Saving Seafood

News for the New England Region

New Bedford, Mass. waterfront development sparks optimism — and skepticism

October 7, 2015 — Could the former NStar site be home to the East Coast’s first flume tank for fisheries, a New Bedford Harbor Hotel or a state-of-the-art center and tech museum? What if State Pier had retail shops mixed in with a busy farmers and fish market to draw in tourists?

These ideas were among those floated at a public meeting Wednesday night on the future of New Bedford’s waterfront as part of a master planning process that is designed to help residents envision where growth should happen.

While there were some positive ideas, planners also were met with skepticism as some residents said they doubted progress would be made.

The planning process began last fall and will culminate at the end of this year with draft plans followed by several public meetings and approvals at the city level.

“This whole process is about the whole waterfront from Coggeshall Street to Cove Street. It is a plan that is about the future vision of the waterfront,” said Ed Anthes-Washburn, acting port director for the Harbor Development Commission.

The public meeting was the second of two meetings following a year’s worth of planning and public interviews along the waterfront by a waterfront steering committee and representatives of Boston consulting firm Sasaki Associates.

While residents and community members filled the conference room at the Fairfield Inn & Suites’ Waypoint Event Center to weigh in on the future of the waterfront, there was clearly skepticism. Many people said they already considered the prospects of development unlikely, questioned where money would come from and others speculated that the entire process was a Nov. 3 election stunt.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Commissioner names conduit to state, federal fishery officials

October 8, 2015 — State Fish & Game Commissioner George Peterson wasn’t able to land his first choice as the new director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries back in July, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t able to find a state position for his preferred candidate.

Peterson, in Gloucester for Thursday’s meeting of the state Marine Fisheries Commission, announced Gov. Charlie Baker has given him the green light to create a new position — special assistant to the commissioner’s office for marine fisheries issues — and place Douglas Christel in that new job.

“He will report directly to me,” Peterson said of Christel, who is set to begin work in his new job during the first week of November. “I believe he will be an asset to this agency [DMF] and this commission.”

Peterson said Christel, a longtime National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries staffer and Peterson’s first choice to succeed Paul Diodati as director of DMF, will serve as a conduit of information from various elements in the state’s marine fishery regulatory and scientific apparatus — as well as their federal counterparts — to enable Peterson, Secretary for the Environment Daniel Sieger and Baker to formulate more informed policy.

“For instance, the governor has raised some questions about the science being used to perform the stock assessments,” Peterson said. “We see this as a way of helping get new information into the system.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

Maine fishermen cash in as lobster cracks $4 a pound

October 9, 2015 — It’s a combination that seems to defy the laws of supply and demand – a large catch tends to lower wholesale prices. But that’s not happening this year even with Maine fishermen on track for another huge catch – about four times greater than what was harvested annually from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Industry experts say growing demand for processed lobster meat is allowing the market to absorb the additional catch while maintaining near-record prices paid to fishermen. They also say that Maine’s 4,500 commercial lobstermen, who for the most part fish from July through November, have benefited from some good timing.

The supply of Canadian lobsters available for processors this spring was down because there was so much ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that the fishing season was delayed. That means Maine lobsters were in high demand once the season kicked off in mid-July, a couple of weeks behind schedule.

And when the lobsters finally migrated to Maine’s coastal waters to shed their shells, they came at a steady pace rather than all at once.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Kerry: Obama looking to senators to make Atlantic monument happen

October 8, 2015 — Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking Tuesday from Chile, did nothing to tamp down the flames over a conservationist-led movement for President Obama to use executive decree to create a marine sanctuary or national monument off the coast of New England.

Speaking at the Our Oceans Conference in Valparaiso, Chile, Kerry followed a reference to the newly created sanctuaries off the coast of Maryland and along the Great Lakes coast of Wisconsin, by saying “We also have plans in the works which we are pursuing for still another significant one in the Atlantic, where we don’t have the kind of presence that we want and should.”

Kerry added that the Obama administration is working with senators “engaged in that particular area in order to make that happen.”

That seemed to toss the ball squarely back into the court of, among other New England senators, Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, both of whom have been silent on the issue.

Meanwhile, concerned by what it regards as a lack of transparency and undue influence from conservationists, a House committee on Wednesday sought more answers from the Obama administration on potential plans to create a national marine monument off the coast of New England that would be fully off limits to fishing or sea-bed harvesting.

In a letter to officials at NOAA and the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, members of the Committee on Natural Resources, said witness testimony at last week’s oversight hearing on marine national monuments showed “the public input process surrounding the designation or expansion of national marine monuments has been woefully inadequate or even non-existent.”

The letter also pointedly questioned the relationship between the Obama administration and the phalanx of conservationist groups urging the president to use the Antiquities Act to create national marine monument in the vicinity of Cashes Ledge and Georges Bank.

