U.S. Congressman Garret Graves is calling for the U.S. Department of Commerce to immediately declare a “Fishery Disaster Determination” due to both the biological resources and fishery infrastructure sustaining major damage related to Hurricane Ida. Commerce is able to declare the disaster provided by the provisions within the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act. The declared disaster would provide targeted relief to one of the most impacted sectors of Louisiana’s economy. The funds would help both commercial and recreational fishers begin to recover. >click to read< 18:31
Tag Archives: department-of-commerce
Biden-Harris Administration Announces More Than $105 Million for West Coast and Alaska Salmon
Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced more than $105 million in recommended funding for 14 new and continuing salmon recovery projects and programs. Located along the West Coast and in Alaska, these state and tribal efforts will be funded through the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF). The funds include Fiscal Year 2024 annual appropriations as well as $34.4 million under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and $7.5 million under the Inflation Reduction Act, and will aid programs and projects in Alaska, California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington that include habitat restoration, stock enhancement, sustainable fisheries and research and monitoring. “This $105 million investment, made possible thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, will build on decades of salmon recovery work, while helping Pacific coast Tribes and Alaska Natives sustain their communities and cultural traditions in the face of climate change,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “This is a result of the most ambitious climate agenda in history, and I am proud that nearly half of all funds in this announcement are being awarded to Tribal applicants.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 17:55
Santa Cruz salmon fishermen facing challenges keeping afloat
The abrupt end of salmon season, announced on April 10, has left commercial fishermen across the Central Coast grappling with economic fallout and seeking alternative income sources. “It’s frustrating to see, and I’m losing faith that we might ever even have salmon season again,” said Heidi Rhodes, CEO of H&H Fresh Fish Market. “It’s just been honestly catastrophic. We’re all waiting, just trying, hoping some federal disaster relief will come. It’s been really hard to stay afloat,” added Rhodes. In February, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced an allocation of over $20.6 million in fishery disaster funding for last year’s closure. “The disaster relief doesn’t make anyone money; it’s a band-aid on a wound that can’t stop bleeding,” said local fisherman Tim Obert. Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 10:19
Conservative groups cleared to continue legal fight to protect whales from Biden-backed offshore wind farm
A coalition of conservative organizations have standing to continue fighting a Biden administration wind project in Virginia, a federal judge determined. However, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan of the District of Columbia, a Biden appointee, denied the plaintiff’s petition for a preliminary injunction to halt construction of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project from going forward. The plaintiffs sued the Biden administration and Dominion Energy to protect the North Atlantic right whale under the Endangered Species Act. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:56
NOAA Breaks Ground on a New Marine Operations Center Facility in Newport, Rhode Island funded by President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda
Today, the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new facility on Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island that will serve as the future home of the NOAA Marine Operations Center-Atlantic. In December, the NOAA Marine Operations Center-Atlantic, on behalf of NOAA, awarded $146,778,932 to Skanska USA to build the new NOAA facility. The design and construction of the facility is funded in part by the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in history, as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. The facility will include a pier to accommodate four large vessels, a floating dock for smaller vessels, space for vessel repairs and parking, and a building to be used for shoreside support and as a warehouse. Construction is anticipated to be completed in 2027. This project will operate under a Project Labor Agreement, consistent with EO 14063, issued by President Biden. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 15:39
Sens. Murphy and Blumenthal propose bill linking commercial fishing and climate change
Connecticut’s U.S. Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal have teamed with their Massachusetts colleague Elizabeth Warren on a new bill designed to update Atlantic Coast commercial fishing as it relates to climate change. The Supporting Healthy Interstate Fisheries in Transition (SHIFT) Act would require the Department of Commerce to consider the changing geographic ranges of fish populations as it oversees federal fishery management plans and quota allocations for Atlantic states. The senators stated restrictions on the species and number of fish that can be caught in Atlantic waters need to be updated because fish locations have changed in response to warming ocean temperatures and climate change. more, >>click to read<< 08:01
How a Supreme Court case involving herring fishermen affects the Little Sisters of the Poor
A Supreme Court case being argued this week could have significant implications for a decade-long religious liberty battle fought by the Little Sisters of the Poor. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this week in Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Gina Raimondo, a case challenging the authority of the federal administrative state to dictate certain rules and regulations related to federal laws. Okay, so how are the Little Sisters involved? Though the involvement of a group of Catholic religious would seem unlikely in a case such as this, the Little Sisters of the Poor are participants in the Loper case, with the nuns having filed a friend of the court brief last year in support of the fishermen. more, >>click to read<< 12:46
