The Obama Administration says more oil is being produced in the United States than anytime in the last eight years. One news outlet reports that the boom times for the oil industry have meant an increase in jobs for college students. And then we have this statement from the Tulsa World newspaper as reported in RIGZONE: “A weekly rig count tabulated by Baker Hughes Inc. showed the number of working U.S. oil rigs at 1,293, more than 50 percent higher than the 801 recorded a year ago. In fact, the oil rig count is the highest since Baker Hughes separated oil and natural gas rigs in its weekly tally in 1987.”

But tomorrow — Tuesday March 13^th — Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts will try to pass a 78 page love letter to the oil industry amendment to the Surface Transportation bill which will require that half of all the acres in each region of our nation’s oceans be leased for more oil drilling. The Roberts amendment would also require oil leases in state waters of any state where the governor simply requests leasing.

On Tuesday morning call your US Senators through the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge them to OPPOSE THE ROBERTS AMENDMENT.

Sen. Roberts says more drilling will put oil on the international market and this will bring down gas prices. Does this sound right to you?

The Roberts amendment would mandate oil drilling in New England’s ocean no matter the many tremendous reasons to not have offshore drilling here. This same approach was defeated last May. Please help defeat the Roberts amendment again.

On Tuesday morning call your US Senators through the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge them to OPPOSE THE ROBERTS AMENDMENT.

You can also find your Senators on the web and call their office directly. Urge them to vote against the Roberts amendment to the Surface Transportation bill.

Short Memories Make Bad Legislators - Oppose the Roberts Amendment

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  This week, TalkingFish.org interviews Mark Usewicz, chef and Co-Owner of Mermaid’s Garden, a Brooklyn-based sustainable seafood consultancy (Photo credit: Mark Usewicz).

  “Mark Usewicz helps chefs bring sustainable and adventurous seafood to your plate” – Brooklyn-based sustainable seafood consultant Mark Usewicz talks with TalkingFish.org about how he helps chefs make the right decisions about what seafood to serve their customers. Plus, he shares a great shell bean and clam stew recipe.

• “Ready to hear about herring?” – A rundown of the main concerns with the industrial Atlantic herring trawl fleet and the solutions available in the upcoming amendment to the herring fishery management plan, as well as a schedule of public hearings where you can voice your opinions on the new plan.
• “Fish Talk in the News – Friday, March 9” – Some interesting news we’ve been reading this week: Senator Kerry introduces a bill to fund fishery research, the government and CLF support Amendment 16 in the Court of Appeals, author Paul Greenberg shares his current fish choices, and a roundup of this weekend’s ocean and fish-related events.

The ocean holds a special place in our imagination. Its vastness and its great depths have inspired explorers and storytellers, scientists and entrepreneurs to set sail in search of new lands, mythical creatures, new discoveries and new business opportunities.

Yet as the planet has grown crowded, so too has our ocean. The blue planet we once saw as limitless is straining under the pressure as we demand more and more from it. Seafood to feed ever more people, oil to fuel our cars and our businesses and shipping lanes crowded with freight as trade expands around the world.

One of the great challenges of the 21st century is to find new ways to sustain and restore the ecosystems that are the basis of our economy and our environment. It will take smarter approaches if we are to grow our coastal economies while sustaining and restoring the ecosystems that they depend on.

That is why CLF is proud to join with Greenfire Productions to host premieres of the new film Ocean Frontiers this April in Boston and Rhode Island. Ocean Frontiers takes us on an inspiring voyage to seaports and watersheds across the country to meet unlikely allies: industrial shippers and whale biologists, pig farmers and wetland ecologists, sport fishermen, reef snorkelers and many more. All of these individuals have embarked on a new course of collaboration to improve management of the sea that sustains us..

Join us on the evening of April 3rd at the New England Aquarium or the evening of April 4th at the University of Rhode Island’s Bay Campus in Narragansett to see the film, meet the producer and engage in a conversation with nationally renowned experts about how New England can lead the nation and the world towards a new era of ocean stewardship. For details on the Boston Event click here, and for the Rhode Island Event click here.

