Tag Archives: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Louisiana denounces federal rule for shrimp boats at Fifth Circuit
The small shellfish are big business in Louisiana with 15,000 residents employed in the industry, which has an annual economic impact of $1.3 billion for the state, according to its Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. But Louisiana shrimpers who followed their fathers and grandfathers into the trade say it is dying as wild-caught and farm-raised imports from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and India into the U.S. have exceeded 1 billion pounds annually in recent years. Since 1987, the National Marine Fisheries Service has required shrimp trawlers in some circumstances to install turtle excluder devices, which separate sea turtles, sharks and other large bycatch so they can escape through an opening in the netting. >click to read< 09:52
Poor outlook for king salmon could shut down California’s sport and commercial seasons
This year’s official “forecast abundance” estimates that just 169,767 adult chinook salmon are waiting off shore to be caught — a substantial decrease from the 396,458 predicted last year and forecasts above 800,000 a decade ago. A nearly 2-month delay in the Dungeness crab season this year meant commercial crabbers missed the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays and then had a glut of fresh crab available when the market was weak, said veteran fisherman Dick Ogg, vice president of the Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Marketing Association, which represents the local commercial fleet. Though Ogg participates in a variety of fisheries, many locals only do salmon, crab or both. “For the guys that only have salmon as a potential income, it’s going to be devastating,” he said, “and for the guys who have salmon and crab, and who have had a minimal crab season, it’s going to be devastating.” >click to read< 09:05
U.S. announces reduced East Coast commercial mackerel quota for 2023
The United States will proceed with a commercial fishery of the depleted East Coast mackerel stock it shares with Canada in 2023. The U.S. quota was released this week, putting pressure on Canada which has yet to decide whether it will continue a total moratorium it imposed in 2022 to help rebuild the population. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. equivalent of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), announced on Tuesday a total allowable catch of 3,639 metric tonnes. It was 27 per cent cut from 2022 in recognition that the transboundary stock remains in trouble and is overfished. >click to read< 19:01
Busted! – Coast Guard, NOAA seize illegally caught fish near Homer, Alaska
A Coast Guard law enforcement boarding team seized illegally caught fish near Homer, Alaska, Wednesday. The Naushon crew seized the catch and escorted the vessel to Homer where a NOAA OLE representative took possession of the catch upon arrival at the pier. A Coast Guard Cutter Naushon boarding team discovered halibut aboard a commercial IFQ halibut vessel that was not documented in the vessel’s logbook. Additionally, the halibut was filleted to where the size and number of fish could not be determined. >click to continue< 15:49
Draft North Atlantic Right Whale and Offshore Wind Strategy Announced
As the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has ramped up offshore wind development to meet the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of generating 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, the question of how the expansion of offshore wind energy could affect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW) has come under close review. To help address this question and support the recovery of endangered NARW and the responsible development of offshore wind energy, BOEM and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) developed a joint Draft North Atlantic Right Whale and Offshore Wind Strategy (the Draft Strategy). >click to read< 11:29
Fishermen take case against paying for monitors to SCOTUS
“Making these vessels pay to have the observer coverage on them just decreases hardworking fishermen’s wages and makes it less attractive for vessels to continue,” said Wayne Reichle, president of Lund’s Fisheries of New Jersey and an owner of two of the boats that are plaintiffs in the case. “In some cases, it prevents them from fishing.” The fishermen have made the case that Congress never gave federal regulators the authority to require the expense of paying for the monitors. The price of at-sea monitoring, and who must pay for it, is a longstanding source of tension between commercial fishermen and regulators. >click to read< 21:01
Lobstermen may get temporary delay on new right whale restrictions
The lobster industry, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Center for Biological Diversity are involved in federal court negotiations over imposing new and tougher restrictions on fishing. The CBD brought a suit against the federal agency, arguing the rules imposed earlier this year don’t do enough to protect the endangered whales, as required by federal law. The National Marine Fisheries Service, which is part of NOAA, said it needed two years, while the CBD suggested just six months,,, >click to read< 08:57
Maine Congressional delegation backed HUGE spending increases for agency threatening lobster industry
