Tag Archives: Commerce Department
Your View: UMD administration needs to explain changes at SMAST – southcoasttoday.com
Prior to that event and the arrival of Dr. Brian Rothschild and his associates, the domestic fishing industry was subjected to the science used for assessing fishing stock sizes and their use in fishing conservation plans. The law called for the fishery management councils to use the best available scientific information, and in the days before SMAST that meant that whatever the National Marine Fisheries determined to be the proper approach was indeed the gospel. Fishermen and the industry generally were put through management measures that not only didn’t make sense but ended up killing millions of pounds of seafood product, fish and scallops, subjected vessels to huge fines and loss of vessels, and resulted in a highly confrontational relationship between industry and government. Read More
Editorial: Feds cannot allow exiting NOAA chief any transition role
There c
an be no celebration, only a sense of profound relief over the resignation and coming exit of Jane Lubchenco as chief administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And that sense of relief should not allow either commercial fishermen or our federal lawmakers to relax their guards between now and the February date when Lubchenco will formally bow out of her role. Indeed, the downside of Lubchenco’s plan to leave her six-figure post is that the Department of Commerce is essentially allowing her to do so on her own terms as if she should have had any choice after her policies reduced one of America’s oldest and most noble small-business industries to an admitted state of “economic disaster” in New England during her four short years at the helm. Read More
Commerce secretary: Return $544K in fish fines – Bloomberg
BOSTON (AP) — The acting U.S. Commerce Secretary on Friday ordered federal regulators to return about $544,000 in unjust fines collected from 14 fishermen or fishing businesses, most of whom worked Northeast waters. New Bedford fishing boat owner Carlos Rafael, who will receive $17,500 back after Blank’s order, said he’s pleased to get anything, given the industry’s ongoing struggles. But he said the bigger victory is accountability for fisheries’ officers. “Even if I didn’t get any money, the world is watching them,” he said. “Before nobody was watching them. … Before they were like the Gestapo. Before you were (automatically) guilty, the party was over.” http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-12-14/commerce-secretary-return-544k-in-fish-fines
Redress for NOAA law cases- Commerce Department on Friday closed the book on past violations
“After months of unacceptable delay and stonewalling of Congress, the Commerce Department has released a report that found serious misconduct by NOAA personnel,” said U.S. Sen. Scott Brown. “Some of this misconduct happened during the current administration, yet no one has been fired or even demoted. This report provides more context to Administrator Lubchenco’s resignation and makes her planned service through February untenable.” http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x520560721/Redress-for-NOAA-law-cases
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE SPECIAL MASTER CONCERNING APPLICATIONS FOR REVIEW OF NOAA ENFORCEMENT ACTION
Click for The Report
Demand for fishery abuse report gains steam. Republican Paul Broun and Senator John Kerry lean harder on Commerce
The 66-case study, which reportedly runs more than 500 pages, with recommendations by the author — special judicial investigator Charles B. Swartwood III — was submitted in final form eight months ago. http://www.gloucestertimes.com/topstories/x2120611929/Demand-for-fishery-abuse-report-gains-steam
FLASHBACK! John Kerry – “Lubchenco is your friend,” February 2010 To leave the Fish Wars as Secretary of Defense?
Kerry released the following statement to the Times yesterday in response to a request about his position on Magnuson. “The status quo isn’t working, and I say that as someone who is passionate about the environment, but who can see plainly that people are hurting and there are legitimate issues that have to be fixed. “I’m going to be talking with fishing and environmental experts at the state and federal level to develop sustainable fisheries in New England and work with the New England delegation, as I always have, to keep federal assistance flowing into Massachusetts for our fishing families and to rebuild the fisheries.” http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x966804462/Kerry-to-fishermen-Lubchenco-your-friend
No offense Senator,,,,,,,,,,screw it, Senator Kerry, you thought then, as you do now, that its all about frittering out a few bucks to to the victims of President Obama’s US Commerce Department, the New England Fishing Industry. You have been ineffective Senator, and I’m done beating the drum for you. You have not delivered, Senator.
Please, John Kerry, just go away! http://bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061174640
Editorial: Unjust debt cuts, fish report need prompt attention GDT – Cameron Kerry, sits at the flashpoint
Enough is enough. And answers are needed to each of these issues — not in January, but now.