A group of herring fishermen may put a hook in the Biden Administration’s power
Even far out on the open water, where Bill Bright navigates his 140-foot fishing trawler in search of the Atlantic herring that school below the surface, the federal government always feels startlingly within reach. Bright and other captains alert regulators before they push off. A reporting system pings the boat’s location throughout the day. And sometimes Bright must bring a government mandated federal observer on board whose job is to collect data about the catch and ensure the rules are followed. Bright doesn’t mind those regulations. But he and his fellow fishermen are adamantly opposed to a 2020 federal rule that requires them to pay the salary of the observers they bring aboard – adding $700 a day to their costs. ”But this is not politics to me. This is about what’s right. This is about what’s right for our fishery.” photos, more, >>click to read<< 11:01
Struggling salmon fishermen getting federal help, but it may be too late
Earlier this month, two years after a request by Oregon’s governor, the U.S. Department of Commerce declared a Chinook fishery disaster for 2018, 2019 and 2020, years when local salmon populations plummeted. Fishing regulators blame the drop on poor habitat conditions and climate change near the California-Oregon border, where thousands of Chinook migrate from the ocean up rivers and streams to spawn. The disaster declaration releases financial assistance for fishermen and possibly for other businesses, along with funding to help restore the fishery and protect future Chinook runs, members of Oregon’s congressional delegation said in a statement. “The powers that be move pretty slowly when it comes to this stuff,” said Ray Monroe, a Pacific City dory fisherman. >>click to read<< 12:00
NOAA Recommends $106.1 Million in funding for West Coast and Alaska salmon recovery
Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced more than $106 million in recommended funding for 16 West Coast and Alaska state and tribal salmon recovery programs and projects under the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF). The funds, including $34.4 million under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and $7.5 million under the Inflation Reduction Act, will support the recovery, conservation and resilience of Pacific salmon and steelhead in Alaska, California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. This funding is part of President Biden’s historic Investing in America agenda, which includes over $2 billion for fish passage investments across the country. >click to read< 18:03
DOJ will appeal court order forcing Southeast Alaska king salmon troll fishery closure
The United States Department of Justice will appeal a federal court order forcing the closure of the commercial king salmon troll fishery in Southeast Alaska. In early May, Washington U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones upheld an earlier recommendation that the Southeast summer and winter king fisheries were catching too much of the food source of a dwindling population of Puget Sound’s Southern Resident killer whales, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The defendant intervenors in the case, the Alaska Trollers Association and the State of Alaska, filed motions earlier this month calling for a “partial stay” of the order, pending an appeal to allow the fisheries to proceed. >click to read< 15:58
EXCLUSIVE: Federal Regulator Acknowledges Danger to Wildlife Caused by Offshore Wind Farms
Captain Jerry Leeman, who heads the fishing vessel F/V Teresa Marie IV, sent a copy of the Norwegian haddock study to Nies in a January 9 letter. “Thank you for your January 9 letter … A federal fisheries council acknowledged that some power cables for offshore wind turbines could harm certain fish, according to a letter seen by the DCNF. Multiple recent studies have demonstrated that a variety of commercially popular fish can be negatively impacted by their exposure to magnetic fields emitted by high voltage direct current cables, which can confuse their ability to navigate and, in some cases, leave them exposed to predators. “We were previously aware of this study and agree that it has concerning implications for the possible effects of high voltage direct current cabling on larval behavior and resulting predation rates,” Thomas Nies, executive director of the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), said in a January 18 letter. >click to read< 20:01
Forcing fishermen to pay for the privilege of being monitored
Imagine you live somewhere in small-town America where residents routinely exceed the posted speed limits. To address this problem, the town council votes to require a police officer to ride along with each member of the community every time they venture out in an automobile. You might think something like that could never happen. Yet that is precisely the position into which the Department of Commerce has placed the nation’s deep-sea fishermen. For more than 30 years, the Magnuson-Stevens Act has authorized the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to require commercial fishing boats to carry observers with them to monitor their adherence to federal fishing regulations. When NOAA ran out of the money it needed to keep this program going to the extent it deemed necessary in the U.S. Atlantic Coast herring fisheries, the agency decided without congressional authorization to shift the responsibility of paying for these third-party observers to the fishermen themselves. >click to read< 14:54
State of Alaska Federal Fishery Disaster Request