You can learn more about these events and others from Winston Vaughan by writing wvaughan@clf.org

Both events are free and open to the public. To reserve your seat click here for Boston or here for Rhode Island. To learn more about the film please visit www.ocean-frontiers.org

Thanks, and don’t forget to bring a friend. Our ocean needs all the allies it can get.

Haphazard development, lack of coordination and poorly informed decisions can not only cause our beaches to be polluted and wildlife habitat to decline, but it can cost a loss of jobs and economic benefits to New England’s coastal communities. Continuing to have clean water and a healthy coast requires a bit of planning, as my colleague Peter Wellenberger pointed out in his post from last Thursday. An open, transparent planning process that uses the best scientific and local knowledge, fully involves all users and the public and protects the ecological capital that we all need to live, love, thrive and survive is the best way to go whether it is on the local, state, regional or national level.

This is why CLF supports the National Ocean Policy. We want your help to advance this much needed initiative.

Today is the last day of the comment period on the National Ocean Policy draft Implementation Plan. For more background on the plan, read my previous blog post – “Sexy? Alluring? Seductive? Hello there, National Ocean Policy” – here.

If you care about our ocean’s health, take a moment and share your comment through CLF’s action alert. Habitat for ocean wildlife, healthy and clean beaches, and thriving coastal communities are all worth a bit of planning.

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  TalkingFish.org's Ask an Expert interview this week is with Chef Evan Mallett of Portsmouth's Black Trumpet Bistro (Photo credit: Black Trumpet Bistro).

  February 21: “Letter to Secretary Bryson: New England Can’t Afford To Put Gulf of Maine Cod at Risk” – Originally published right here on the CLF Scoop, CLF’s Peter Shelley blogged about his request to Commerce Secretary John Bryson to impose strict catch limits to protect the Gulf of Maine cod population and also to provide federal disaster relief funding to fishermen who will face economic hardship due to the lower catch allowances.

• February 23: “Chef Evan Mallett is committed to a diverse and sustainable menu” – Our latest Ask an Expert feature interviews Evan Mallett, chef and owner of Black Trumpet Bistro in Portsmouth, NH. Chef Evan talks about the importance of flexibility and diversity when creating his menus.
• February 24: “Fish Talk in the News – Friday, February 24” – This week’s stories: NOAA’s proposed 2013 budget may cut funding for fisheries but requests support for research in the northeast; gross revenues are up after the Pacific groundfish fleet’s first year under catch shares; the Nature Conservancy is working with diverse stakeholders to prevent river herring bycatch; and the World Bank is creating a global alliance to save the world’s oceans.

Photo courtesy of Derek Keats @ flickr. Creative Commons.

Gulf of Maine cod, the lifeline of our inshore fishing fleet up and down the coast of New England, is in a biological crisis. That is why I wrote today to the Honorable John Bryson, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, calling for federal fisheries disaster relief and interim emergency action. You can read a copy of the letter here, or scroll down to read it below this post.

My letter follows the latest scientific data – data that shows that cod stocks are much more heavily depleted than earlier assessments had indicated. According to the 2011 assessment, based on an improved scientific model, three additional years of survey data and more accurate weights-at-age estimates, Gulf of Maine the spawning cod estimates fell to 12,561 metric tons from 33,877 metric tons in 2008.

In the case of Gulf of Maine cod, the numbers are so close to the bone that a couple thousand metric tons of cod landed either way could spell the difference between a rebounding fishery and a total collapse. Given the economic importance of Gulf of Maine cod to coastal fishermen, what would the appropriate risk be?

