Tag Archives: obama-administration

Maine congressional delegation asks Obama to rebuff ban on lobster exports to EU

10-lobsters1Maine’s congressional delegation on Monday asked the Obama administration to resist efforts to ban the import of live Maine lobsters by European Union countries, saying the discovery of American lobsters in Swedish waters doesn’t warrant such harsh measures. “Since only a small number of Maine lobsters have been found in foreign waters, we believe regulators should take a more finely tuned approach before calling this an ‘invasion,'” Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Bruce Poliquin wrote in the letter. Read the rest here 08:08

Opinion: Cashes Ledge decision a victory for open government

cashes ledge closedThe decision by the Obama administration to pass on a proposal to make a large swath of the Gulf of Maine a national monument is not only a victory for fishermen. It’s also a win for those who favor open government. News came late last week that the administration would not, in fact, use the federal Antiquities Act to make the area around Cashes Ledge a permanent “maritime national monument” by executive decree. The environmental lobby is not abandoning its efforts. Read the rest here 07:49

BREAKING – Cashes Ledge dropped from National Marine Monument plan

cashes ledge closedThe proposal to place a National Marine Monument around the area of Cashes Ledge about 80 miles off of Cape Ann has been “taken off the table,” members of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality told fishing stakeholders Thursday at a meeting in Boston. The Obama administration’s decision not to use the Antiquities Act to designate the area of Cashes Ledge as a Marine National Monument is a victory for fishing stakeholders and others who characterized the proposal — pushed largely by environmentalists and conservationists — as an end-run around the existing fisheries management system and wholly unnecessary given the existing protections already afforded the area that currently is closed to commercial fishing. Read the rest here 11:31

Cooper: Hypocritical winds blowing over Atlantic

cape-wind-power-farm-b1Just a day after saying it will ban commercial oil drilling off the Atlantic Coast, the Obama administration dedicated more than 125 square miles off Long Island in the Atlantic for the development of commercial wind energy. The hypocrisy could be heard up and down the more than 2,000 miles of Atlantic coastline. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell was the administration point person sent out to make the case. The oil drilling decision, she said on Tuesday, “protects the Atlantic for future generations. Now is not the time to start leasing off the Atlantic Coast.” Read the rest here 14:09

Obama reverses course, won’t allow Atlantic coast oil drilling

Obama BPThe Obama administration is reversing course on opening Atlantic waters to a new generation of oil and gas drilling, after a revolt by environmentalists and coastal communities that said the activity threatened marine life, fishing and tourism along the East Coast. The proposed offshore leasing program to be released Tuesday eliminates the administration’s initial plan to auction off drilling rights in as many as 104 million acres of the mid- and south-Atlantic in 2021, according to an Interior Department official who requested anonymity because the plan wasn’t yet public. Read the rest here 14:10

Jersey Shore Rally Urges Obama Admin to #KillTheDrill, #ProtectOurAtlantic

U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, and Congressman Frank Pallone (N.J.-06) today were joined by over 100 local leaders, environmental and tourism groups, Jersey Shore business owners and residents at a rally on the Asbury Park boardwalk to demand action to guard the Atlantic against offshore oil and gas exploration. The Obama Administration is currently planning to allow oil production off the coast of Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, putting New Jersey’s economy and shore communities at significant risk of a catastrophic oil spill.  The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is expected to release its revised plan in the coming weeks. Read the rest here 08:07

White House, Greens target Atlantic fishing grounds

Fishermen and seafood-dependent communities in New England are battening down the hatches, fearing that an Obama administration move to create a giant Atlantic Marine Monument will spell the end to their way of life. Led by Earthjustice, the Conservation Law Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Geographic Society, and the Pew Charitable Trust, environmentalists are urging the White House to use the 1906 Antiquities Act to designate a 6,000-square-mile area in the  and off the coast of Massachusetts as a National Monument. Read the rest here 09:25

Md. seafood survives another round on guest worker program

Leaders of Maryland’s seafood industry are cheering an expansion of a guest worker program they deem critical for crab season as part of the $1.1 trillion federal spending bill signed by President Barack Obama this month. But industry leaders say they are concerned about the future. Labor unions, civil rights groups — and, increasingly, political conservatives — have taken aim at the program that brings tens of thousands of seasonal workers to the country annually, including for the crab-picking and oyster-shucking seasons on the Eastern Shore. Read the article here 14:33

Op-Ed: The risks oil lobbyists don’t want you to know

Obama BPAs the Obama Administration nears a final decision about opening the Virginia coast to offshore drilling, outsider oil and gas industry representatives have ramped up their campaign to drill. But these oil lobbyists do not represent the many Virginians that stand firmly opposed to the proposal to open our coasts to offshore drilling — business owners, community members, fishermen, and families along the coast. After all, we’re the ones whose jobs would be put at risk if offshore drilling begins off our coast. Read the op-ed here 16:14