Maine’s congressional delegation has voted to increase funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) by more than $6 billion under Democratic President Joe Biden. NOAA has come under increased scrutiny in Maine as the result of a series of regulatory actions aimed at limiting lobster fishing in the Gulf of Maine. Maine’s lobstering industry, already pressed by low prices for their catch, has been raising hell at public meetings. The recent NOAA spending increases were contained in the fiscal year 2022 appropriations bill, Biden’s massive infrastructure spending bill, and the so-called “Inflation Reduction” Act. Maine’s entire congressional delegation voted in favor of all of these bills, with the exception of Sen. Susan Collins’ vote against the IRA. The bill increased NOAA’s funding from the previous year by $447 million. >click to read< 10:04
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 sue to end industry funded monitoring program
A group of fishing companies in New England is bringing its bid to try to end industry-funded monitoring programs to federal appeals court. The companies are part of the industry that harvests Atlantic herring, which are heavily fished off the East Coast. The federal government requires herring fishing boats to participate in, and pay for, at-sea monitoring programs. >click to read< 13:30
Valuable crab populations are in a ‘very scary’ decline in warming Bering Sea
The forecast for the 2022 winter snow crab season is bleak. At best, it is expected to be considerably less than 12 million pounds. That would be down from a 2021 harvest of 45 million pounds,,, The iconic Bering Sea red king crab, which can grow up to 24 pounds with a leg-span up to 5 feet, also are in trouble. In a big blow to the commercial crabbers, many of whom are based in Washington, the October harvest for these crab has been canceled, something that has only happened three times before. Overall conservation measures are expected to wipe out most of the value of the annual Bering Sea crab harvest, worth more than $160 million during the past year, according to Jamie Goen, executive director of the Seattle-based Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. >click to read< 13:54
Lobster Fishing Association Files Lawsuit Against NOAA Whale Plan
A lobster fishing group based in Maine filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Monday charging new rules designed to protect whales are not based on the best available science. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the rules, designed to protect North Atlantic right whales, in August.,, The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has pushed back against the rules,,, >click to read< 11:27
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
Coast Guard halts illegal use of “paper captains” in WA-based tuna fishing operation
Since 2019, Coast Guard personnel, working collaboratively with CBP and NOAA agents, detected eight separate “paper captain” violations operating in the Pacific Northwest. Paper captain is a term applied to an individual listed on documents as a U.S.-flagged vessel’s captain but in actuality serves as a deckhand or in a similar lower‐level capacity. Thus far, one Washington-based fishing fleet has paid $9,150 in civil penalties and has been cited for $140,000 in additional penalties still pending adjudication. >click to read< 17:54
NOAA Report: Pacific waters off the West Coast show improved productivity – Cooler temps created a robust environment
Ocean waters off the West Coast showed signs of improved productivity in 2020 after several years of warm water and poor fisheries conditions, The higher productivity seen in 2020 comes after a period of poorer conditions in the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast. “The previous five years, starting in early 2014, were very warm. We were seeing conditions that were not good for the fisheries,” said Toby Garfield, a researcher with NOAA and co-editor of the report. “We’ve had some tough times in the last few years,” said Tracy. “For a lot of species, the cold water regime is favorable, so that’s encouraging.” >click to read< 11:27
Gina M. Raimondo Sworn in as 40th U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Gina M. Raimondo was sworn in as the 40th U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Secretary Raimondo was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris after a bipartisan vote of 84-15 in the United States Senate. In her role as Secretary of Commerce, Raimondo will lead a key agency focused on promoting economic growth, >click to read<11:20
Stocks head for weekly loss as economy’s coronavirus pain deepens – Seafood industry hit hard
A federal report says the coronavirus pandemic has taken away about a third of the commercial fishing industry’s revenue. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says revenues from catch brought to the docks by commercial fishermen fell 29% over the course of the first seven months of the year. The report says revenues declined every month from March to July, including a 45% decrease in July. The NOAA report says the seafood industry at large has been hit hard by restaurant closures, social distancing protocols and the need for safety measures. >click to read< 09:15
Are Temperatures and Sea Levels Rising Dangerously? Hardly
There are two widely held climate-change beliefs that are simply not accurate. The first is that there has been a statistically significant warming trend in the U.S. over the last 20 years. The second is that average ocean levels are rising alarmingly due to man-made global warming. Neither of these perspectives is true; yet both remain important, nonetheless, since both are loaded with very expensive public policy implications. To refute the first view, we turn to data generated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the relevant years under discussion. >click to read< 14:24
Whale ‘roadkill’ is on the rise off California. A new detection system could help.