Indications are that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) will set a quota of 6,700 metric tons (mt) for the 2012 fishing year that begins May 1. At this level the risk of the spawning population dropping below critical thresholds is greater than 31%. Drop the catch levels to 4,000mt and the risk drops to less than 10%. Still a risk but a safer bet. That is why as I said in my letter, “Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) recommends a one year 4,000mt catch level for the fishing year which starts May 1, 2012. While that level of catch is  2,700mt less than the lowest level proposed by the New England Fishery Management Council, it still presents a significant risk of further stock declines.”

Setting the catch levels too high on May 1, 2012 creates substantial risk that the whole fishery may have to be closed in the future. This isn’t sheer speculation; when Newfoundland’s northern cod fishery – a close cousin of our Gulf of Maine cod – collapsed in the early nineties, the fishery has had to be closed for decades to allow the cod stocks to rebuild.

As I said in my letter, at 4,000mt, “the estimated gross revenue losses at that catch level are $4,677,000. Importantly, an estimated sixty-six percent of those losses will fall on the smaller, inshore fleet (see attachment), a group that is already operating close to or below the economic break-even point and won’t have alternative fishing options in many cases.” Given this, I asked Secretary Bryson to “set up a disaster relief fund available to all active groundfish companies that would provide some relief for any demonstrated losses that they experience until GOM cod stocks can be rebuilt.”

The livelihoods of New England’s coastal fishermen hang in the balance with the Gulf of Maine cod. A three-part solution is required to protect these fishermen and the fish they depend upon.

• First, NMFS should limit the risk of further long-term damage to the fishery by setting the quota at no higher than 4,000 metric tons for the 2012 fishing year. That will buy some time to do further analysis to inform catch limits for 2013 as the nature and extent of the crisis becomes better understood.
• Second, NMFS should allocate those fish to the boats most economically dependent on Gulf of Maine cod, and restrict large trip boats from fishing for them.
• Third, federal and state authorities should declare an economic fishery disaster and make funds available to assist the coastal fishermen who will suffer significant financial losses under any proposed scenario and look towards broader economic assistance for affected coastal communities.

Failing to take the right action for Gulf of Maine cod at this critical junction may well be failing the region’s fishing future. Fast and effective management steps have to be taken to head off that possibility.

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A copy of the letter I sent to Secretary Bryson can be found below or as a .pdf here.

February 21, 2012
The Honorable John Bryson
Secretary
U.S. Department of Commerce
14th and Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20230

RE: Gulf of Maine Cod Federal Fisheries Disaster Relief & Interim Emergency Action

Dear Secretary Bryson:

We are writing to you now to support the earlier requests by Governor Deval Patrick for federal fisheries disaster relief pursuant to section 312(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). The new scientific assessments for Gulf of Maine cod (GOM cod) stocks document that the economic situation in the region is significantly more dire than previously thought. Immediate and aggressive action is needed to avoid any risk of creating a long-lasting biological crisis with GOM cod with widespread, crippling economic implications.

As a result of the recent science assessment, GOM cod catch levels will have to be drastically cut back on May 1, 2012. Even at low catch levels, there still will be a significant risk that the spawning stock levels could decline below the lowest level ever observed. In the words of one of the New England Council’s scientists who has extensively studied the complete commercial collapse of the northern cod stocks in the early 1990’s off Newfoundland, “the similarities [between the two situations] are a bit frightening.” Dr. J.-J. Maguire (email to SSC members and others 1/25/12). Following that collapse, Newfoundland’s cod stock has been largely closed to fishing for decades.

The recent GOM cod reassessment was a unique and highly unusual set of events that was beyond anyone’s control. The scientists exercised their best professional judgment in performing the original assessment in 2008, the managers strictly followed the scientific harvest level advice, and the fishermen appear to have stayed within their prescribed quota limits. And yet, the future of GOM cod is now at an unforeseen but significant risk. These circumstances meet all the criteria in the National Marine Fisheries Service’s disaster relief policy guidance: there is a fishery resource disaster as defined by the MSA; it was caused by events beyond human control; and there will be significant economic impacts stemming from this disaster.

