Tag Archives: National Marine Fisheries Service
Battle brewing over fishery observers on smaller commercial boats – “It’s totally political,”?
“Here’s an example,” she said. “You’ve got an observer on board or you’ve got a camera. Which is more easy to deal with in terms of getting away with something? It’s a lot harder to throw an observer overboard. That’s a very extreme example.”
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/battle-brewing-over-fishery-observers-smaller-commercial-boats
Editorial: Fishery appeals ruling put onus on capping catch shares
Yet no o
ne should believe that this ruling marks the end of the fight over catch shares, or other aspects of the gross mismanagment of New England’s and America’s fisheries by the administrator Jane Lubchenco and her National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as we know it. For in standing by Amendment 16 and catch shares, Chief Judge Sandra Lynch — who wrote the decision or the court – cited a December 2011 announcement by the regional fishery council that it is developing rules aimed at “reduc(ing) the likelihood that groundfish permit holders will acquire or control excessive shares or fishing privileges.”http://www.gloucestertimes.com/opinion/x520555400/Editorial-Fishery-appeals-ruling-put-onus-on-capping-catch-shares
NOAA / NMFS Reopens public comment period. Proposed Rule to Expand Exempted Redfish Fishery for Groundfish Sectors
ACTION: Proposed rule; reopening of comment period.
SUMMARY: This action reopens the comment period for an Acadian redfish proposed rule that published on November 8, 2012. The original comment period closed on November 23, 2012; the comment period is being reopened to provide additional opportunity for public comment through December 31, 2012. http://www.nero.noaa.gov/mediacenter/2012/11/redfish_extension.pdf
Lawyer blasts NOAA ‘failure’ on fishing – gdt
“This Thanksgiving, I want to give an overdue thanks to the region’s remaining fishermen who brave the elements and bring my family fish and seafood products to eat,” Shelley wrote. “All of us have failed to provide you with a rational, predictable and equitable business environment in which to nourish your hopes of being part of the American dream.“The system has failed you and will continue to fail you as long as it continues to give each of you what you individually demand.”Shelley’s harsh judgment comes as a time when NOAA, led by Jane Lubchenco, is under fire from industry groups and congressional figures from both parties for its policies.
What a phoney bastard. BH
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/topstories/x520553412/Lawyer-blasts-NOAA-failure-on-fishing
Fish panel snubs U.S., Canada limits Gloucester Daily Times
NOAA’s New England Fishery Management Council Wednesday heaped derision on a joint assessment of yellowtail flounder conducted jointly by U.S. and Canadian scientists, then trashed the minuscule allocation of the stock based on work that even the agency’s chief regional scientist declined to defend, except to say it was the best “available” and therefore binding. http://www.gloucestertimes.com/topstories/x179000228/Fish-panel-snubs-U-S-Canada-limits
“The fishing industry, in general, is in a very negative mood,” The Controversial Science of Counting Fish
At the meeting in Portsmouth on Friday, scientists detailed the complexities and uncertainties of counting fish that live out of sight. They also took questions from fishing industry advocates frustrated over what they say are shifting and incorrect population estimates that have led to lower catch limits and damaged their businesses http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20121112-NEWS-211120323
LIVE – Northeast Groundfish Science Forum – Listen via Webinar set for November 9 begin at 8:30AM,
Registration is not required, but we are trying to get a headcount. To confirm your participation or for more information, contact Teri Frady at [email protected] / 508 495 2239.
Speakers have been added and the agenda has been further developed since the first announcement. The forum will also be available via webinar . An audio recording will be posted afterward. http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/groundfish/meetings/
John Bullard, enemy of porpoises?- or Is Carl Safina just a winey Enviro Wench?!
Bullard just gave those fishermen a free pass to ignore the law for another four months,” fumed Carl Safina of the Blue Ocean Institute in a sizzling commentary titled “As Fisheries Service Dithers, New England Porpoises Drown.” And Sufina is willing to sacrifice the remainder of New England fishermen. John Bullard upheld National Standard 8. Finally someone has the balls to do things right, and Safina the winey bitch is drooling with mad contempt while co-author Andrew Read, professor of marine biology at Duke University pouts with him. I think it’s time to land these porpoises, and process them for people to eat. I’m willing to eat it instead of wasting it. They like all other Marine Mammals are experiencing a population explosion thanks to the success of MMPA, a law pushed by environs and others in 1972 with no consideration of consequence. That being huge numbers of marine mammals! Bon Appetit!
