Tag Archives: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Trouble in Paradise? WPFMC Destroys Tape of Secret Meeting – Council Staff Limits Public’s Access to Documents
On Feb. 24, just a few days after learning of the existence of the recording, we filed a formal Freedom of Information Act request to obtain a copy of it. The response came on April 4. “The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council staff has advised that an audio recording of the subcommittee meeting was erased on February 22, 2014,” stated the letter signed by Samuel D. Rauch III, administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service. “We are in the process of reviewing the circumstances of this action.” Read more here 16:05
Saving Striped Bass (It sounds so dramatic!)
By June, the fish will be racing through these waters on the way to coastal New England as part of their northern migration, a biological spectacle akin to the movement of salmon on the West Coast. But with the striped bass population in decline, competition for the prized catch has intensified between recreational and commercial fishermen, setting up a showdown over a fishery that generates, according to one study, several billion dollars a year. Read more here
Elver investigation brings federal officials to Ellsworth
Law enforcement officials with the federal agency, along with others from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Maine Marine Patrol, were in Ellsworth early Thursday morning as part of the investigation, according to fishermen and local officials. Read more here 07:34
Lobster only major seafood to lose value over 10-year period, report says
It’s a tale well known in Maine: Lobster prices have tanked over the past decade as the harvest has surged. Among 10 key species that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration examined, only American lobster dropped in price from 2003 through 2012, according to a report released Tuesday. Read more here 10:18
After more than a century, NOAA’s Beaufort lab, a jewel of ocean research targeted for closure
Tucked in President Barack Obama’s 218-page proposed budget for 2015 was a one-sentence mention of a plan to close one lab to save money. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration subsequently identified it as North Carolina’s historic research station. Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican who represents the coastal district that includes Beaufort, was building a coalition to oppose the closure, said his spokeswoman, Sarah Howard. “I am seriously troubled by the fact . President Barack Obama has proposed closing a research lab in eastern North Carolina while continuing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure projects in Afghanistan,” Jones said in a statement. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., said she’d fight,, Read more here @journalgazette 16:06
National Marine Fisheries Service violated law – Federal Ruling on Allocation Favors Gulf Commercial Red Snapper Fishermen
Federal Ruling on Allocation Favors Gulf Commercial Red Snapper Fishermen A federal ruling has been handed down that the U.S. government violated the law by failing to properly manage the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper fishery. Read more here 16:16
Deepwater Horizon oil left tuna, other species with heart defects likely to prove fatal
The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill struck at the very heart of fish, a new study says. Exposed to millions of gallons of crude, young tuna and amberjack, some of the speediest predators in the ocean, developed heart defects that are likely to limit their ability to catch food. Read more here wapo 09:02
Gulf Oystermen Harvest Support from D.C. Legislators and Organizations
Over the course of four days, the oystermen met with more than 20 Congressmen or staff, as well as with the House Transportation Committee, the Food and Drug Administration, the Senate Labor Appropriations Subcommittee, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s new head of fisheries Eileen Sorbeck. Read more here 13:14
Oceana groundfish monitoring challenge fails
The government need not face claims that the amended New England fishery program leaves groundfish vulnerable to overfishing, a federal judge ruled. Fishery management plans establish catch thresholds and “outline procedures for monitoring commercial fishing,” under the oversight of the National Marine Fisheries Service, according to the Tuesday ruling. Read more@courthousenews 12:44
Drought imperils California salmon, steelhead
SANTA CRUZ — The sensitive populations of fish that spawn in Northern California’s creeks and rivers are starting to suffer from the brutal drought threatening the state’s water supplies. In Sonoma and Santa Cruz counties, the National Marine Fisheries Service has heard reports of anglers catching endangered coho salmon trapped by low water flows. In the American River, water levels have dropped to a 20-year nadir, endangering the redds, or nests of eggs, laid by chinook salmon, a consumer staple that supports hundreds of Bay Area fishermen. Read more@contracostatimes 14:21
Tests show China banned Puget Sound geoduck clams safe to eat
SEATTLE — Washington state health officials said Tuesday that their arsenic testing has confirmed that geoduck clams harvested from a bay in Puget Sound are safe to eat, following toxicity concerns that prompted China to ban imports of West Coast shellfish. Read more@thecolumbian 08:51
The Endangered Species Act Turns 40—Hold the Applause – Schiff and MacDonald – Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
