Saving Seafood

Is Mississippi losing the catfish wars? Flood of fish imports continues despite USDA oversight

June 22, 2021 — Mississippi farmers are losing the catfish wars against their foreign competitors with the very weapon they saw as their salvation.

The domestic catfish industry along with representatives like the late U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi lobbied to move oversight of catfish processing from the Food and Drug Administration to the U.S. Department of Agriculture five years ago with the expectation the USDA’s stricter eye would limit the foreign imports that had decimated domestic production throughout the Mississippi Delta.

Instead, imports of siluriformes– the larger category of catfish and catfish-like fish sometimes referred to by their family name “pangasius”– have only increased since the switch to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service in 2016. Meanwhile, domestic prices and production, mainly in Mississippi and other Southern states, have continued to decline.

Almost 65,000 additional tons of catfish were imported in 2019 than in 2015 before the FSIS took over according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce lists recent processing volumes at 5 million pounds per month less than in 2015 during FDA oversight. As domestic prices have declined, the average value of imports has grown with the added USDA label.

Read the full story at Magnolia State Live

US SIMP for shrimp, catfish advocates to lose champion in Cochran

March 6, 2018 — The US lawmaker who is one of the biggest forces behind an effort to make imported shrimp comply with new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) record keeping rules for imports is calling it quits.

Mississippi Republican senator Thad Cochran, the 81-year-old chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and the longest current serving member of Congress, cited health issues on Monday in confirming that he will leave his seat, effective April 1.

He also noted his determination to help reach a long sought after conclusion in efforts to pass final budget legislation before he steps down. The latest continuing resolution, a stopgap spending measure for fiscal 2018, expires on March 23.

I regret my health has become an ongoing challenge,” Cochran said in a statement. “I intend to fulfill my responsibilities and commitments to the people of Mississippi and the Senate through the completion of the 2018 appropriations cycle, after which I will formally retire from the US Senate.”

Cochran, who began his nearly 35-year stay in Congress in the House of Representatives, will be forever remembered as the domestic catfish industry’s best friend on Capitol Hill.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

More US Senators push for shrimp to be added to SIMP

February 13, 2018 — A bipartisan group of 11 U.S. Senators have signed on to a plan that would require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to add shrimp to the Seafood Import Monitoring Program.

In a letter addressed to Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the senators expressed their support for language in the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which mandates the inclusion of shrimp in the monitoring program within 30 days of the spending bill’s enactment.

SIMP, which officially took effect last month, requires imported seafood to be traced from the time it was caught or harvested to the time it reaches the United States. The program was created to crack down the sale of counterfeit or illegally caught seafood products to consumers.

Most of the seafood Americans consume is imported and shrimp makes up nearly two-thirds of those imports. Shrimp was one of the species included in the program. However, federal officials have waived it from compliance at this point until similar recordkeeping requirements are also in effect for domestic producers. That, however, has not stopped U.S. commercial fishing groups from pushing NOAA add shrimp to the program.

“The domestic, wild-caught shrimp industry has been in a state of decline for decades due to the flood of cheap, imported shrimp from countries such as India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam,” said Ryan Bradley, Director of the Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United. “This bill is a beacon of hope for our coastal communities that greatly rely on domestic shrimp production – the largest commercial fishing industry in the southeastern United States.”

In their letter, the senators expressed concerns over the use of unapproved antibiotics in foreign farmed shrimp and cited reports of human rights abuses by processors in Thailand, one of the world’s largest shrimp providers.

“We believe that SIMP is a key step to restoring a level playing field for the U.S. shrimp industry,” the senators wrote.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Senators add shrimp to seafood import monitoring program implementation plan

July 28, 2017 — Efforts to include shrimp in the Seafood Import Monitoring Program when it takes effect Jan. 1 of next year advanced in Congress on Thursday, the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) said in a release.

Senate appropriations committee chairman Thad Cochran and commerce, justice and science appropriations subcommittee chairman Richard Shelby added language to the FY2018 commerce, justice and science subcommittee bill to ensure that shrimp is fully integrated into the program on the same timeline as other species, the association said.