November 02, 2012 12:00 AM, Steve Urbon-Three months into his tenure as the Northeast regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service, former New Bedford mayor John K. Bullard is being called a heartless porpoise killer and a pushover, or worse, for the fishing industry. And it’s not just anyone doing the accusing. It is a pair of prominent marine scientists, one of whom Bullard says he considers a friend from his earlier days at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121102/NEWS/211020324
Fish report release unlikely before elections By Richard Gaines Staff Writer Gloucester Daily Times
The Obama administration, through its Commerce Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has declined to respond to inquiries as to whether it would release before the Nov. 6 election a special investigator’s set of case studies into allegations of abuse and excesses against American fishermen by federal law enforcers still insulated and protected by top Commerce and NOAA officials. Numerous telephone and email questions over the past month to the acting commerce secretary, Rebecca Blank, General Counsel Cameron Kerry, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco and her chief counsel, Lois Schiffer, have been ignored. Read More.
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/topstories/x1133190572/Fish-report-release-unlikely-before-elections
Why would US Commerce hold back Swartwood II until after the election? Are they complicit?
Why will this administration continue to obstruct justice and not release this report? It is complicit. The Obama Administrations Commerce Department has chosen to involve itself in this perverse abomination.
We are all aware of the gooey details of Administrative Law Judge Joseph Ingolia, pressing Special Master Swartwood to alter his report to cover up details that have shown theUSCG ALJ was involved in a despicable kangaroo court cash grab, all but guaranteeing that Dale Jones’ All Star cast of “Special Agents” and Chuck Juliand would build up a $100 million dollar slush fund, and rifle through half of that on cars planes, and video games, while Andy sold merchandise on E-Bay with his GI phone. Andy should be re scrutinized.
When Lubchenco requested the investigation, she had the chance to fix, but she chose not to.
“The notes and emails to Swartwood coordinating the meeting reflect the active involvement of Cam Kerry, chief counsel for the Commerce Department, and his deputy Geovette Washington, as well as Monica Medina, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco’s principal deputy. Their initiative was aimed at clearing the reputation of the Coast Guard judges via the secret meeting.”
She chose to manipulate, and her Gulf BP oil dripping hands are all over this. Cover up. Secret meetings. Business as usual. Don’t rock the NOAA boat. Blow it out of the water. It’s beyond time for a full dismantling of this agency and Jane Lubchenco’s firing. As always,
ABOLISH CATCH SHARES NOW!
Economic relief needed for fishermen – US Senator Jeanne Shaheen
In recent years, New Hampshire fishermen have seen their incomes decline as federal regulations designed to end overfishing have limited the amount of fish they can catch. To make matters worse, these often-onerous regulations haven’t helped the cod population rebound as expected. In fact, a 2011 scientific study by the National Marine Fisheries Service found so few codfish in the Gulf of Maine that the quota for the upcoming fishing year must be set extremely low — so low that it jeopardizes the survival of New Hampshire’s fishing industry. The Survey SUCKS!BH
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20121021-OPINION-210210309
Facing restrictions, fishermen welcome possible disaster aid
Another EDF puff piece from the boring broadsheet! A lot of BS in this one.
South Shore fishermen welcome the prospect of aid from September’s federal disaster declaration, but they remain critical of fishery management practices. Unprecedented competition from large boats over the last year has hurt the mostly smaller boats that populate harbors in Marshfield, Plymouth, and Scituate, they said. The disaster declaration allows, but does not require, Congress to appropriate money. Affected states are asking for $100 million, but the funding is not guaranteed.http://bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/south/2012/10/17/south-shore-fishermen-welcome-possible-disaster-aid-seek-long-term-solutions/DVHh7P6BvUG4Nhdnb7PPiO/story.html
Fish council eyes lifting of closures- Conservation Law Foundation,Earthjustice, Nature Conservancy Will Sue
Fishery council member David Goethel, a Hampton, N.H., groundfisherman, said mortality closures have had enough time — 16 years — to prove themselves a wellspring for the stocks.
