establishing a comprehensive framework for governing marine fisheries management in U.S. federal waters.

To this day, the Magnuson Stevens Act continues to govern all U.S. federal fisheries. The law is often credited with balancing the need to preserve our nation’s marine resources with the need to preserve the livelihoods of those who depend on them. The original legislation was the brainchild of former U.S. Senator Warren G. Magnuson of Washington state (a Democrat) and former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (a Republican), with former Massachusetts liberal Democratic Representative Gerry Studds and Alaska conservative Republican Don Young spearheading the House version.

“To hear him tell it, Alaska fishermen were living in the office of Rep. Young for three weeks while the legislation successfully moved through the House,” said Dave Whaley, who worked on Capitol Hill for over 30 years, and spent much of that time managing fisheries and oceans issues for Rep. Don Young and the House Natural Resources Committee before retiring last year. “Young always told everyone that Magnuson and Stevens received way too much credit, and the legislation should have been called the ‘Young Studds Act’ because it was the House version that eventually became law.”

200 Miles

The original legislation was designed to Americanize fisheries by controlling or eliminating foreign fishing and then restoring and conserving the fish. It officially gave the federal government the authority to manage fisheries and claimed more than 4.4 million square miles between three and 200 miles from shore as a Fishery Conservation Zone. The area, largest in the world, was later renamed the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

“I first heard of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act in an Alaskan fishing village listening to KNOM radio,” said Rod Moore, Senior Policy Advisor for the West Coast Seafood Processors Association located in Portland, OR. “I had just graduated college and was working for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The program was discussing the proposed 200 mile Fishery Conservation Zone legislation. I can’t remember the details, but at the time it definitely had my attention.”

Read the full story at the Gulf Seafood Institute

House Natural Resources Committee to Hold Hearing on International Fisheries Treaties, March 1, 2016

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — February 29, 2016 — The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans will hold a meeting on March 1, 2016 at 2:00pm to discuss a bill that implements U.S. participation in two international fisheries treaties that the country helped negotiate: the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fisheries Resources in the North Pacific Ocean, and the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fishery Resources in the South Pacific Ocean.

Bill Summary:

H.R. 4576 implements U.S. participation in two international fishery management agreements to which the United States helped negotiate: the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fisheries Resources in the North Pacific Ocean and the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fishery Resources in the South Pacific Ocean.

The bill also amends the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Implementation Act (P.L. 109-479) to help ensure that U.S. Commissioners to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention (Convention) advocate positions that minimize disadvantages to U.S. fishermen in relation to other foreign entities party to the Convention.

 

Witnesses (listed in alphabetical order):

Ambassador David Balton

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Fisheries

U.S. Department of State Washington, D.C.

 

Mr. Brian Hallman

Executive Director

American Tunaboat Association San Diego, California

 

Mr. Dan Hull

Chairman

North Pacific Fishery Management Council Anchorage, Alaska

 

Ms. Kitty Simonds

Executive Director

West Pacific Fishery Management Council Honolulu, Hawaii

 

Mr. Russell Smith

Deputy Assistant

Secretary for International Fisheries National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Washington, D. C.

 

Cosponsors: Rep. Don Young (R-AK)

 

View a PDF of the Hearing Notice

View a PDF of the Hearing Memo