That so many whales of various species now traverse the California coast is a remarkable comeback tale.,, Today, blue whales and other endangered species, like fin and humpbacks, are recovering, but slowly. But while industrial whaling stopped in the late 1960s (some countries like Japan and Norway do continue commercial whaling on a small scale), these mammals are still frequently killed in collisions with large ships. Most container ships today delivering goods across the ocean are so large that even a collision with a 50-ton whale can go undetected. Ship strikes remain a leading cause of death to whales around the globe, and in some places, like California, they are on the rise. >click to read< 17:46
DFO working to keep U.S. markets open to northern fisheries
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is working to ensure that fisheries in Nunavut and Nunavik will be able to export their products to markets in the United States after next year. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2022, the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act’s import provisions rule will take effect. Four Greenland halibut (turbot), three Arctic char fisheries, and a shrimp fishery will all need to comply. “This rule ensures that the U.S. will only accept imports of fish and fish products originating from foreign countries that have enacted management measures to reduce marine mammal bycatch”,,, DFO submitted a progress report to NOAA and proposed that three Arctic char gillnet fisheries be exempt based on their location in river estuaries, short time in the water and shallow depth. NOAA rejected the request for an exemption. >click to read< 14:00
Baker Polito Administration Announces Coronavirus Disaster Relief Funding for Fishing and Seafood Industries
The Baker-Polito Administration has announced the distribution of $27.8 million in federal disaster relief funding to mitigate the financial impacts to the fishing and seafood industries from the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The Division of Marine Fisheries worked with fishing industry stakeholders to develop a plan to distribute the federal fisheries assistance, which has now been approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. >click to read< 11:12
Your View: Turning fishery into police state won’t stop fraudsters like Carlos Rafael
First, I want to point out that none of this is to defend Carlos Rafael. The nicest thing he ever said about honest, small boat fishermen like me was to compare us to mosquitoes to his elephant. (“The maggots screaming on the sidelines, they’re done. They can scream all they want. Nobody can save them,”>click to read<) I do, however, think this case has one notable shortcoming in that the New York dealer who delivered his “bags of jingles” was never charged. Why? Maybe it is because enforcement used a crooked dealer as its star witness,,, by David Goethel >click to read< 22:23
LePage appeals to Trump on lobster regulations
Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage sent a letter this week to President Trump opposing proposed regulations designed to protect endangered North Atlantic rights whales that LePage says will be detrimental to the state’s signature lobster industry. In his three-page letter, LePage called the proposal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to reduce the number of end lines – the ropes that connect traps to buoys – by 50 percent “another federal overreach in response to big money environmentalists.” >click to read<08:05
South Carolina: Local organization speaks out against seismic testing
Friday, seismic testing was given the go-ahead by the National Marine Fisheries Services, which is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Last year, the U.S. Department of Interior denied the seismic permits. They said the damage caused to marine animals and the fishing industry was not worth it.It is now a go, and Lowcountry organizations are upset because seismic testing is the first step to potentially allowing offshore drilling. “We are extremely against seismic air gun blasts,” Peg Howell, spokesperson for Stop Offshore Drilling in the Atlantic, said. >click to read<20:50
Governor Cuomo And Attorney General Underwood Demand Changes To Unfair Federal Fishing Quotas
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood today submitted comments to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and demanded that the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council repeal and replace the unfair state-by-state allocation of the annual commercial quota for summer flounder, also known as fluke. The need for equitable distribution of fluke is critically important to New York’s fishing industry and the state’s overall ocean economy. >click to read<17:27
