May 17th was a good day for fish and Massachusetts fishermen. In a harsh but eloquent opinion issued on Tuesday, the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals told the U.S. Coast Guard in no uncertain terms that it had failed to meet its responsibilities to fully evaluate the potential environmental impacts of its decision to overrule protections that Massachusetts put in place to protect Cape Cod, Buzzards Bay and the islands from further oil spills from coastal oil transport.

At issue was a new set of state rules, adopted by the Massachusetts legislature after the disastrous Bouchard oil barge spill in 2003 on a rock outcropping in Buzzards Bay. The state rules imposed mandatory tug escorts for oil barges, barge manning, and crew task requirements that were stricter than existing federal rules. The Coast Guard didn’t like being second-guessed on safety issues and issued rules that overruled the Massachusetts effort with more lax and oil transport-friendly requirements. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Coalition for Buzzards Bay challenged that action in federal district court and Conservation Law Foundation also briefed the case.

On appeal from an unfavorable lower court opinion, the federal Court of Appeals agreed with Massachusetts, chastising the lower court that it had misread legal precedent. The Court of Appeals held that the Coast Guard had done no environmental review at all despite the “tidal wave” of public concern about the consequences of the weaker rules and increased risks of more oil spills. Instead of a “hard look” at those risks, the Court found that the Coast Guard had, at best, given them a “brief glance.” In trying to avoid confronting the safety issues, the Appeals Court said, the Coast Guard “rip[ped] out the heart” of its own rules.

A bird covered in oil as a result of the Bouchard oil barge spill (Photo: MA EOEEA)

Unfortunately, the fight to protect Cape Cod, Buzzards Bay, and the Islands is not over, and further vigilance will be critical. The case will now be sent back to the Coast Guard to complete the necessary environmental review. We can only hope that they will be more responsive this time around. Coastal oil transport is no doubt critical to our regional economy but it must be done with maximum protections. Oil economic interests should not trump coastal safety issues. The future of our fisheries depends on clean coastal waters as does the health of all marine life, from fish to fowl to mammals.

A great debt is owed to the Massachusetts legislature for acting so forcefully on this issue and to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office and the Coalition for Buzzards Bay for their intelligent and passionate defense of these state interests. May 17, 2011 was a good day for our oceans.

Thanks to all of the CLF members and allies who called and e-mailed their US Senators about the oil drilling vote today. The nasty McConnell bill needed 60 votes to pass and was defeated by a final tally of 42 ayes to 57 nays. Most of New England’s delegation voted the right way but Sen. Scott Brown and Sen. Kelly Ayotte voted in favor of the drilling bill today and last night in favor of retaining taxpayer subsidies for the five biggest oil companies. Clearly some education is needed. Maine’s senators both voted correctly yesterday on oil subsidies but today Sen. Snowe kept her record clean on oil drilling with a no vote while Sen. Susan Collins unfortunately decided to support oil drilling.

Besides the attempts to increase oil drilling, the McConnell bill included a section that would have greatly limited the ability of citizens to access the courts and get a fair hearing in front of a judge. It would have denied the award of legal fees to organizations bringing successful lawsuits against oil companies. With tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies aiding oil companies to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on lobbying, do oil companies really need to skew citizen access to the courts and put their greasy paws on the scales of justice? Are there limits to their greed and attempts to manipulate the law?

Legislated requirements to drill off the coast of Virginia or mandate certain oil sales in Alaska creates a slippery slope to drilling in New England. We don’t need oil rigs on Georges Bank or massive petro-chemical infrastructure in our coastal communities. That’s why this vote was important for New England. Thanks for taking action today and thanks for your continued support for CLF.

Another important Senate vote comes today around 2:30ish when the pro-drilling bill S.953, introduced by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is scheduled to be voted on. This bill hides behind a fig leaf of a drilling ”safety improvement” by requiring a spill response plan, but it really seeks to increase drilling by requiring leasing off the coast of Virginia and in the Arctic and setting a deadline that all proposed leases have to be decided in 60 days. McConnell’s bill also restricts court access for an legal action against a drilling operation. Is the oil industry really in need of legislation that limits court access away from the public’s interest? Isn’t the playing field already more than a bit skewed in favor of the industry that seems to create a new lobbying PAC each year?