Officials calling for more accurate fish counts

The federal agency in charge of the nation’s fisheries should do a better job counting fish so it can develop proper catch limits for recreational anglers, a report by Congress’ investigative arm concludes. The analysis by the Government Accountability Office was requested nearly three years ago by several Republican senators from the Gulf Coast who believe the Obama administration may have been overly restrictive in imposing catch limits on several popular fish, including red snapper. Read the article here 09:10

Transparency? Christian Putnum SLAMS The Obama Administration, Enviro Groups, and NOAA collusion

No FishingThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Obama Administration are working closely with several environmental groups to “protect” vast areas of ocean off New England’s coast from the dreaded commercial and recreational fishermen. After NOAA’s utter failure to work with the stakeholders that make up the fishing community through the National Marine Fisheries Service, rebranded NOAA Fisheries after the name became synonymous with disastrous over-regulation, it appears an even less transparent process is now underway to regulate our natural resources. Read the article here 07:55

Obama breaks his promise on frankenfish, (and everything else) and Alaskans will pay

baby fishermanFor close to two decades, AquaBounty, a company from Massachusetts, has been genetically modifying salmon. Apparently the whole years in the ocean, swimming back to the home creek, spawning upriver natural progression, is just too much of a pain. It takes too long. The Food and Drug Administration has been reviewing this “salmon” for some time. The White House decided to keep that report under wraps until after the election. (Like Keystone) Make no mistake. I’m furious with the Obama administration. Read the article here 17:39

Projects Stall After Feds Allow Fish Farming in Open Ocean

Some 90 percent of seafood consumed by Americans is imported — a fact that the Obama administration vowed to start turning around by expanding fish and shellfish farms into federal waters. Yet nearly two years since the first permit was issued, the United States still has no offshore farms. The pioneers of offshore aquaculture say their plans have stalled or been abandoned because of the long and expensive federal permitting process that requires extensive environmental monitoring and data collection. Read the article here 07:36

Feds Send Man to Jail for Overfishing as 6,000 Drug Convicts are Freed

scales_of_justice_2These are embarrassing times for the nation’s criminal justice system; as the Obama administration executes the nation’s largest mass release of federal prisoners, it’s sending a Long Island fisherman to jail for reeling in too many. While drug offenders get off easy in the name of racial justice, the administration has increased punishment for violating federal regulations involving less serious acts such as reeling in too many fish,,, Read the rest here 17:05

Obama: new measures to crack down on illegal fishing at “Our Ocean” 2015 Pow Wow!

investing blueprints for fisheries.The Obama administration on Monday announced plans to further crack down on illegal fishing, a global problem that can hurt both fishing communities in impoverished nations and the seafood industry in the United States. President Barack Obama announced new steps to tackle illegal fishing. They include the launching of a program called “,”  Experts say the problem is extensive around the world. The Pew Charitable Trusts said  Read the rest here 18:03 It’s a big ENGO Spankfest in Chile! All the Big Green “Big’s”  are there, and plenty of Global Capitalists just itching to help save the fish from fishermen through “investment”. Click here for the latest! https://twitter.com/hashtag/OurOcean2015?src=hash

Enviro Lobby’s Coordinated Efforts to back door NE Marine Monument’s exposed!

duncey peteOne month ago, environmental groups were strategizing over their latest bid: Get the Obama administration to create its first marine monument off New England. They had talks with fishing groups, lawmakers and think tanks. At the end of August, they exchanged emails over their progress — and in one, the president of the Conservation Law Foundation warned everyone to keep quiet about the possibility of a breakthrough at the upcoming Our Ocean Conference in Chile. The email showed up in response to a public records request that Saving Seafood filed with the office of Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s. Read the rest here Read the email’s here 08:40

Aleutians monument labeled threat, derided as ‘straw man’

No FishingAlaska Congressman Don Young and other Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee Tuesday morning attacked the idea that President Obama might create a marine national monument around the Aleutian Islands, with unknown effects on the fishing industry. “I’ve watched this over and over: The creeping cancer of the federal government overreaching,” Young said. “The worst managers of any resource is the federal government. They do not manage. They preclude.” The idea of protecting the waters of the Aleutian Chain came from environmentalist and retired UAA professor Rick Steiner. Read the rest here 10:38

Carlos Rafael — White House should heed call on burden of at-sea monitors

In a show of bipartisan cooperation that’s all too rare in today’s politics, Massachusetts’ Republican governor and all-Democratic congressional delegation united late last month to call upon the Obama administration to reverse a particularly egregious federal policy: the current plan by NOAA to require the fishing industry to pay the full cost for at-sea monitors for the groundfish fishery. Fishermen will now be required to hire monitors from an approved short list of for-profit companies. This policy will impose a significant burden on area fishermen, and poses a threat to the future of a fishery that is already reeling from a string of onerous federal regulations. Read the rest here 09:05

