Farm Bill Progress to Support Fishing and Seafood Industries

National Fishermen

NF Staff

June 12th, 2024

On Tuesday, June 11, Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Ranking Member John Boozman released a Farm Bill framework that includes several provisions advancing significant and meaningful benefits to fishing and seafood businesses and communities.

The first Farm Bill was the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, part of the New Deal, in response to the drop in U.S. crop prices after the First World War. In 2013, the Farm Bill emerged from the U.S. Senate with two amendments to help the fishing industry, introduced by Mass. Senator Cowan. One amendment called for catch insurance similar to crop insurance and low-interest loans available for the fishing industry to cope with the economic disaster, which was declared in 2012 by Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank.

Similarly, in June 2023, Senator Murkowski and Senator King introduced bipartisan legislation called the Fishing Industry Credit Enhancement Act to expand financial support to America’s fishing communities. This bill was another step forward in providing fishing businesses with access to the same loans as agriculture businesses through the Farm Credit System.

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OPINION: Peltola pulls for Alaska fishermen

Anchorage Daily News

By Linda Behnken

June 9th, 2024

Fish news out recently shows us once again that Alaska’s fishermen have a rare champion in Rep. Mary Peltola. Mary introduced two bills that focus on funding NOAA’s bycatch reduction program and advancing critical regulations on trawl gear.

Wild seafood provides food security and livelihoods across the country, but nowhere is that more true than in Alaska. We are fortunate to have a leader who not only has her own boots in fisheries but is bold enough to drive hard conversations around our biggest challenges.

In the North Pacific, that includes bycatch management and habitat protection — not only as a foundation for sustainable management, but as a critical part of climate resilience. We’ve seen the complete collapse of two iconic Alaska crab species, and elimination of subsistence fishing on major rivers with communities highly dependent upon that food resource. We’ve witnessed the abrupt crash of Gulf of Alaska cod following the 2014-2016 marine heat wave. As fish stocks and ocean conditions change more quickly and more substantially than ever before, we need conservation tools that match the pace with that change to safeguard ocean health.

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NMFS issues Positive 90-day finding on wild fish conservancy petition to list alaska chinook populations under the endangered species act

NOAA

On Friday, May 24, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a positive 90-day finding on the Wild Fish Conservancy’s petition to list Chinook stocks that spawn in rivers that flow into the Gulf of Alaska as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. These stocks include Chinook populations that range from Kodiak Island, Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound to Southeast Alaska. The Wild Fish Conservancy, an anti-small boat commercial fishing group from Washington State, claims that Alaska is degrading Chinook habitat, overharvesting Chinook, and failing to implement measures that provide protections for Alaska’s Chinook stocks. 

NMFS’ 90 day finding begins a 60-day public comment period seeking information about Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon from the public, government agencies, Alaska Native organizations, scientists, conservation groups, fishing groups, and other interested parties. The agency seeks information on Chinook ecology and abundance trends, fishery impacts, threats, habitat conditions, and the effectiveness of ADF&G management measures. The comment deadline July 23, 2024. Fishermen can submit comments to Gulf of Alaska Chinook Salmon Petition, docket# NOAA-NMFS-2024-0042 at the regulations website: https://www.regulations.gov The Wild Fish Conservancy’s petition is available at: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/endangeredspecies-conservation/candidate-speciesunder-endangered-species-act .

Peltola Introduces Pair of Fish Bills to Restrict Bottom Trawling, Reduce Bycatch

Alaska Fish News

By Laine Welch

May 23rd, 2024

On May 22 AK Representative Mary Peltola introduced a pair of bills to restrict bottom trawling and reduce bycatch – the bipartisan Bycatch Reduction and Mitigation Act and the Bottom Trawl Clarity Act.

“Since coming to Congress, I’ve worked to make fish and fishing policy the issue of national importance it deserves to be,” said Rep. Peltola in announcing the bills. “I know fish, I know Alaska, and I know how to work with people in both parties to get stuff done.”

The Bycatch Reduction and Mitigation Act supports Alaskan fishermen working to reduce bycatch by:

• Authorizing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Bycatch Reduction and Engineering Program (BREP) at $10 million for five years.

• Establishing the Bycatch Mitigation Assistance Fund, to be administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and used to help fishermen and vessel owners purchase new gear or technology to reduce bycatch – such as camera systems, lights, and salmon excluders.

The Bottom Trawl Clarity Act limits bottom trawling in vulnerable ocean by:

• Mandating each Fisheries Management Council that permits the use of any bottom trawl gear to define the terms “substantial” versus “limited” bottom contact.

• Requiring the designation of Bottom Trawl Zones, limiting the areas where gear that scrapes the seafloor is allowed.

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The Best Fish Is Also the Most Local. Why Is It So Hard to Find?

New York Times

By Melissa Clark

April 25, 2024

Seafood caught in nearby waters has long been left out of the farm-to-table movement. But these people have set out to get it into stores and restaurants.

On a cold, windy February morning on Shinnecock Bay, on the South Fork of Long Island, N.Y., Ricky Sea Smoke fished for clams from the back of his 24-foot boat. The fisherman, whose real name is Rick Stevens, expertly sorted through haul after haul as they were dumped onto the sorting rack.