Economic analysis indicates that single-year gross revenue losses for the commercial fleet from current revenue levels could range from  $1,354,000 to $14,620,000, depending on the catch level that is set. Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) recommends a one year 4,000mt catch level for the fishing year which starts May 1, 2012. While that level of catch is 2,700 metric tons less than the lowest level proposed by the New England Fishery Management Council, it still presents a significant 10% probability of further spawning stock declines.

The estimated gross revenue losses at that catch level are $4,677,000. Importantly, an estimated sixty-six percent of those losses will fall on the smaller, inshore fleet (see attachment), a group that is already operating close to or below the economic break-even point and won’t have alternative fishing options in many cases. We ask that you set up a disaster relief fund available to all active groundfish companies that would provide some relief for any demonstrated losses of net revenues that they experience until GOM cod stocks can be rebuilt.

Without relief from the crushing economic circumstances many coastal boat owners are facing, , managers are being tempted to take risks in setting the short-term quotas too high, potentially imperiling the fishery for decades. A further commercial collapse of GOM cod stocks would cripple many of New England’s fishing communities that are wholly dependent on cod. The indirect losses in the maritime support industries multiply those potential direct costs many times. Economic disaster assistance can greatly reduce the pressure on managers to allow short-term overharvesting as the region transitions to a sustainable fishery. Moreover, in addition to direct disaster relief, we encourage you to implement the suggestions of the Commerce Department Economic Development Administration’s recent evaluation of certain New England ports and provide necessary aid and technical assistance for the economic transition of these communities.

CLF supports the New England Council’s emergency action request and the general approach that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has proposed in taking interim emergency action to respond to this unexpected and troubling new development. As mentioned above, however, we feel strongly that the quota should be set no higher than 4,000mt. And we have called for the imposition of a series of management measures that would direct the majority of the limited cod quota to the boats that are most dependent on cod. In support of this, we have provided NMFS with a position paper on this issue, which we are also attaching to this letter. Thank you for your careful consideration of the management and economic assistance measures we propose. We look forward to your response and your agency’s further efforts to work towards solutions that help all of New England’s coastal communities weather this tough economic crisis and to thrive in the future.

Sincerely,
Peter Shelley
Vice President

The Gulf of Maine (Northern) shrimp season ends today (Photo credit: Aldric D'Eon, courtsey of the NEFSC).

• February 13: “A behind the scenes peek at the Gulf of Maine cod stock assessments” - What really happened to Gulf of Maine cod? Heather Goldstone of Climatide investigated last week by talking to Liz Brooks and Mike Palmer, two of the scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center who were involved in producing the 2011 Gulf of Maine cod stock assessment.

• February 14: “To help GOM cod, NMFS should not touch closed areas” - It’s been widely reported that at its February meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council voted to ask the National Marine Fisheries Service to take emergency action on Gulf of Maine cod for the 2012 fishing year. The measures proposed, including a mere 3-13% reduction in the catch limit, were notable largely for their failure to address the condition of the depleted cod stock. But there is an aspect of the proposed package that has received little attention, which is troubling, because it would have NMFS open up five of the six existing areas currently closed to groundfishing.

• February 17: “Fish Talk in the News” - A weekly roundup of stories we think will interest readers. This week: news and opinion on Gulf of Maine cod regulations and fisheries science, the end of this year’s Gulf of Maine shrimp season.

As some of you may know, I had one of those painful (and thankfully rare) life experiences this month that reinforce our natural instinct that people matter most of all in life. Thank you all for your kind wishes and support. It made a big difference.

Although that experience was personal, the same message – people matter most – is worth taking to heart in our professional lives. Our work colleagues are “family” in a sense; we help one another grow and thrive. In addition, in order to achieve CLF’s collective mission we need to connect with people who care about New England like we do – people precisely like you. We won’t succeed without you.

Brain Skerry @ the NEw England Boat Show with CLF.

Getting out to meet people where they live, work, and play is something we’re doing that right now at the New England Boat Show. CLF has a booth where the CLF family is meeting new people and talking about the wonders of New England’s oceans and the need for people to rally in support of them.