Environmental Citations Issued For Boat Captain During NOAA Environmental Research Cruise
The captain of a charter boat carrying government scientists on an environmental research cruise near the Keys has been cited for violating environmental regulations. The Ultimate Getaway is a 100-foot charter boat that takes people to the remote Tortugas, west of Key West, for diving and spearfishing trips. This month, it was chartered by the federal government for the Coral Reef Monitoring Program research cruise, which surveys reef and fish in Florida every other year. The FWC patrol saw the Ultimate Getaway at anchor inside the reserve. When they came alongside, they saw fishing poles and gear on the vessel’s stern, according to the FWC report. >click to read<11:19
Lawsuit challenges fishing methods that could threaten right whales
An environmental activist is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the use of vertical buoy fishing lines in Massachusetts waters to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. In lawsuit filed in late February in U.S. District Court in Boston, conservationist Richard Maximus Strahan of Peterborough, New Hampshire, has sued the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the assistant administrator of the Nation Marine Fisheries Service, the secretary of the Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the director of the state Division of Massachusetts Fisheries Service, the commissioners of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, as a representative of its members. Strahan wants to stop the state’s lobster association members from further lobster pot and gill net commercial fishing operations unless they can scientifically demonstrate the endangered whales and sea turtles would not be killed or injured. >click to read<19:14
Coastal Alabama Rep. slams NOAA ‘junk science’ behind shortest red snapper season ever
Alabama Rep. Bradley Byrne shares the frustration of most in his district when it comes to the federal government’s overregulation of red snapper fishing. According to him, Coastal Alabamians are infuriated over the announcement that the much-anticipated red snapper season will only last a pitifully short three days. He believes they have a right to be mad. “[My constituents] have every reason to be outraged, because they have a right to fish in the waters of the United States, and they’re being deprived of that right by junk science. Put junk science in, you’re going to get a bad result out, and that’s exactly what we’ve got here,” Rep. Byrne said. Every year, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), announces how long the fishing season will last based on the size and stock of red snapper fish. click here to read the story 13:45
New England’s cod catch in nosedive
The decline of the fishery has made the U.S. reliant on foreign cod, and cod fish fillets and steaks purchased in American supermarkets and restaurants are now typically caught by Norway, Russia or Iceland in the north Atlantic. In Maine, which is home to the country’s second-largest Atlantic cod fishery, the dwindling catch has many wondering if cod fishing is a thing of the past. “It’s going to be more and more difficult for people to make this work,” said Maggie Raymond, executive director of the Associated Fisheries of Maine. State records say 2016 was historically bad for cod fishing in Maine. Fishermen brought less than 170,000 pounds of the fish to land in the state last year.,,, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released an assessment of the Gulf of Maine cod stock in 2014 that said the spawning population was at its lowest point in the history of the study of the fish. Scientists have cited years of overfishing and inhospitable environmental conditions as possible reasons for the decline. continue reading the story here 09:50
Maine’s leaders seek more time on whale protection rules
Maine Gov. Janet Mills is seeking to delay new federal whale protection rules, citing fears the state’s commercial lobstermen won’t be able to comply. In a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Mills urges federal fisheries regulators to extend the period for collecting public comment on the new regulations, which are aimed at protecting critically endangered north Atlantic right whales by setting a seasonal closure and requiring modifications to gear. Mills said she believes it is “unconscionable” that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration only plans to hold one remote public hearing on the new regulations, which call for reducing by 90% the number of Atlantic Coast fixed gear fisheries, including lobster industry. >click to read< 15:14
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