The badly administered law has had a limited effect on wildlife while inflicting great social and economic costs. Forty years ago, on Dec. 28, 1973, the Endangered Species Act became law. If you want to celebrate, you’ll need to close your eyes to hard truths. Read more @facebook.com 16:26
A king without a crown: Chinook vulnerable to ocean forces
Editor’s note: This is the ninth in the Morris Communications series – “The case for conserving the Kenai king salmon.”Alaska’s long-lived monarch — the king salmon — has fallen from its throne. The species, which once thrived as a fabled ruler in state waters, was sought-after by fisherman from all over the world. Their massive presence in rivers like the Kenai, the Yukon and the Taku, to name only a few, brought sport and commercial fisherman to banks and river mouths for a chance to harvest this mighty resource. Read more@alaskastar 08:48
These Dweebs never question the science unless its THEIR crusading issue. How many sharks in the sea? Enviros want feds to reconsider endangered status
MONTEREY — Environmental groups are appealing a federal finding that West Coast great white sharks aren’t teetering on the brink of extinction. With concerns that the numbers of white sharks was dangerously low, last year Monterey-based Oceana and the San Francisco-based Center for Biological Diversity asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to look into special protections for the species. Read more@santacruzsentinal 22:59
Gloucesterman haunted by urge to go to sea, loss of vessel
Joe Orlando still wakes up in the night, when the wind is whistling, and wonders if he should go down to the Gloucester House and make sure the Padre Pio’s lines are secure. There still are days when the longtime Gloucester fisherman, as if lured by something invisible and irresistible, finds himself heading toward the dock to check on his boat. “I say to myself, ‘What am I doing’?” Orlando said. He is doing what he’s done for the past 30 years, what he’s done since he bought the 65-foot steel fishing boat in 1983 in partnership with his sister Angela Sanfilippo and her husband John. There’s only problem: Orlando no longer owns the Padre Pio. more@gdt 01:58
Rhode Island AG lends support to Mass. lawsuit seeking to overturn ‘Draconian’ fishing regulation
PROVIDENCE – Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court in support of the Massachusetts lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seeking to reverse a federal regulation that reduces ground-fishing allotments by 77 percent.< em> [email protected] 13:45
Sen.Vitter’s dead-zone stance is wrong, coastal experts say
The Gulf dead zone south of Louisiana and Texas was above average in size this summer, and is getting some needed attention after no recent progress in efforts to reduce it, according to coastal experts. In a Nov. 1 letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Republican Senator David Vitter, more@louisianaweekly 19:24
Riverside wins $58 million NOAA fisheries contracts Observers Program IT services to the Southeast Fisheries Science Center – $58 Million? WTF?!!
FORT COLLINS – Riverside Technology inc., which designs and implements integrated scientific, engineering and IT solutions, has been awarded multiple contract task orders totaling $58 million by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for Observers Program services to the Southeast Fisheries Science Center. (This is for JUST the SEFC!) [email protected] 11:05
NOAA’s Fisheries of the United States report spotlights revenue losses
The results of NOAA’s Fisheries of the United States report released Wednesday show what Gloucester fishermen have been saying repeatedly for the past two years: They now have to work much harder to make less money than ever before. The report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which serves as an annual appraisal of American fisheries, shows a national decline in the volume and value of seafood landed by U.S. commercial fishermen in 2012 when compared to the previous year. more@GDT 16:53
“I feel like we’re putting the Russians to work and American fishermen out of work,” Kieth Colburn
Speaking before the Senate Commerce Committee, Colburn said the furloughs of staff from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration mean they won’t be around to assign quotas before the start of Alaska’s crab fishing season next week. The quota assignments, required for all fishermen in the area, are doled out to prevent overfishing, with each fisherman entitled to a percentage of the total catch. [email protected] 23:04
How Government shutdown will Affect NOAA Emloyees and other agency’s
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, based in Silver Spring, will lose about half of its staff in the face of a shutdown. According to a recent Commerce Department document outlining its shutdown plan, roughly 6,600 NOAA employees would stay on the job. Most of those workers would come from the National Weather Service, which is required to continue functioning because its work can identify “imminent threats to protect life and property.” In addition, about 500 employees from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which regulates and enforces laws related to marine wildlife, would also stay on the job. However, even with those exceptions, approximately 5,400 NOAA employees — about 45 percent of the agency’s workforce — would be sent home. more@thedailyrecord 20:18 4 comments
Fisheries Survival Fund takes aim at yellowtail flounder stock assessments that are “deeply flawed” and unsuitable for use as a regulatory tool.
