Saving Seafood

US Senate makes another push for Law of the Sea ratification

November 23, 2023 — U.S. lawmakers have reintroduced legislation for the Senate to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty, a legal framework established at a United Nations convention 29 years ago.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is a comprehensive set of rules governing how nations can use the world’s oceans; 168 states and the European Union are parties to the treaty. The U.S. signed the treaty in 1994 but is not a party to it – the Senate has not held a vote on ratifying the treaty in the nearly three decades since it went into force.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Fishing Industry Credit Enhancement Act: A lifeline for coastal fishing communities

June 27, 2023 — In an effort to provide fishermen on opposite coasts with the relief they need, U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Angus King, I-Maine, have introduced bipartisan legislation to expand financial support to America’s fishing communities. The effort reinforces coast-to-coast connections, as the State of Maine and Alaska alike have many small family businesses that make the gear, build, and maintain productions of seafood, and distribute both state’s local fish all around the world.

The Fishing Industry Credit Enhancement Act would allow businesses that have been providing direct assistance to fishing operations, such as gear production and cold storage, to access Farm Credit services. The bill’s passing would provide these businesses with access to the same loans from the Farm Credit System (FCS), which is a network of lending institutions that provides credit to the agriculture, logging, and fishing industries.

 Founded in 1916 to help farmers who historically struggled to access reliable credit, FCS became wholly owned by their farmer-borrowers in 1968 when all government capital was repaid.

The Farm Credit Act (FCA) of 1971 gave banks and associations the ability to become more flexible in lending to production and agriculture, but there were still limitations with who could get those loans. When the new bipartisan legislation was announced, Senator King mentioned that he hoped they’d be able to get the bill passed, as the issues being raised by his constituents are in many ways connected to this development. He provided further insights around this issue in an exclusive interview with NF.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

US senators say SIMP expansion is too narrow

May 26, 2023 — A half-dozen U.S. senators say that NOAA’s plan to expand the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) doesn’t go nearly far enough and are asking the agency to revise its proposal.

“The proposed rule is far too narrow in scope,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to U.S. regulators. “As SIMP currently only requires catch documentation and traceability for approximately 45 percent of seafood imports, there is a need to include all imported seafood according to the U.S. government’s intent.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US Senate bill aims to blacklist vessels involved in illegal fishing

August 30, 2022 — U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and U.S. Sen.  Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) have introduced a bill that seeks to ban vessels involved in illegal fishing from U.S. ports and waters.

The Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act, introduced 25 August, targets foreign illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by creating a blacklist of vessels that have engaged in IUU fishing, bolstering the U.S. Coast Guard’s enforcement capabilities, and advancing international and bilateral negotiations on international agreements and treaties with a maritime focus.

Read the full article at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: Sale of shell-on lobster claws bound for Senate floor

January 14, 2016 — BOSTON — Massachusetts lobstermen could get a leg-up if a Senate bill set for consideration next Thursday becomes law.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican who sponsored the bill (S 469), said it would allow for shell-on lobster claws to be processed and sold in Massachusetts.

In contrast to the groundfishery, hampered by lowered federal catch limits on cod and other stock, the Bay State’s lobster fishery is “doing fairly well,” according to Tarr, who said there are concerns about the prices lobsters fetch at the market and competition from Canada.

Read the full story at Saugus Advertiser

President Obama signs new IUU fishing law

November 8, 2015 — Pirate fishing legislation signed into law by President Obama on Nov. 5 opens access to better protection for domestic fishermen from illegal competition from illegally harvested fish entering U.S. ports and markets.

A statement issued from the White House said that the United States will now join in a global effort to ratify and implement the Port State Measures Agreement, which will prevent vessels carrying fish caught illegally from entering American ports, keep illegal product out of domestic markets and demonstrate America’s continued leadership in the global fight against IUU fishing.

Of the 25 countries needed for the treaty to enter into force, more than half have signed and the U.S. will continue to work closely with its partners around the world to finalize this treaty, the statement said.

President Obama signed H.R. 774, the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Enforcement Act of 2015, in the wake of congressional approval of the legislation several years in the making.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Oct. 23 hailed the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval of the bill, saying that he would continue to urge them to join the Port State Measures Agreement as well. 
”And because we know that no single nation can possibly police the entire sea, we’ll also begin to implement Sea Scout, an initiative I announced earlier this month at the Our Ocean conference in Chile,” he said.

“Sea Scout is aimed at enhancing global coordination, information sharing, and ultimately enforcement on IUU fishing from pole to pole and across the equator, to help ensure that no patch of it is beyond the law.”

Read the full story at The Cordova Times

 

US Senate passes IUU fishing act

October 22, 2015 — The Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Enforcement Act of 2015 has been approved by the US Senate.

IUU watchdogs and task forces have come out to praise the bill, which came into legislation on Oct. 21, having passed the US House of Representatives in July.

The Pew Charitable Trusts said it would strengthen international fisheries conservation and stop vessels suspected of fishing illegally from selling their catch in the US market.

The legislation implements the international Port State Measures Agreement, which requires signatory nations to deny entry and services to ships that have fished illegally and to share information about the vessels with international partners.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News