“We should be overflowing with groundfish; instead we have a disaster,” said Goethel, who said the closed areas should be opened.
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/topstories/x1684126854/Fish-council-eyes-lifting-of-closures
Ripples from disruptions in the fishing industry will reach a long way By DON CUDDY
They say bad news comes in threes, and that seems to be the case in the New Bedford fishing industry these days. On top of a recent declaration from the secretary of commerce that the groundifsh industry in New England is a national disaster, the scallop fleet is looking at catch reductions of 30 percent for the next two years. And groudfishermen are resigned to more drastic cuts to their quota for the next fishing year, which begins on May 1.
Frustration over the cuts is mounting on the waterfront because fishermen have their doubts about the accuracy of NOAA’s stock assessments.
“There’s more yellowtail now than there were in the ’60s,” said Reidar Bendiksen of Reidar’s Manufacturing in Fairhaven, a family business that makes trawl gear. “But the fishermen can’t go where they are, and they are not allowed to catch them.”
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121014/NEWS/210140346
Scallop Actions: NEFMC September 25 – 27, 2012 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
,,,,,,,,,,quota for the U.S. and Canada to share for Georges Bank yellowtail, leaving the U.S. share in the low 200’s—an amount considered insufficient by the scallop harvesting industry. In contrast, the New England Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) recommended consideration of an overall quota of 1,150 mt. The Council did not vote to approve the TMGC-recommended level, and will consider the quota level recommended by the SSC as well. The Council did not move forward with the SSC recommendation that there be no possession of Georges Bank yellowtail. Read More
Signs of hope in fisheries management October 07, 2012 2:00 AM
When long-time Portsmouth Herald editor Ray Brighton wrote his definitive two-volume history in honor of Portsmouth’s 350th anniversary, he called it “They Came to Fish.” Fishing brought settlers to our shores and was a sustaining industry for centuries. When locals want to celebrate and when tourists come to the Seacoast they want to eat seafood: lobsters, steamers, quahog chowder, cod and haddock. It is the quintessential New England fare. Today our fishing fleet and associated industries are mere shadows of their former selves. Every year a few more fishermen give up the fight. The Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative in Seabrook offers the last shore support for our decimated fleet. Distrust runs high among regulators, scientists and the fishermen who feed their families by their dangerous and backbreaking work at sea. http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20121007-OPINION-210070312
New Regionl NMFS fisheries leader hosted ‘listening session’ in Chatham Oct.2, 2012 – Hey Andy, herring eat too, ya know!
CHATHAM — At the town’s community center Thursday night, there was little animosity on display, as is often the case when fishermen square off in a room with an official from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency charged with overseeing the commercial fishery. Perhaps that was because of John Bullard, the newly minted fisheries service Northeast regional administrator, and his gentle manner as he listened to what Cape fishermen had to say about fisheries management. “You’re an even-tempered, soft-spoken man. You got that thing going on,” mused Provincetown fisherman Beau Gribbon………….Andy Baler, owner of the Nantucket Fish Company, said fishery managers needed to protect forage species such as herring that formed the basis of the marine food chain. “Herring feed everything,” he said. Baler advocated managing stocks not as single species but by placing importance on the relationships between species.
Andy Baylor has drunk the Pew Brew. He is blind to the FACT herring are now a predator specie, feeding voratiously on codling. http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121005/NEWS/210050330/-1/NEWS11
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
Fishing for truth in the feds’ latest Alaska halibut management plan – Craig Medred | Oct 01, 2012 Alaska Dispatch
With another round in Alaska’s halibut war shaping up between commercial fishermen and charter-boat operators, the staff of the National Marine Fisheries Service has written a 333-page indictment of what is wrong with management of the big flatfish in the North Pacific.