The Fisheries Survival Fund wrote to NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) Director Dr. Bill Karp. It said the uncertainty factor in the assessments is so great that they are effectively useless. more@southcoasttoday 20:27
NOAA Numbers: Gulf Spill Sampling Questioned – “Their numbers were very low,” – “I thought what is going on here? It didn’t make sense.” (We Know!)
Riki Ott, an independent marine toxicologist who has studied effects of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska as well as the BP spill, said she was “totally shocked” when she read the high numbers in Dr. Sammarco’s study. “To see NOAA doing this, that’s inexcusable,” Dr. Ott said, referring to the use of Niskin bottles. “It has been known since Exxon Valdez that this spotty sampling does not work.” more@nyt 12:31
“But the samples have not been analyzed,” Lubchenco said. “They have taken good samples. And we need to make sure that we’re not jumping to conclusions…. And that’s part of the — the normal process that science has. We want to make sure that we have good information.” NOAA Inaction in the Gulf of Mexico http://www.fishnet-usa.com/NOAA_Inaction.htm
Government Recklessly Reopened Fisheries in the Gulf – Based Decision on Skewed Data and Questionable Testing Methodology
Everyone knew something was very wrong back in 2010 when the “US Department of Commerce – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began closing fisheries on May 2, 2010. It began reopening them, with various spatial and other limits, on June 23. The well was capped on July 15.” more@oilandgasleaks 17:26
NOAA Inaction in the Gulf of Mexico http://www.fishnet-usa.com/NOAA_Inaction.htm
Coastal mapping vessel Fredinand R. Hassler, to map the ocean floor along East Coast
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s newest coastal mapping vessel, the Fredinand R. Hassler, commissioned in 2012, will be homeported at the Judd Gregg Marine Research Complex, part of the University of New Hampshire. From there, it is expected to chart the seafloor up and down the East Coast, paying particular attention to the Northeast, including a wide swath of the Seacoast. more@seacoastonline
Ever wonder if federal officials jumped the gun in declaring the Atlantic sturgeon an endangered species?
In its listing proposal, the agency, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that Atlantic sturgeon population numbers in the Carolina region had declined to less than 3 percent of historical levels. Data collected by state agencies seems to suggest otherwise. continued@starnewsonline
Feds: Kennedys’ sea turtle rescue was a violation
Federal officials say two members of the Kennedy family who thought they were doing a good deed by freeing an entangled sea turtle actually violated federal law. Possible prosecution? Nah.
Now this, THIS is exciting!!! Former Mayor Scott Lang forming watchdog group – Dr. Brian Rothschild slated to be executive director
NEW BEDFORD — Former Mayor Scott Lang is taking aim at NOAA fisheries as he organizes a nonprofit to serve as a watchdog and a counterweight to an agency he for years has said has spun out of control. The organization has no name and Lang isn’t saying who will be part of it. But he said he wants scientists, lawyers, fishermen and other industry players who feel that they’ve been pushed aside as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration does its business. continued@southcoasttoday
Editorial: Massachusetts State budget steps are vital toward credible fish science
They may deliver just what the doctor ordered to resolve the perpetual core disputes between fishermen and their federal overseers when it comes to carrying out credible, scientific stock assessments on which to base NOAA’s catch limits and other policy needs. Now, it’s up to either a federal judge, our federal lawmakers or perhaps both to confirm that the patient — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration itself — is failing badly and needs the outside help it’s thus far refused to allow on board. continued@ Gloucester Daily Times
Congressman Huffman visits Arcata to discuss local veterans fisheries program
Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) visited Arcata’s Janes Creek Meadows Park Saturday afternoon to meet with veterans working in a pilot fisheries project developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. continued @ The Mendocino Beacon
