Tag Archives: Secretary of Commerce
ADF&G discusses where to spend disaster funding for crabbing fisheries
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game hosted a second meeting to discuss how to distribute funds to fisheries that experienced disaster in recent years, with Thursday’s meeting focusing on Bristol Bay red king crab and Bering Sea snow crab fisheries. Much of the discussion centered around the division of payments between the vessel and crew members, with several people calling for 60% to go to the vessel and 40% to the crew, rather than a 70/30 split. “The boat I’m on and have been on for many years, we’re the same on any crab fishery — it’s always 60 to the boat and 40 to the humans,” fisherman Mike Mathisen said. Video, >click to read< 13:40
Alaska Halibut Season Opens March 10
Pacific halibut season opens Sunday, March 10 statewide in Alaska. NOAA Fisheries filed notice of their effectiveness in the Federal Register today, which will publish March 7, 2023. The regulations, adopted at the annual meeting of the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) in January, took effect when the Secretary of State accepted them, with the Secretary of Commerce’s concurrence. Included in this season’s federal regulations are the catch limits established by the IPHC and basic regulations for the commercial and sport halibut fisheries. >click to read< 18:03
President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as his commerce secretary
The Biden transition team announced the president-elect’s choice of Raimondo for this key economic position Thursday night. The agency has a critical role in everything from technology policy to climate change to promoting American industry. Beyond that, the statement said she has “worked to quickly bring the state economy back from the depths” of the pandemic; “expanded clean energy jobs and put Rhode Island on a path to achieving 100% renewable energy.” >click to read< 10:40
New Jersey Offshore wind developer is hosting a webinar for recreational fishermen this coming Wednesday. The purpose of the meeting is to get feedback from recreational fishermen. The group has brought on for-hire vessel operator Captain Adam Nowalsky as the recreational fisheries representative and liaison. >click to read<
Hawaii Fish Council Urges Trump To Open Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument To Fishing
The council’s latest push comes on the heels of an executive order President Donald Trump signed on May 7 that’s meant to slash federal regulations and ease environmental burdens on American aquaculture and commercial fishing industries in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic. In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, two of Trump’s top advisors, Joe Grogan and Peter Navarro, said the president’s new order would “help reduce pain in the grocery checkout line — and also strengthen U.S. food production against foreign competition.” A provision in Trump’s order calls on the nation’s eight regional fishery management councils to submit “a prioritized list of recommended actions to reduce burdens on domestic fishing and to increase production within sustainable fisheries.” Skeptics, including U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman,, Trump’s order gave each council 180 days to submit recommendations to the Secretary of Commerce. >click to read< 12:42
Omega Protein Statement on Menhaden Fishery Moratorium
Omega Protein is disappointed in today’s decision by the Secretary of Commerce to impose a moratorium on Virginia’s menhaden fishery. This is the first time that a moratorium has been placed on a fishery that is not overfished and is healthy by every measure. The ruling is the result of a requested federal non-compliance review from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC),,, >click to read< 15:52
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Declares Fisheries Disasters Following Hurricanes Irma and Maria
Today, in conjunction with the requests put forward by the Governors of Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross determined catastrophic fishery disasters occurred in the areas because of impacts from Hurricanes Irma and Maria that made landfall in August and September of 2017. Under the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Governors asked the Secretary of Commerce to determine whether a commercial fishery failure occurred due to a fishery resource disaster, in these cases caused by destructive hurricanes. >click to read< 12:25
SEEKING HELP: West Coast Senators ask for disaster aid for fisheries in the next 2017 disaster funding package.