Previously, shrimp was expected to be phased in at a later date than majority of other priority species, which have a mandatory compliance date of Jan. 1.

David Veal, ASPA executive director, commended the decision. He said Cochran and Shelby showed they care about the survival of the US shrimp industry and continued economic opportunity and job growth of coastal communities.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

26 Senators Introduce Bill to Reform Monument Designation Process

January 10, 2017 — The following was released by the office of Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK):

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today reintroduced the Improved National Monument Designation Process Act, a bill to facilitate greater local input and require state approval before national monuments can be designated on federal lands and waters.

The following senators are original cosponsors of the bill: Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Shelley Capito (R-W. Va.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Marco Rubio (R- Fla.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

The bill requires, before any national monument can be declared on public land or within the exclusive economic zone, that the following be met:

  • Specific authorization by an Act of Congress;
  • Approval by the state legislature, and for marine monuments, approval by each state legislature within 100 miles of the proposed monument; and
  • Certification of compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act.

“President Obama has locked up more acres through monument designations than the previous 18 presidents combined,” Murkowski said. “His unilateral withdrawals have routinely come with complete disregard for local concerns and opposition, threatening energy, mining, fishing, ranching, recreation, and other reasonable uses of public land and waters. At this point, we have no choice but to reform the Antiquities Act to ensure that the people being impacted by these designations are heard and respected.”

“After President Obama abused the Antiquities Act worse than any president in history, now is the perfect time for some common sense public lands reform,” Lee said. “This bill would take power from the federal government and give it back to the people where it belongs.”

“I’ve long advocated for extensive consultation with the communities most affected by federal land management decisions,” Flake said. “By requiring state and congressional sign-off on all future national monuments, this bill will ensure that local stakeholders finally have their voices heard in the designation process.”

“This legislation would allow for greater transparency in the monument designation process and would allow Idahoans to have greater input on monument proposals,” Risch said.“Further, congressional authorization would be required before any national monument can be declared on public land, which would prevent the president from designating a monument based on the administration’s agenda.”

“As a fifth generation Montanan and avid sportsman, I know how important it is for Montanans to play a strong role in the management of these precious parts of our state,” Daines said. “Any designation should be driven locally, not by out-of-state Washington, D.C. bureaucrats.”

“For too long, Utahans and Westerners have been the victims of unjustified federal land grabs,” Hatch said. “The President’s recent designation of Bears Ears National Monument goes well beyond the original intent of the Antiquities Act, which was intended to give presidents only limited authority to designate special landmarks, such as a unique natural arch or the site of old cliff dwellings. The President was never meant to set aside millions of acres through the Antiquities Act. I believe we can strike a balance—through Congress—that allows us to maintain our rural towns and communities and also protects the cultural integrity of our lands.”

“Last month, with the quick stroke of a pen, Nevadans watched as this Administration locked up millions of acres of public land in Nevada and nearby Utah,” Heller said. “These types of unilateral federal land grabs by the executive branch should not be allowed. As an advocate for public input and local support to the decision-making process of federal land designations, I’m proud to support Senator Murkowski’s effort to legally require local approval of future designations.”

“I am proud to cosponsor this legislation that would reform the monument designation process, a process particularly important to Arizona,” McCain said. “The proposed Grand Canyon Watershed Monument in Arizona will threaten hunting, grazing, water resources and wildfire prevention in one of the most celebrated and enjoyed regions of my home state.”

The Antiquities Act provides the president with authority to create national monuments, but explicitly requires the reservation of “the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” This has not been the case with designations in recent years, however, as the Antiquities Act has become a tool to sidestep Congress and create sweeping conservation areas despite opposition from local residents. The Obama administration alone has now designated a total of 554 million acres—equal to 865,625 square miles, an area five times the size of California—onshore and offshore as national monuments.

Murkowski is chairman of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. She sponsored the previous version of this bill, S. 437, in the 114th Congress. In July 2016, the committee held a field hearing to examine the impacts of large-scale monument designations in Blanding, Utah, which was chaired by Sen. Lee. Audio and background from that hearing are available here.

See the press release at Sen. Murkowski