February 21, 2017 โ New England fishermen and conservationists fear one of President Trumpโs executive orders will have disruptive effects on fisheries management, although it will not affect routine seasonal fisheries regulation, as some had initially feared.
The ambiguously worded Jan. 30 order requires that two regulations be effectively eliminated for each new one promulgated by most federal agencies. The order prompted a fiery letter three days later from two prominent Democratic congressmen pointing out it could have โdevastating impacts on commercial and recreational fisheries and the businesses and communities they support.โ
However, on Feb. 2 the acting head of OMBโs Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs issued an advisory memo that clarified that the presidentโs order applied only to โsignificant regulatory actionsโ as defined under a 1993 executive order issued by President Bill Clinton. The memo is posted at the White Houseโs website, suggesting it has presidential approval.
The good news for fishermen: The vast majority of federal fisheries regulations do not meet this standard, meaning routine closures and assessments should proceed as they always have.
However, NOAA Fisheries has several regulations currently under consideration that OMB does consider โsignificant regulatory actionsโ and therefore are expected to run afoul of Trumpโs order, according to OMBโs official โreginfoโ database. These include a proposed update to ensure consistent application of rules at federal marine sanctuaries and an effort to combat the spread of illegally caught or fraudulently identified seafood in U.S. markets.
In recent years, numerous fisheries regulations were also treated as โsignificantโ actions by the OMB, including the 2013 overhaul of the framework for managing 16 commercial groundfish off New England and the mid-Atlantic states; a 2013 rule to better protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale from ship strikes; and a 2016 regulation that protected critical spawning habitat for Atlantic sturgeon in the Gulf of Maine and New York Bight.
Drew Minkiewicz, a Washington, D.C., lawyer representing larger Eastern Seaboard scallop fishermen, says fishermen need not be concerned about most regulations. โThis executive order has zero impact on 99.9 percent of the fishing regulations going out, so people who are wondering if the fishing season will be delayed donโt need to,โ he says. โItโs much ado about nothing.โ