Tag Archives: federal government
Federal government protects overabundant grey seal population over fish stocks
MONCTON, NB – Fish harvesters attending the Gulf Groundfish Advisory Committee this week in Moncton are expressing their frustrations and disbelief over the federal government’s refusal to protect groundfish stocks by controlling the grey seal population. Many species of groundfish will be unable to adequately recover without proper management of the grey seal population. The effect of grey seals on fish populations has been confirmed by scientists, yet the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has not taken adequate action to address this problem. An increased harvest of grey seals would aid in allowing groundfish species to rebound, thereby creating new economic opportunities for thousands of families in Eastern Canada. continue reading the press release here 09:08
Feds wasting too much taxpayer money on public relations efforts
Our federal government is a master of self-promotion, comprising the second-largest public relations firm in the world, according to a new report from Open the Books, a project of the nonprofit group American Transparency. From fiscal years 2007-14, the federal government spent $4.37 billion on public relations efforts, according to the study. This sum includes more than $2.3 billion for 3,092 in-house public affairs officers – 60 percent of whom make at least $100,000 a year in base salary – across more than 200 federal agencies and $2 billion spent by 139 agencies on outside PR vendors. Read the op-ed here 10:50
Apalachicola Bay not included in Army Corps revised plan
Monday is the only day Floridians will have a chance to comment in person on an update to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manual dictating the control of water through the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin. It is the first time since 1958 the Corps has updated the manual for the three-river system, which starts in central Georgia and flows south to the Apalachicola Bay where a lack of freshwater has imperiled the ecosystem and the coastal economy that depends upon it. Read the rest here 20:48
Court orders new safeguards to prevent fish farm disease spreading to ocean
The federal government has been ordered to shore up its regulations to ensure diseases aren’t transferred from fish farms to the ocean. A Federal Court judge in Vancouver has struck down rules around transfer of fish between acquaculture farms and has given the Department of Fisheries four months to fix the regulations. The decision comes after a biologist accused a fish farm operator of moving diseased salmon smolts from its hatchery to a open pen fish farm on the British Columbia coast. Read the rest here 19:21
British Columbia Herring fishermen ask feds for $6 million to compensate losses
Three areas were set to reopen to commercial fishing this year: Haida Gwaii, the central coast, and the west coast of Vancouver Island. Fishermen say their losses include license fees and potential catches of upwards 2,000 tonnes of herring on the West Coast of Vancouver Island,,, thetyee Read more here 21:23
BP Spill Windfall Will Test Texas Conservatives
Unlike most civil penalties, which go to the federal government, Congress in the RESTORE Act has decided that the money from the BP settled will be distributed to the five states which border the Gulf of Mexico. But Daniel Rothschild, a senior fellow at the free market R Street Institute, says huge sums of money in the hands of greedy and irresponsible politicians can come back to burden taxpayers, and Texas needs to make sure that doesn’t happen. First, he says officials have to avoid the urge to create new bureaucracies which will have to be funded by taxpayers after the oil spill money is gone. “Using this to do what some have suggested to create ‘green jobs’ corps and civilian conservation corps, that is going to have long term serious ramifications for the state,” he said. “It means more people on the government payroll, and in the future taxes are going to go up to continue to pay for it.” Read [email protected] 12:17
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
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http://fvexcalibur.newsvine.com/_news/2011/01/01/5749409-they-told-us