I’m very pleased to introduce the gentleman in the CLF vest, whom you may not recognize. He’s Brian Skerry, and you’re going to be seeing a lot more of him. He’s a world-renowned underwater photographer whose pictures have appeared many times on the cover of National Geographic. (He was signing his books at our table here; the girl in the yellow sweatshirt is reacting to his photos.) And he’s going to be our ambassador (and photographer) for the New England Ocean Odyssey – a project conceived and soon to be launched by our Ocean Conservation program team. It will take people on a journey beneath New England’s waves, and bring them to the surface fired up to protect and improve our marine environment.

CLF's Roberta Gilbert

It will also take us – CLF – on a journey, into person-to-person engagement. Here’s Roberta Gilbert, making friends for us. She was terrific! We at CLF will all be good at it – I’m sure of that – because we at CLF believe in what we’re doing. That’s the most important thing. You can’t promote effectively what you don’t believe in, and enthusiasm is infectious. Everything else is detail.

And why? It’s worth reminding ourselves. We cannot succeed without more people in our tent, providing activism for our advocacy, financial contributions, legal standing, moral support, and energy, ideas and enthusiasm. It’s everyone’s New England, after all, that we want to help thrive.

And so join us. We’ll be more successful, and it’ll be more fun.

This blog was originally published on TalkingFish.org.

It’s been widely reported that at its February meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council voted to ask the National Marine Fisheries Service to take emergency action on Gulf of Maine cod for the 2012 fishing year. The measures proposed, including a mere 3-13% reduction in the catch limit, were notable largely for their failure to address the condition of the depleted cod stock. But there is an aspect of the proposed package that has received little attention, which is troubling, because it would have NMFS open up five of the six existing areas currently closed to groundfishing. The areas at issue serve a myriad of functions for managed commercial species including protection of their habitat and spawning areas and providing a buffer against excessive fishing effort on certain species. Several of these areas have been in place for over fifteen years and have taken on important and positive functions and values that are currently being studied but are not yet entirely understood.

A map of the Gulf of Maine showing the groundfish closed areas (Photo credit: NOAA).

That’s one of the many reasons why the Council’s action is so incomprehensible. It came one day after the Council announced that it was only one year away from completing an eight-year process of collecting data and developing a highly scientific model by which it believes it can identify the best and most vulnerable habitat to protect. So, just when a lengthy scientific process is about to render answers as to what areas should be open and which closed, the Council urged action to open areas and did so without any scientific support. What’s more, many of these closures were imposed in order to comply with a court order to protect habitat from fishing gear, and several of these areas were chosen precisely because they are habitat for Gulf of Maine cod. Giving fishermen access to these areas will increase the likelihood that catch limits on cod will be exceeded and that catch will be discarded, increasing the mortality of this stock and undermining the very purpose of the emergency measure.

There is also the question of the legalities of opening these areas with this action. Many of the areas that the Council has put on the chopping block were originally designated in order to comply with a requirement of the Magnuson-Stevens Act that essential fish habitat must be protected from fishing to the extent practicable. Any elimination of these closed areas risks undoing the Council’s means of complying with this requirement of federal fisheries law. The Service’s action will also be limited by the need to analyze the environmental impacts of reopening closures in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. Just such an analysis is currently ongoing with the Council’s groundfish technical team. This analysis can, and with the Service’s help would, be completed in time for the 2013 fishing year, but is not ready as part of this emergency action.

The Service should take this opportunity to invest resources in the essential fish habitat process and the analysis of the groundfish closed areas already underway in order to ensure that it will be completed in time for what will inevitably be an even more restrictive 2013 fishing year. If the Service instead chooses to randomly reopen closed areas through the Council’s requested emergency action, it risks leaving Gulf of Maine cod and other fish stocks more vulnerable to overfishing than before, a blow to the fishery and exactly the opposite of the emergency action’s intended effect.