The letter referenced a chain of emails — first obtained and reported by the Saving Seafood website — that committee members regard as raising “serious questions regarding the Administration’s plans for a new marine monument designation and the potential involvement of a number of outside interests.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

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

 

 

At “Our Oceans” Conference in Chile, Obama announces the first new marine sanctuaries in 15 years

“Several advocacy groups have been pressing the administration to declare two new national marine monuments off New England’s coast: Cashes Ledge and the New England Canyons and Seamounts, which are home to a major kelp forest and network of deepwater corals, respectively. But some local fishing operators raised objections to the designations of the two areas in the run up to the global conference, and the president did not use his executive authority to put them off limits.”

The following is an excerpt from a Washington Post story, written by Chelsea Harvey with contributions from Juliet Eilperin: 

WASHINGTON (The Washington Post) October 5, 2015 — In a video message to conference attendees, President Obama announced plans for two new marine sanctuaries, one off the coast of Maryland, and the other in Lake Michigan. They’ll be the first new national marine sanctuaries designated by the federal government in the past 15 years.

One of these sanctuaries will be an 875-square mile section of Lake Michigan off the shore of Wisconsin, which is recognized for its collection of nearly 40 known shipwrecks, some of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The other sanctuary is a 14-square mile area of the Potomac River, which includes Maryland’s Mallows Bay – an area known for its ecological significance, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and home to bald eagles, herons, beavers, river otters and numerous species of fish.

…

Several advocacy groups have been pressing the administration to declare two new national marine monuments off New England’s coast: Cashes Ledge and the New England Canyons and Seamounts, which are home to a major kelp forest and network of deepwater corals, respectively. But some local fishing operators raised objections to the designations of the two areas in the run up to the global conference, and the president did not use his executive authority to put them off limits.

Marine national monuments differ from marine sanctuaries in that they can be established by presidential proclamation, whereas sanctuaries are designated by NOAA and require extensive public input – however, they can offer similar protections and human use restrictions over marine ecosystems.

The United States is also announcing several other plans aimed at protecting marine resources. In Chile for the conference, Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced the launch of Sea Scout, a global initiative targeting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing by uniting world leaders, expanding technology and information-sharing and identifying illegal fishing hot spots. NOAA also has plans to expand the development of a technology known as the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, which detects boats and may help alert nations to illegal fishing activities. The technology will be implemented in several nations in 2016, including Indonesia and the Philippines.

The Sea Scout initiative “provides a real opportunity to improve coordination and information sharing around the world as a way to combat illegal fishing,” said Beth Lowell, senior campaign director for Oceana, in a statement to The Post. According to Lowell, the biggest challenges to combating illegal fishing are an untraceable global seafood supply chain and a lack of enforcement. And on these fronts, there’s still more to be done.

“The first step to effectively stop IUU fishing and seafood fraud is to require catch documentation for all seafood sold in the U.S.,” Lowell said. “While Oceana applauds the president’s task force for taking great steps in the right direction, full-chain traceability is ultimately needed for all U.S. seafood to ensure that it’s safe, legally caught and honestly labeled.”

Read the full story from the Washington Post

Read Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks here

 

Greens’ Hopes For Quick Win On New England Monument Fade

Emails obtained by Saving Seafood through public records requests confirm rumors that environmental activists hoped to convince the White House to announce Atlantic Marine National Monuments at next week’s “Our Oceans” conference in Chile. 

In this Greenwire story, Conservation Law Foundation Interim President Peter Shelly tells reporter Emily Yehle that the organizers were “trying to keep that quiet” to minimize the opportunity for opponents “to organize against it.”

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – October 1, 2015 – The story excerpted below was written by E&E reporter Emily Yehle, and appeared on September 30, 2015 in Greenwire:

One month ago, environmental groups were strategizing over their latest bid: Get the Obama administration to create its first marine monument off New England.

They had talks with fishing groups, lawmakers and think tanks. At the end of August, they exchanged emails over their progress — and in one, the president of the Conservation Law Foundation warned everyone to keep quiet about the possibility of a breakthrough at the upcoming Our Ocean Conference in Chile.

“I hope no one is talking about Chile to the outside world,” CLF Interim President Peter Shelley wrote. “It’s one of the few advantages we may have to know that it could happen sooner rather than later.”

The email showed up in response to a public records request that Saving Seafood filed with the office of Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s. The advocacy group — which represents fishermen opposed to the monument — sent the emails to Greenwire yesterday, asserting that they confirm “rumors” of an impending monument announcement from the White House.

Such an announcement would certainly make waves. The proposed monument is small and sees little activity today, but it is near prime fishing grounds. House Republicans have also added the proposal to their arsenal of criticism over the White House’s use of the Antiquities Act (E&E Daily, Sept. 30).

But Shelley, in an interview today, said the email was just hopeful speculation. With the conference coming up, environmental groups had hoped to convince the Obama administration that the New England marine monument was shovel-ready and ideal for a conference announcement.

“The time was pretty short to pull it off. We thought there might be an opportunity we could get them to think about these areas for an announcement in conjunction with the Our Ocean Conference,” Shelley said. “We were trying to keep that quiet because we didn’t want to give the opposition more of an advantage. The more time they had, the more opportunity they would have to lobby, to fight it, to organize against it.”

