Saving Seafood

Analysis: What does the commerce secretary do?

January 29, 2025 — The U.S. secretary of commerce oversees the smallest but arguably most complex of all Cabinet-level departments.

Established as a distinct entity in 1913, it has evolved into a sprawling organization with 13 bureaus spanning a wide variety of critical areas that include weather forecasting, conducting the census, estimating gross domestic product, managing fisheries, promoting U.S. exports, setting standards for new technology and allocating radio frequency spectrum. It is even home to one of America’s eight uniformed military services, the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps with its own fleet of ships, aircraft and 321 commissioned officers. Its main mission is to monitor oceans, waterways and the atmosphere in support of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

As a result, there is no other Cabinet position that has to engage with lawmakers in Congress across so many disparate technical issues, committees and stakeholders. This medley reflects both the historical evolution of the U.S. economy and a degree of political happenstance.

I served at the Commerce Department in several roles, including as chief financial officer and assistant secretary for administration, management and budget, and have watched several administrations attempt to craft an overarching strategic narrative around this diverse set of missions.

Besides the difficult job of formulating a unifying strategy for the department’s many activities, I believe there are three specific challenges in particular that await the next secretary, a position that requires Senate confirmation.

Read the full article at PBS

US fishery management council’s structure is unconstitutional, court rules

September 26, 2024 —   A divided federal appeals court on Wednesday stripped a regional fishery management council of its ability to block the U.S. Secretary of Commerce from taking actions to manage fisheries that the panel does not support, after finding the council’s members were unconstitutionally appointed.

The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on 2-1 vote sided with two commercial fishermen who had sued after Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council amended a fishery-management plan to lower how much scup, summer flounder and black sea bass could be caught in their region.

The fishermen, Raymond Lofstad and Gus Lovgren, challenged the constitutionality of the structure of the body, one of eight regional councils nationally tasked with developing fishery management plans, in their lawsuit. They are being represented by the libertarian Pacific Legal Foundation in their lawsuit.

That 21-member council oversees the waters from New York down through Virginia. Seven of its members are appointed by state governors and 13 are appointed by the commerce secretary and the regional director of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Read the full article at Reuters

Tribal fishery disasters declared in the West; $17.4 million allocated

September 1, 2022 — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo announced today her determination and the allocation of $17.4 million to address fishery disasters that occurred in multiple tribal salmon fisheries on the West Coast from 2014 to 2019.

“Sustainable and resilient fisheries play a vital role in helping tribal communities put food on the table and in supporting economic well-being,” said Secretary Raimondo. “It’s our hope that this disaster declaration will help the affected tribes recover from these disasters and increase their ability to combat future challenges.”

The Secretary found that the following fisheries met the requirements for a fishery disaster determination:

  • 2019 Fraser River & Skagit River Salmon Fisheries (the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Tulalip, Upper Skagit Tribes).
  • 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019 Fraser River and Nooksack River Terminal Area Sockeye, Chinook, Chum, Coho, and Pink Salmon Fishery (Lummi Nation).
  • 2019 Puget Sound Fall Chum Salmon Fishery (Squaxin Island Tribe).
  • 2014 and 2019 Fraser River Sockeye and Puget Sound Chum, and Coho Salmon Fishery (Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe).
  • 2019 Klamath River Fall Chinook Salmon Fishery (Yurok Tribe).

The Secretary, working with NOAA Fisheries, evaluates each fishery disaster request based primarily on data submitted by the requesting tribe, state or appointed official. Positive determinations make these fisheries eligible for disaster assistance from NOAA. In order to allocate funding across the eligible disasters, NOAA Fisheries used commercial revenue loss information. The agency also took into consideration traditional uses that cannot be accounted for in commercial revenue loss alone, such as cultural and subsistence uses.

“NOAA has great respect for our tribal fishery co-managers, and their knowledge, science and history are invaluable to our work managing and restoring fisheries,” said Janet Coit, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “With climate change impacts further stressing our fisheries and waterways, it is essential that we work together to take on the challenges in our ecosystems and communities.”

