Saving Seafood

Senators still wary of Coast Guard budget cuts

March 24, 2017 — Senators who pushed back against an early Trump administration idea for cutting the Coast Guard are still on guard for what the budget process may bring.

Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft testified Wednesday before the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, stressing again the Coast Guard’s far-forward strategy for protecting the nation’s sea frontier.

“We push our maritime borders thousands of miles beyond Mexico,” Zukunft said, recounting a past year that brought in a record 201 metric tons of cocaine intercepted at sea. It was more than the total of all seizures on land by law enforcement combined, but admittedly a fraction of what gets through.

A deficit in surveillance, ships and aircraft assets resulted in just 30% of smuggling operations being pursued, while another 580 suspected operations could not be challenged, Zukunft said.

The commandant was talking to a friendly audience, lawmakers who beat back an early trial balloon from the Office of Management and Budget that sought a $1.3 billion cut in Coast Guard spending, including maritime security teams and axing the ninth National Security Cutter.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

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