In a bipartisan push led by Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley, all eight West Coast Senators—Merkley, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) — today called on congressional leaders and the Trump administration to include disaster aid for fisheries in the next 2017 disaster funding package. click here to read the story 15:00
Federal Judge Evokes Dr. Seuss in Upholding Seafood Regulations
Invoking Dr. Seuss, a federal judge on Monday quoted from the 1960 classic “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” to uphold a regulatory regime intended to cut down on seafood fraud and protect U.S. fishers from unfair competition. Despite a challenge to the rule by a slew of U.S. seafood importers, harvesters and processors, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found that the traceability rule, which requires importers to document the supply chain of imports from their origin to their arrival in the U.S., was lawfully implemented by the National Marine Fisheries Service. click here to read the story 18:32
Catch Share Program Review for the Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog Individual Transferrable Quota Fisheries
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) is accepting proposals to conduct a Catch Share Program Review of the present and past social and economic conditions in the Atlantic surfclam and ocean quahog (SCOQ) fisheries which are managed using individual transferrable quotas (ITQs). Section 303A(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) includes requirements for the regular monitoring and review of the operations of catch share programs by the Council and the Secretary of Commerce. In 1977, the Council developed a fishery management plan for the Atlantic surfclam and ocean quahog fisheries in federal waters. These fisheries were initially managed using a combination of limited entry restrictions, fishing quotas, and time limits to constrain landings and distribute fishing effort throughout the fishing year. In 1990, the Council developed an ITQ program that was implemented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries. The fisheries have been operating under this program since then. Read the Request for Proposals (RFP) – Closing Date: March 31, 2017 12:21
COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Several private anglers and the Coastal Conservation Association, a group representing private anglers (collectively, CCA), appeal the district court’s summary judgment dismissal of their lawsuit, which challenged Amendment 40 to the Reef Fish Fishery Management Plan and the Final Rule implementing that amendment. Because we find that Amendment 40 is consistent with its organic statute and was properly devised and implemented, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court. This dispute centers on the management of the red snapper fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. Read the complaint here 09:28
Enviro Defense Fund Applauds 9th Circuit’s Pacific whiting fishery ruling
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday upheld a federal program that limits the number of Pacific whiting, or hake, fishermen can catch off the Northwest Coast. Two fishing companies, Pacific Dawn and Jessie’s Ilwaco Fish Co., sued the Secretary of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2013, claiming the Fisheries Service unreasonably refused to consider fishing activity after 2003 and 2004 when it set new quotas in 2011 and 2013. The three-judge panel Wednesday refused to overturn U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson’s 2013 grant of summary judgment. Writing for the panel, Judge Sandra Ikuta agreed that the Fisheries Service considered more recent fishing activity when it set quotas but that it “gave greater weight to historic participation” in setting the new limits. Pacific Dawn said it was “disappointed’ with the ruling. “The decision upholds an individual fishing quota program that resulted from no meaningful consideration of current harvests or present participation in the fishery, as Congress requires,” Pacific Dawn said in a statement. Read the rest here 11:59
California fishing groups unite to fight offshore monuments that prohibit commercial fishing
July 7, 2016 — A collection of more than 40 West Coast commercial and recreational fishing groups, working in conjunction with the National Coalition for Fishing Communities, has written to the White House, the Secretaries of Commerce and Interior, and officials in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, opposing the proposed designation of marine monuments off the coast of California that prohibit commercial fishing…The letter is in direct response to a recent proposal calling on President Obama to declare virtually all (SRB’s) off the California coast as National Monuments using his executive authority under the Antiquities Act. Read the rest here – Read the letter here 16:28
Secretary of Commerce adopts halibut bycatch cuts
The Secretary of Commerce adopted Amendment 111 to the Magnuson-Stevens Act on Wednesday, which cuts halibut bycatch limits for groundfish trawlers. The amendment aims to reduce the bycatch in Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration believes the measure will reduce the overall amount of halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands by 361 metric tons compared to 2014, or nearly 800,000 pounds, freeing up more of the lucrative fish for the directed halibut fishermen in the central Bering Sea. Read the rest here 07:38