Look, 550 pages is comprehensive enough, and aptly named acting Commerce Rebecca Blank needs to turn it over now, without any additional comments or responses apparently being added in-house. Again, Tierney, Brown and all of their colleagues need to begin next week making the case not only for the release of this document, but for a federal prosecutor with subpoena power to step in and give NOAA’s entire enforcement record the true investigation that’s needed. http://www.gloucestertimes.com/opinion/x121543028/Editorial-Unjust-debt-cuts-fish-report-need-prompt-attention
Fish council eyes December for ’13 limits By Richard Gaines Staff Writer GDT
The New England Fishery Management Council has set a special one-day meeting Dec. 20 to take final action on most groundfish allocations for the 2013 fishing year that begins May 1, and take near final action on Framework 48 which updates and refines Amendment 16 and its catch share maagement system. The special meeting was spun off the November council meeting set for Newport, R.I., due to the welter of issues. http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x1499658911/Fish-council-eyes-December-for-13-limits
Fisherynation thanks Ray Lamont, Editor, Gloucester Daily Times
Ray, thank you for keeping this obscene issue in the mainstream in the persuit of justice.
October 13, 2012
Why Did My Newspaper Do That? Keeping up pressure — and coverage — of overdue report
Why Did My Newspaper Do That? Ray LamontGloucester Daily TimesThe Gloucester Daily TimesSat Oct 13, 2012, 12:00 AM EDT
Our front page today includes a story about the latest update regarding the so-called second Swartwood report — essentially the findings of an in-depth look by a special investigator into some 66 cases of alleged abuse and excessive enforcement by NOAA policing personnel against New England and other Northeast fishermen. By my count, and according to our archives, this is the 16th news story on the report, which was completed and submitted to the Department of Commerce in March. And there have been a handful of editorials about its status as well. Yet the basic core nugget of news is the same – that Commerce officials still have not released the report, and will not provide a time frame for when they will. So is it really news? If there is, on the most basic level, no hard news to update, is it even worth updating? Why, you might ask, would your community’s newspaper keep doing that?,,,,,,,,,,,,Read More
Editorial: Feds cannot allow altering of NOAA abuse report Gloucester Daily Times – Another Shameful Obama Administration Blunder
After sitting more than six months on a second, in-depth probe report from special investigator Robert B. Swartwood III, the word that Acting Commerce Secretary Roberta Blank has asked her staff “to gather more information regarding issues” spotlighted in Swartwood’s report on 66 cases of alleged abuse by NOAA enforcement personnel against the commercial fishing industry at least shows some long-overdue movement. Yet, it’s also troubling to learn that Blank expects to “use that information to finalize her decision memorandum,” as Blank’s press secretary, Marni Goldberg, reported in an email to the Times last week. While Blank may indeed be “completing her analysis” of the second Swartwood report,,,,,,,Read More
Deep sea of distrust – Catch-share controversy, and an uncertain future
Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part look at the tensions between local fishermen and regulators, and the beginning of a series on the fishing industry in general. Part 2 in next weekend’s Seacoast Sunday will feature the input of a NOAA scientist, new regional administrator John Bullard and David Goethel, a Hampton fisherman and member of the New England Fishery Management Council.
PORTSMOUTH — The new regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service says his goal is to rebuild trust with fishermen, but fishermen are able to rattle off a litany of complaints against the federal agency and its scientists that indicate the relationship may be beyond repair.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20120923-NEWS-209230338
They Told Us – Joel Hovanesian F/V Excalibur RI. Fishermen’s Alliance
They told us we were using twine that was too small and not allowing juvenile fish to escape. We accepted and went to the largest mesh size in the world for the species we seek. They told us we needed to protect spawning areas where fish reproduce. We closed thousands of square miles of the most productive areas in which we fished. Then they told us this was not enough so they made tracts of ocean closed during certain months. They told us we were fishing too many days so they told us we were going to only be allowed to fish 88 days a year. We didn’t like it but we were told it would pay off for us when the fish returned. They told us 88 days were too many so they decided to give us what they deemed,,,,,Read more
This article generated 98 comments. Good comments.
http://fvexcalibur.newsvine.com/_news/2011/01/01/5749409-they-told-us
The Obama Administration’s Commerce Department Is Obstructing Justice. Swartwood II
The findings, by Special Master Charles B. Swartwood III regarding NOAA’s fishing enforcement tactics, were completed in early May. They are said to be detailed, numerous and explosive. But that report remains hidden from the public. Both John Bryson, who resigned after his now-infamous June hit-and-run escapades in southern California, and acting Secretary Rebecca Blank have ignored multiple calls to make the latest report public. And so NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, whose shown nothing but contempt for Congress and any other oversight since 2009, when she took the reins of an agency that is even more dysfunctional now than it ever was then.
http://bore-head007.newsvine.com/_news/2012/10/16/14481690-the-obama-administrations-commerce-department-is-obstructing-justice-swartwood-ii
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