These funds will help improve the long-term economic and environmental sustainability of the impacted fisheries. Funds can be used to assist fisheries participants, including commercial fishermen, charter businesses, shore-side infrastructure providers and subsistence users. Activities that can be considered for funding include fishery-related infrastructure projects, habitat restoration, tribal and fishing permit buybacks, job retraining and more. Some fishery-related businesses impacted by this fishery disaster may also be eligible for assistance from the Small Business Administration. 

In the coming months, NOAA Fisheries will work with the tribes receiving allocations under this announcement on administering these disaster relief funds. Fishing communities and individuals affected by these disasters should work with their tribe and/or the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission as appropriate.

ALASKA: Aid from fisheries disasters can take years to come through

February 1, 2022 — Earlier this month, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce declared disasters for over a dozen fisheries in Alaska — more than the federal government usually approves at once.

The designation is supposed to unlock funds to help the communities impacted by those fisheries failures, including communities around Cook Inlet. But it can take years for the money to reach fishermen’s pockets.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the timing is one of the problems with the process.

“If you’ve had a disaster that happened in 2018, we’re sitting here in 2022 and you’re saying, ‘Really? You think that that’s going to help me?’ In the meantime. I’ve got a boat mortgage that I’ve got to be paying. I’ve got a crew that I’ve got to be paying. This doesn’t help me at all,” she said.

The state knows the process can be lengthy and tries to expedite it where possible, said Rachel Baker, Alaska’s deputy Fish and Game commissioner.

Read the full story from KDLL at KTOO

Alaska: Pink salmon harvest below forecast, slightly up from 2016

August 31, 2018 — Though pink salmon harvests are ahead of what they were in 2016, the last comparable run-size year, they are still significantly below the forecast level.

As of Aug. 28, Alaska’s commercial pink salmon harvest was 38.2 million fish, about 4 percent ahead of the harvest in 2016. Pink salmon have a two-year life cycle, with large runs in even years and smaller runs on odd-numbered years, so the harvests are compared on every other year as compared to year-over-year like other species. Two years ago, the pink salmon runs returned so small that the U.S. Secretary of Commerce declared a fishery disaster on the Gulf of Alaska pink salmon fisheries.

The total harvest so far is slightly more than half of the forecasted 69.7 million fish for this season. Cook Inlet’s fishermen have harvested about 965,000 pinks, significantly more than the 465,000 in 2016. The vast majority of those — about 838,815 pinks — have been harvested in Lower Cook Inlet, largely the southern district bays around the lower edge of the Kenai Peninsula south of Kachemak Bay. The Port Graham Section alone has harvested 345,648 and the Tutka Bay Special Harvest Area has harvested 269,165, both of which have pink salmon hatcheries nearby.

Pink salmon harvest varies in other areas of the state. Kodiak’s harvest of pinks so far is behind the forecast but significantly better than in the 2016 disaster year. The Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands and Bristol Bay are both behind both their forecasts and the 2016 harvest. Southeast’s pink salmon is about 67 percent below its normal even-year harvest, with about 7.3 million pinks harvested so far compared to the 18.4 million harvested in 2016.

Read the full story at the Peninsula Clarion    

 

New Jersey asks new Commerce boss to stop fluke cut

March 3, 2017 — Wilbur Ross meet New Jersey’s summer flounder fishermen.

Ross is the newly appointed U.S. Secretary of Commerce. As the department’s boss, he oversees management of fisheries through its Fisheries Office and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

He’s the person the Christie Administration, and state delegates are now trying to hook, and win over to their side on the summer flounder issue.

They wasted no time to petition Ross this week and ask him to put a hold on the new summer flounder regulations approved by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission on Feb. 2.

The regulations call for a 30-percent reduction in the coastwide harvest of summer flounder on the Atlantic Coast. The regs were voted on after federal regulators reported the coastwide summer flounder population from Maine to North Carolina declined and fishermen overfished their quota last year.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press