Fishing Rights Alliance has requested that the Secretary of Commerce remove three members from the Gulf Council
In a letter today, The Fishing Rights Alliance has requested that the Secretary of Commerce remove three members from the Gulf Council for their failure to disclose Board of Director positions with a commercial advocacy and lobbying organization, in clear violation of the MSA. Gulf Council members Corky Perrett (Miss), Harlon Pearce (La) and are on the Board of Directors of The Gulf Seafood Institute, whose lobbying efforts are made clear on their website. 20:26
Breaking – New England States reach consensus on plans to distribute groundfish disaster funds
The state fishery directors from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, in partnership with NOAA, today announced a proposed framework for the distribution of $32.8 million in federal disaster monies to the New England groundfish industry. Read more here 15:47
The Magnuson-Stevens Act is in Need of Congressional Attention
In a recent article titled, “The Magnuson Act: It’s a Keeper” and published in the media outlet Roll Call[1], Eric Schwaab and Bill Hogarth’s representation that the current fisheries management regime is a success and b
uilt on sound science is blatantly false and amounts to no more than agency based rhetoric rather than reality. At present, there are a total of 7 Economic Disasters that have been declared by the Secretary of Commerce throughout the United States. These economic disasters are not limited to one region of the country, they span from New England, down the East Coast, into the Gulf of Mexico, and along the Pacific Coast. Read more here 16:41
Center for Sustainable Fisheries Files Amicus Brief in Support of Mass, NH, in alleged NOAA National Standards Violations
The Center for Sustainable Fisheries (“CSF”) has filed an Amicus Brief in support of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of New Hampshire in the case brought against the Secretary of Commerce, Secretary Penny Pritzker, and NOAA. Read more here 10:26
NOAA Announces Partial Approval of Amendment 14 to the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan
On November 7, 2013, NOAA – National Marine Fisheries Service, on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce, partially approved Amendment 14 to the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan. For the rundown, click here 21:24
We do a lousy job of informing our fellow citizens about fishery issues. Read the Comments!
Message from Alaska: Our disaster relief isn’t ‘pork’
It’s unlikely that many Americans in the Lower 48 know about it, but the Alaskan salmon industry — a significant part of the state’s economy — has been struck by a slow-moving disaster for several years now. Sources of salmon that even in the mid-2000s yielded hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish are now yielding next to nothing. Nobody quite agrees on what is causing the problem, but as Knudson noted, in September the Commerce Department issued what is called a resource disaster designation covering parts of the Alaskan salmon industry, making it eligible for federal relief funds.
That’s where the Hurricane Sandy bill comes in……Read the article and the comments. How do we fix this?
Of course, there is no mention of the other fishery disasters,,,
Garden State Seafood Association Seeks Federal Disaster Aid After Hurricane Sandy
New Jersey’s commercial fishermen landed and processed finfish and shellfish valued at almost 200 million dollars at the dock in 2011. These landings generated more than a billion dollars in economic activity for the State of New Jersey. Our commercial fishermen and fishing-dependent businesses from Cumberland County bordering Delaware Bay up the coast to Monmouth County on Raritan Bay suffered grievously from Hurricane Sandy and now face myriad challenges as they attempt to rebuild both their facilities and their markets. Accordingly, the GSSA is requesting that NJ Governor Christie make requests to the Secretary of Commerce under both programs and encourage the Secretary to act in a timely manner to help New Jersey’s fishermen and those in fishing-dependent businesses rebuild their facilities and their markets as rapidly and effectively as possible.
For more information contact Greg DiDomenico, Executive Director, at 609 898 1100 or [email protected].
Apalachicola Bay-Franklin County Oysterman: “We’re going to lose everything we’ve ever worked for”
“I don’t know how families are going to survive,” said his wife and fellow oysterman, Betty Shiver. For the oystering couple, making a decent living these days seems down right impossible. They say the Apalachicola Bay, known for its big beautiful oysters, isn’t producing. The cause? Perhaps a lack of fresh water, over harvesting, or even possible remnants of the BP oil spill. They just don’t know, but their situation grows dire. “A lot of people, all they do is depend on this bay out here oystering and if it’s not here they can’t make it, and it’s not here and everybody knows it’s not here,” said Mr. Shiver. Read More