PEER urges Obama to unilaterally create national marine monuments

thCAWQFEFIThe announcement by PEER came hours before the president was scheduled to arrive in Alaska, with environmental groups accusing him of hypocrisy for allowing oil drilling in the U.S. Arctic Ocean while simultaneously pushing for reduced global greenhouse gas emissions. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility announced  Monday that more than 100,000 people had signed an online petition requesting that Obama use his executive powers to create marine monuments in Alaska to help protect iconic Alaska animals such as polar bears, and public servants,,, Red the rest here 22:06

Paul LePage doesn’t want National Monument designations for Gulf of Maine

No FishingRepublican Gov. Paul LePage  is expressing his disapproval of a proposal to designate areas within the Gulf of Maine as a National Maritime Monument. This specific proposal  for the Gulf of Maine would designate Cashes Ledge and undersea canyons and seamounts as a National Maritime Monument, according to a statement from LePage’s office. The change, according to the statement, would impact fishermen from a variety of sectors, including offshore lobstermen, tuna fishermen, herring fishermen and groundfish fishermen. “These serve only one purpose — excluding commercial fishing activity from certain segments of the ocean.” Read the rest here 11:34

Elected panels are too quiet NC offshore oil drilling and seismic testing

In unanimously approving a resolution to oppose offshore oil drilling and seismic testing earlier this month, the Wilmington City Council joined about 60 other local governments along the East Coast to come out against a proposal by the Obama Administration that would open up the coast of North Carolina to oil exploration. And with that action, the question becomes more pressing: Where do the local governments of Carteret and Onslow counties stand on this critical issue? Read the rest here 11:56

US, China to cooperate on ocean preservation

The U.S. and China said Wednesday they are stepping up cooperation on preserving the ocean and combating illegal fishing despite their differences on maritime security. This week’s talks are a prelude to Xi’s visit, his first to the U.S. since 2013. Despite growing tensions over cybertheft and China’s island-building in the disputed South China Sea, the U.S. and China are stressing how they can work together on less contentious issues, such as climate change. (gagging now) Read the rest here 17:43

Still waiting for NOAA FOIA Docs?? “No, no, no, don’t fulfill the FOIA request,” Send it here to the White House!

An Obama administration memo has had a “chilling effect” on the government’s compliance with open records laws, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee argued Tuesday. Launching a two-day hearing on the Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) blasted an email that directs federal agencies to consult with President Obama’s general counsel following any document request that could involve the White House. Read the rest here  11:07

Obama threatens to veto House Magnuson-Stevens fisheries bill that would “harm the environment and the economy.”

The administration strongly opposes fisherman-obama which would amend the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) because it would impose arbitrary, and un necessary requirements that would harm the environment and the economy. Read the rest here  15:51

North/South Carolina Views vary on drilling – Feds take comments until Monday

The Associated Press reports five congressmen representing coastal districts in the Carolinas reflect the opposing views in states where both governors are strong advocates of offshore drilling and almost 20 coastal communities oppose the idea. To date, seven coastal communities in South Carolina and 12 in North Carolina are on record against drilling. None are in Carteret County. Read the rest here 09:33

 

Their careers and their futures depend on attacking fishermen and fishing. What more can we expect from them?

There are people who don’t like fishing. There are people who don’t like anyone who isn’t a vegan. There are people who don’t like progress. There are people who don’t like efficiency. There are people who don’t like to thoroughly research issues. There are people who don’t like technology. There are people who don’t like competition. There are people who don’t like people. There are people who don’t like the truth. There are people who don’t like whatever they’re paid not to like. Let’s say that you shared a number of these traits and you were in search of what would be to you a rewarding career. Could you do much better than becoming an anti-fishing activist? Read the rest here 18:29

Sea hunt: Officials plan to track seafood ‘bait to plate’ to end fraud

For crimes committed on the high seas, Arnold Bengisclip_image002_001 is going to pay. He’s already served a five-year federal prison sentence for stealing massive amounts of rock lobster from South African waters and importing it to the United States. Now a federal judge wants the former Long Island resident and two co-conspirators to fork over another $20 million in restitution to the South Africans. Described as a modern-day pirate, Bengis is the face of fishery crime. Read the rest here 09:31

Obama administration agrees to N.J. public hearing on Atlantic oil drilling

Obama administration officials have agreed to hold a public hearing in New Jersey before deciding whether to let companies drill for oil and gas off the Atlantic Coast, lawmakers said today. The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management hearing likely will take place in March at a time and place yet to be announced. Read the rest here 09:01

Columbia River Gillnet Killer Kitzhaber and the Greedy Greens

Oregon governor John Kitzhaber may have announced that he will resign, but a sweeping FBI investigation of him and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, is only getting started. While the story involves personal failings, the green-energy lobbying scandal that brought them down has national lessons and implications. ( Lots of names, lots of connections. Lotss of Gr$$n) Read the rest here, Related articles 16:41

PALLONE: Block offshore drilling plan for Atlantic

Today our coast faces a number of environmental threats, but the good news is that there is still time to stop proposals for man-made environmental disasters. We have done it before, and we can do it again. Five years ago, the Obama administration released a plan that proposed drilling off the Atlantic coast from Delaware to Florida. Read the rest here 11:30