“The Regulatory Amendment for a Catch Sharing Plan For the Pacific Halibut Charter Sector and Commercial Setline Sector in International Pacific Halibut Commission Regulatory Area 2C and Area 3A” — as federal regulators call their hefty tome — was not intended as such as indictment, but that is what it ended up becoming. It is a long-winded, redundant, hard-to-fathom testament to what the agency didn’t do in terms of assessing economic impacts associated with changes in the halibut fishery, and what it plans to do to benefit commercial fishermen.
Where other U.S. resource agencies focus on generating revenue for the cash-strapped U.S. Treasury by making money off public resources — be it oil, gas, minerals, timber range land, or even scenery — the Fisheries Service is focused on increasing revenue for the fishermen with whom it long ago formed an alliance.
Syndicate Fish Wars: How the battle over halibut has impacted charters and commercial fishermen
Is the goal job elimination?
Show me the money
Charter operators growing tired
Damping down tensions
A Question that Demands a Better Response Than What Was Recieved. – The Free Press
This second writing for the Free Press finds me at a place that forces me to revisit my article for the First Edition.
things-are-lookin-pretty-good-for-the-predators-whats-a-poor-cod-fish-to-do-the-free-press
The New England Fishery Management Council began its three day meeting in Plymouth Ma on 9/25/2012.
As is typical of bureaucratic meetings, this one was spiked with some, at times, semi excitement, and threats.
The New England Fishery Management Council approved a motion to allow groundfishermen access to large areas off-limits to fishing.
Paul Cohan – F/V Sasquatch Shift of fishing closure gives hope
To the editor:
Hats off to John Bullard and the Northeast Seafood Coalition (“NOAA backs off gillnet closure,” Page 1, Gloucester Daily Times, Sept. 27).
How is it that the coalition, with far fewer resources and access to data, devised an acceptable alternative that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grudgingly accepted with less than 96 hours to go before the closure went into effect? http://www.gloucestertimes.com/opinion/x708369977/Letter-Shift-of-fishing-closure-gives-hope
NOAA Offers No Immediate Action on Flawed Yellowtail Assessment. (They ain’t in a rush address it, either!)
WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) Sept. 25, 2012 — Responding to a request by the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF) to reject the most recent yellowtail flounder stock assessment and adopt alternative measures for setting yellowtail quotas, NOAA officials offered a workshop sometime next year to examine the chronic problems present in a number of fisheries assessments, but offered no immediate remedies to the scientific and management issues raised by FSF. The 2013 quota is expected to be as much as 50 percent less than the quota for 2012. The letter, sent signed by Deputy Science and Research Director Russell Brown for Acting Science and Research Director William Karp, was sent last month. FSF did not immediately release the response. “We had several conversations with Director Karp, and hoped to negotiate an outcome resulting in action sooner than next year.” said FSF attorney Drew Minkiewicz. “Ultimately, that proved impossible.”
Gulf of Maine – Planned fisheries closure leaves locals reeling
Yankee Fisherman Cooperative said the pending “consequence closure” of a section of the Gulf of Maine starting Oct. 1 will significantly impact the co-op and could potentially put it out of business,,,,,,,,,,,,,,U.S. Commerce Department has declared a “disaster” in the Northeast groundfishing industry,,,,, Hampton fisherman David Goethel said the closure will be devastating for the Yankee Fisherman Cooperative and the fishermen of New Hampshire, as the majority of the fleet are gillnetters.
“This is the biggest time a year for them,” said Goethel. “This is when they catch their pollock. There is no other time in the year they can get them.”
Our View: Fishery managers need management | SouthCoastToday.com
UMass Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology, housed in New Bedford’s South End, wrote the book on scallop surveys. SMAST’s peer-reviewed survey data convinced federal regulators the fishery wasn’t collapsing and that closed areas could be opened and managed for sustainability. The school built on a shoestring budget equipment that showed scallop populations were healthy, in contradiction to data gathered by improperly calibrated government equipment. So we ask: Why squeeze SMAST out of the process by cutting its allocation of Research Set-Aside funds from $500,000 to $100,000?
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120831/OPINION/208310302/-1/NEWS01