October 21/2022 – The Honorable Gina Raimondo, Secretary, United States Department of Commerce 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20230 Re: State of Alaska Federal Fishery Disaster Request Dear Secretary Raimondo: In accordance with Section 312(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) and Section 308(b) of the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act (IFA), I am writing to request you declare a fishery disaster determination for the 2022/23 Bristol Bay red king crab and Bering Sea snow crab fisheries. I also request that you expedite a disaster
determination for the 2021/22 Bristol Bay red king crab fishery. >click to read<, Sincerely, Mike Dunleavy, Governor 21:18
Atlantic Herring: New England to get $11M in disaster relief funding
Disaster-level instability in the Atlantic herring industry has prompted the federal government to give $11 million to commercial fishermen and shore-side infrastructure in four states. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said Thursday that the herring industry in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island will get the assistance. More than $7 million is slated for Maine. Raimondo said the assistance “will help affected fisheries and communities recover from disasters and make them more resilient to future challenges.” >click to read< 15:49
S.497 would establish the American Fisheries Advisory Committee within Department of Commerce
After reaching out to Senator Ed Markey and Senator Elisabeth Warren and informing them that under NOAA, the SKG Grant money was not going to our fisherman as intended. My experience of being on a panel in Saint Petersburg to evaluate the applicants for two days, I discovered that the panel was there to please the public and that NOAA has complete say of who got the money! I reported this to Bruce Schactler, and Senator Sullivan. Markey who was opposed, sent his aid to met with me. After I told her what happened Markey came on board and it will now go to the House of Representatives. I am asking all Senators to support this bill. It will set up an advisory panel as was in 1954 and give our fisherman a better chance of the funds. Please, >click to read< Best Regards, Sam Parisi
Fishermen in NCLA Video Explain the Need to Reel in NOAA’s at-Sea Monitor Rule
The New Civil Liberties Alliance released a video today outlining why it is unconstitutional to force Atlantic herring fishermen to fund government-mandated monitors at sea. It is “the equivalent of having a cop in your car who’s policing you while you drive, and you have to pay his salary out of your own pocket,” said Meghan Lapp, Fisheries Liaison & General Manager for Seafreeze, Ltd. about the rule being challenged in Relentless Inc., et al. v. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, et al. NCLA, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, represents these private fishing companies,,, The at-sea monitor mandate, issued in 2018, is unlawfully “industry-funded.” >click to read< 08:50
Long Island: When will bay scallops once again be plentiful?
After years of up and down harvests, 2021 is shaping up as another potentially poor year for bay scallops. Bay scallops have been a multi-million-dollar crop for the fishing industry, from the baymen or women who work hard to harvest them in, to the markets that sell them and the restaurants that feature them prominently on menus. The loss of this cash crop, such an iconic symbol of our bays, hurts many people and calls into question the present and future health of our bays, as changes in water temperatures and steady sea rise continue. For perspective, consider this: After the huge crops of previous years, a die-off in 1985 caused by algae blooms brought the scallop almost to extinction. >click to read< 11:07
Shortsighted Petition about whale regulations in Mass draws response from Maine
Enviro groups have filed a petition with the NMFS seeking immediate emergency action requiring the commercial fishing industry to protect endangered right whales from entanglement off the coast of Massachusetts. Members of Maine’s Congressional delegation responded in opposition to that petition with a letter to the Department of Commerce, calling it shortsighted. The petition suggests ropeless fishing could be used, and even though it targets Massachusetts, Maine’s commercial fishing industry is watching, according to Mike Dassatt, who is on the board of the Downeast Lobsterman’s Association,, “We need to be supporting Massachusetts because here in Maine, it would put way too many people out of business,”,, >click to read< 07:15
Fisheries across nation seeking monitor waivers
What began in the fisheries of New England has spread across the country. Fishing stakeholders from as far away as the West Coast and Alaska have joined Northeast commercial fishermen in pressuring NOAA Fisheries to extend — and uniformly apply — waivers from having to carry at-sea monitors and other observers on vessels while the COVID-19 pandemic still rages. The Seafood Harvesters of America, an umbrella organization that represents 18 separate fishing groups from Maine to Alaska, wrote to NOAA Fisheries and Department of Commerce officials this week to advance many of the same safety arguments against reinstating observers aboard commercial fishing vessels in the midst of the pandemic. >click to read< 16:30
DOC Secretary Ross Allocates $88 Million in Fishery Disaster Funding for Fishing Communities Affected by 2019 Bonnet Carre Spillway Opening
Today, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the allocation of $88 million in fishery disaster funding to Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, where a catastrophic regional fishery disaster occurred due to extreme freshwater flooding in 2019 associated with the unprecedented opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway. “The Department of Commerce stands with our U.S. fishing communities, especially in times of hardship,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “These funds will help industries and individuals recover from this disaster, and build resilience for the future.” >click to read< 16:22