Among the usual littlenecks and cherrystones were delicacies that would make chefs swoon: sweet, plump razor clams; vermilion-fleshed blood clams; and dainty limpets (also known as slipper snails) with their inimitable saline, buttery flavor. Depending on the season, fishers like Mr. Stevens can bring in even more treasures, like scallops, squid, blue crabs, striped bass, mackerel and skate.

But almost none of them are available locally.

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After overshadowing climate talks, the myth of ‘circularity’ looms over the UN plastics treaty

Fortune

By Judith Enck and Pamela Miller

April 24th, 2024

Delegates from 191 countries meet once again this month for the UN plastics treaty talks in Ottawa, and they need to avoid falling into industry traps that will hinder real progress. Dow chair and CEO Jim Fitterling’s recent Commentary in Fortune is a perfect example of how to ensure failure in Ottawa. If delegates commit to the priorities he outlined, they will fail to implement real solutions to the growing problem caused by his company and companies like it.

Mr. Fitterling suggests we should continue to invest in flawed systems that have failed to solve plastic pollution for decades rather than prioritizing what’s really needed to reverse this crisis: reducing plastic production and phasing out toxic chemicals.

World leaders have made similar mistakes in UN climate talks. When the latest climate talks concluded in December, stronger language calling for a phaseout of fossil fuels had been dropped, the agreement was not legally binding, and financial support for countries to move toward more renewable energy had not been addressed. Representatives of small island nations that are most at risk from rising seas said, “This process has failed us” and pointed to the “litany of loopholes” in the agreement, saying it would fail to help avoid climate catastrophe.

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A first step toward a global price on carbon

New York Times

By Manuela Andreoni and Max Bearak

March 28th, 2024

It didn’t make many headlines, but last week, at a meeting of the International Maritime Organization, something potentially world-changing happened.

The United Nations agency, which regulates the shipping industry, essentially committed to creating the world’s first global carbon price.

“I’m very confident that there is going to be an economic pricing mechanism by this time next year,” Arsenio Dominguez, the Secretary General of the maritime organization, said. “What form it is going to have and what the name is going to be, I don’t know.”

The proposal would require shipping companies to pay a fee for every ton of carbon they emit by burning fuel. In other words, it’s a tax.

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Murkowski Announces Investments for Sitka in FY24 Six-Bill Appropriations Package

U.S. Senate – Office of Senator Lisa Murkowski

Press Office

March 3rd, 2024

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a senior member of the Senate Appropriation Committee and Ranking Member of the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, announced investments for Sitka on the six-bill Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations package. The bill passed the Senate in a bipartisan 78-22 vote.

“After months of unnecessary delay, Congress has finally taken a big step by passing six of our 12 appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2024 on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis. Considering the vast size of our state and limited infrastructure, the significant investments I have included in these measures are well-justified and much-needed,” Murkowski said. “From programmatic wins to congressionally directed spending projects, the funding I have secured is the direct result of working together with Alaskans from across the state to address the needs of their communities. This package invests in our military while enabling us respond to workforce shortages, food insecurity, clean drinking water needs, the housing crunch, the high cost of energy, crises in our fisheries, and more.”

“The effects of the housing shortage have been seen across the state, but nowhere are the impacts felt more acutely than in Sitka. Securing over $2 million for the Sitka Community Development Corporation to build a new apartment complex will offer new home ownership opportunities for first time buyers, with the Trust’s model of ownership preserving that affordability permanently. Thanks to the partnership of the city and the borough, we are looking at a new neighborhood of fourteen homes plus apartment units.”

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ALFA is Partnering with Real Time Data to Advance Deckhand’s Logbook Platform

Deckhand, 2024

The investment will support the development of Deckhand, an electronic platform that aims to revolutionize sustainable commercial fisheries management worldwide.

[Bellingham, WA] – Real Time Data, a global provider of advanced data collection solutions for the commercial seafood industry, announced today that the company has secured a strategic investment from Builders Vision, a Chicago-based impact platform dedicated to building a more humane and healthy planet. The partnership is the latest investment for the company, which has raised USD $750,000 in this round, including from existing investors who have a strong belief in its success, and aims to enhance the capabilities of Deckhand, Real Time Data's flagship electronic logbook technology that captures catch, environmental, and fishing business data on the ocean. The technology was designed to better measure and promote sustainability in the fishing and seafood industry.

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Scientists are freaking out about ocean temperatures

New York Times

By David Gelles

February 27th, 2024

From his office at the University of Miami, Brian McNoldy, an expert in hurricane formation, is tracking the latest temperature data from the North Atlantic with a mixture of concern and bewilderment.

For the past year, oceans around the world have been substantially warmer than usual. Last month was the hottest January on record in the world’s oceans, and temperatures have continued to rise since then. The heat wave has been especially pronounced in the North Atlantic.

“The North Atlantic has been record-breakingly warm for almost a year now,” McNoldy said. “It’s just astonishing. Like, it doesn’t seem real.”

Across the unusually warm Atlantic, in Cambridge, England, Rob Larter, a marine scientist who tracks polar ice levels, is equally perplexed.

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