Chile is set to host the second Our Ocean Conference in Valparaíso next week. The State Department hosted the first one last year — and used it as an opportunity to announce that Obama would drastically expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (Greenwire, June 17).

Robert Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, said rumors that the White House would make an announcement at the conference have been making the rounds for a few weeks.

“Given that last summer the Pacific monument expansion announcement took place at the State Department oceans summit, that seemed in keeping with previous actions,” Vanasse said. “We don’t put a lot of stock in Washington rumors; however, whenever our various [Freedom of Information Act] filings yielded this document, it seemed to be in sync with the rumors around town.”

The creation of monuments is usually shrouded in secrecy. Presidents can unilaterally create them under the Antiquities Act, a century-old law that requires no public process and no congressional approval.

Read the full story here

Georges Bank cod stock in grim shape

September 30, 2015 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — One of the two critical areas where New England fishermen search for cod may be in even worse shape than suspected.

Fishing managers already knew cod stocks in Georges Bank were thin, but new data from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center say research boats caught less of the fish this past spring than in all but one spring season dating back to 1968.

A report from the center, given to The Associated Press on Tuesday, states that the boats caught about 3.3 pounds of cod each time the net went in and out of the water last spring, compared with more than three times that amount two years earlier. Those numbers were routinely more than 20 pounds per trip in the late 1980s.

The status of cod in Georges Bank, a broad swath of elevated sea floor off the Massachusetts coast, could motivate regulators to again lower catch quotas for the area. Quotas have plummeted from more than 4,800 metric tons in 2012 to less than 2,000 metric tons this year.

It’s more bad news for the faltering fishery, which generations of New England fishermen have relied upon to make a living. Regulators and marine scientists have said overfishing hit the stock hard and warming oceans could be making it worse.

“Is that coming as a surprise from anybody who knows what the water temperature is out there? No, it shouldn’t be,” said David Goethel, a New Hampshire-based fisherman. “These fish are declining because of climate change.”

Regulators say the Gulf of Maine, home of the other key cod fishing ground off New England, is also in dire shape — National Marine Fisheries Service scientists said last year the amount of cod spawning in the Gulf was estimated to be 3 percent to 4 percent of its target level.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Providence Journal

 

New Bedford crab fisherman opposes ‘National Marine Monument’ for Atlantic

September 29, 2015 — WASHINGTON — Jon Williams is hoping President Obama will think twice before establishing a National Marine Monument off the New England coast in waters where his five boats fish for Atlantic red crab.

“It’s very scary,” said Williams, owner of New Bedford’s Atlantic Red Crab Co. that employs nearly 150 people.

Should the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts Area be named a national monument, Williams said he would be cut off from fishing grounds that account for between 20 and 40 percent of his red crab haul – an annual loss of around $5 million.

“We have to fish these areas. That’s where the red crab live – at these depths,” he said.

Williams testified Tuesday before a House Natural Resources subcommittee that was examining the issue. Some House Republicans oppose the process of designating national monuments, which essentially leaves the decision solely in the hands of the president. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, has proposed giving Congress and affected governors a say.

A number of petitions are pending with the Obama Administration to designate areas off of Alaska and Cape Cod, which would permanently protect them from commercial fishing or oil exploration. And, the entire Connecticut delegation wrote President Obama earlier this month asking that he establish the Atlantic monument to safeguard “the abundance of fish, whales, dolphins and other marine creatures found in this spectacular undersea landscape.”

Read the full story at the Taunton Daily Gazette

Read Jon Williams’ testimony here

 

House Subcommittee Considers Atlantic Marine Monument

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – September 28, 2015 – The House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans will convene Tuesday, September 29, to consider “The Potential Implications of Pending Marine National Monument Designations.” This hearing comes in the wake of a campaign from environmental organizations seeking to enact a marine national monument off the coast of New England via direct Executive order from President Obama. The campaign has been sharply criticized by industry members and prominent elected officials as overstepping transparent, public management processes and existing protections for the areas in questions. Included below is an excerpt from the Hearing Memo released by the House Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans.

Hearing Overview 

On Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at 10:00 a.m., in 1324 hearing room in the Longworth House Office Building, the Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee will hold a one-panel oversight hearing on “The Potential Implications of Pending Marine National Monument Designations.” 

Policy Overview 

  • The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes the President to reserve lands and waters of the United States as National Monuments. While National Monuments have been designated under sixteen Democratic and Republican Administrations, President Obama has expanded or created nineteen national monuments totaling over 260 million acres.
  • These designations are more than any other previous President. While so far he has not designated any Marine National Monuments, he has expanded existing ones by more than 403,000 total square miles – an area larger than the states of Texas and New Mexico combined. While lauded by some groups, the expansions have been criticized for cutting off commercial fishing access and undermining domestic seafood supplies and associated jobs and harming the environment.
  • A number of petitions are pending with the Obama Administration to designate areas off of Alaska and Cape Cod in New England. This hearing will primarily focus on the impacts of existing national marine monuments and these proposals. 

Read Saving Seafood’s analysis of this proposal here

Read the full Hearing Notice

Read the full Hearing Memorandum