Over $21.3 million in federal fishery disaster funds allocated to Mississippi – >click to read<
Family Fishermen Challenge Illegal, Industry-Killing At-Sea Monitoring Rule from Department of Commerce
Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) today filed a lawsuit on behalf of a group of New Jersey family fishermen to block a new regulation that would force them to pay for third-party “at-sea monitors.” The industry-killing rule—which was designed by the New England Fishery Management Council and promulgated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Department of Commerce—will require certain boats in the Atlantic herring fishery to carry “at-sea monitors” and at their own cost. >click to read< 14:40
Cuomo requests federal disaster declaration, aid for scallop die-off
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Friday requested the U.S. Department of Commerce issue a disaster declaration for the Peconic Bay scallop fishery, following a catastrophic die-off of scallops in East End waterways. An immediate declaration of a disaster is needed, he said, to provide “direct economic relief for the New York fishing industry.” In a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Cuomo requested that the federal government formally declare a fishery failure in the bay scallop fishery in the Peconic Bay Estuary due to a “fishery resource disaster.” >click to read< 15:19
Fishermen Desperate for Hurricane Irma Disaster Relief
U.S. Virgin Islands fishermen aired their grievances at a public meeting held by the St. Thomas/St. John Fisherman’s Association on Monday, where they were told the $10.7 million received from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to rebuild the territory’s fishing industry is still not ready to be disbursed to individual fishermen. Fisherman’s Association Chairman Julian Magras said promises made to the association have not been followed through. “To say that we have a concrete update on where the money is, we do not,” >click to read< 10:00
Federal fisheries declaration approved for Mississippi
Congressional leaders announced a federal fisheries disaster declaration Wednesday morning to help South Mississippi fishermen affected by the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway. Mississippi leaders said in a statement that they are now working to expedite the funds set aside by the disaster declaration to provide fishermen with disaster relief more quickly. >click to read< 12:03
Wicker, Hyde-Smith, & Palazzo Commend Federal Fishery Disaster Declaration for Mississippi – >click to read<
GA Among States to Receive Part of $20 Million in Fishery Disaster Funding
The U.S. Department of Commerce allocated $20 million to help tribes, communities, fishermen, and businesses affected by commercial fishery failures that occurred in Georgia, California, Oregon, and Washington between 2013 and 2017. “The Department of Commerce and NOAA stand ready to support communities working to rebuild and rebound from fishery disasters,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “We will continue to work closely with our partners to help American fishermen preserve their livelihoods.” >click to read<09:45
What About the Fish?!! Trump signs memo to send more water to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness
“Western water mismanagement has been horrendous for commercial, recreational, and guide fisheries in California,” said Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) executive director Noah Oppenheim in a statement. “Water users have sucked our rivers dry for far too long, and the fish have been paying the price.”,,, “Just last month the Secretary of Commerce declared our 2016 and 2017 fishing seasons to be official federal fishery disasters. >click to read<09:00
In Battle Over Whale, Judge Tears Up Agency Stonewalling
A federal judge opened the door Thursday for environmentalists to bolster claims over a lobster fishery they blame for the declining population of an endangered whale. Ordering the National Marine Fisheries Service to produce discovery, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said the Endangered Species Act allows the agency’s challengers to use evidence outside the administrative record. “In order to accurately assess the alleged crisis of these cetaceans, the court will benefit from a record that reflects the actual, ongoing effects of the lobster fishery on the species,” the 16-page ruling says. The cetaceans at issue are called the North Atlantic right whale. There were roughly 455 right whales left as of 2016, and the Conservation Law Foundation says at least 18 of these have been killed since 2017. >click to read<16:28
Victory! Court Shuts Down Offshore Aquaculture in Gulf of Mexico
Today, Center for Food Safety, representing a coalition of fishing and public interest groups, won their lawsuit challenging the Department of Commerce’s new federal rules that would have permitted, for the first time, industrial aquaculture offshore in U.S. federal waters. “This is a landmark victory for protecting our oceans, for fishing communities and conservationists,” said George Kimbrell, CFS Legal Director and lead counsel in the case. “Allowing industrial net-pen aquaculture and its known environmental harms in the Gulf of Mexico is a grave threat. Very simply, as the Court properly held, aquaculture is not ‘fishing.’ These types of harms cannot be allowed under existing fisheries law never intended for that purpose.” >click to read<18:51
DEM gets $1.6M grant for Port of Galilee infrastructure improvements
The R.I. Department of Environmental Management has received a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to make critical port infrastructure improvements needed to support the region’s commercial fishing industry, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced Monday.,,, “President Trump has been clear about the urgent need to upgrade American infrastructure from coast to coast,” Ross said in a statement. “The completion of this project will help drive new opportunities to the local commercial fishing industry in the Port of Galilee.” click here to read the story 14:57