TAKE ACTION NOW!

- SEND AN E-MAIL to your senators via CLF’s action alert and tell them to vote to protect our oceans and coasts, not open them up to oil drilling.

- CALL your senators through the US Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge them to oppose the McConnell dirty drilling bill.

Fire Boats Attempt to Control Fire on BP's Deepwater Horizon

US SENATE VOTES TODAY ON OIL SUBSIDIES AND DRILLING TOMORROW

The biggest oil companies in the US receive billions of dollars of US tax subsidies each year. The most profitable companies in the world are making billions in profits while speculators boost the price of each gallon of gas and home fuel oil. In fact, in the first quarter of 2011, the major oil companies made $30 billion in profits.

Some in the Congress seem to think that oil companies profits are not high enough. Last week, the House of Representatives voted to approve three bills that would increase oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts — including in New England’s ocean and on historic Georges Bank. These bills did nothing to reduce the taxpayer subsidies enjoyed by oil companies.

This week the US Senate has a choice to either remove $20 billion in taxpayer subsidies that go to oil companies OR to make it drastically easier for oil companies to drill in our most sensitive ocean and coastal areas. In the next two days the Senate will vote on two separate bills: The Menendez bill, S 940, would eliminate $20 billion in taxpayer subsidies that could be used for debt reduction. The McConnell bill, S.953, will allow oil companies to stay on the public dole by keeping their taxpayer-funded subsidies AND it would increase dangerous oil drilling in America’s most sensitive ocean areas. In a move that would give oil companies an even greater gift, Sen. McConnell has indicated that he could swap his introduced bill with the text of the pro-drilling bills that were passed by the House last week.

One of the House-passed bills, HR1231, actually requires the Department of Interior to “make available for leasing and conduct lease sales including at least 50 percent of the available unleased acreage within each Outer Continental Shelf planning area” or “any state subdivision of an Outer Continental Shelf planning area that the Governor of the state that represents that subdivision requests be made available for leasing.” This bill would require oil and gas development in New England’s ocean despite test drilling in the 1970s and early 1980s that shows New England’s ocean has only 3 percent of US oil and gas deposits. The harmful effects of oil drilling on New England’s ocean wildlife and recovering fish populations would likely create more economic costs than gain. The industrial development that accompanies oil drilling such as onshore pipelines and infrastructure would irrevocably alter our coastal communities.

New England needs clean, renewable energy and deserves to be allowed to leave polluting, dangerous fossil fuels in the past. Instead, short-sighted Congressional politics could force industrial scale oil drilling operations in New England’s ocean waters for the first time. We can do better. Call your Senators today and tell them that oil subsidies and unsafe oil drilling should not be in the future of New England’s ocean or coastal communities.

Call your Senators today — Tuesday, May 17 — through the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Urge your Senators to SUPPORT Senate bill 940, the “Close Big Oil Loopholes Act.”

Urge your Senators to OPPOSE Senate bill 953, the McConnell Dirty Drilling Bill.

Major voices in the New England Fishing community speak up in support of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in this letter to SeafoodSource (a fishing industry website):

The oceans provide food for the world. As fishermen, growers, employers, and participants in the seafood industry, we are gravely concerned about the silent toll that ocean acidification has begun to take on marine resources. Seafood supplies, and our jobs and businesses, depend on healthy oceans.

That’s why we support continuation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI helps to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from large power plants in the 10 states from Maryland to Maine.

These emissions don’t just foul the air. They mix into the oceans and increase the acidity of seawater. More than 30 billion tons of CO2 poured from the world’s tailpipes, smokestacks and cleared lands in 2009, mostly from burning coal, oil, and gas. In seawater the CO2 forms carbonic acid. The acid depletes the ocean’s rich soup of nutrients that support shellfish, corals, many plankton species and the marine food webs that underpin the world’s seafood supply.

(more…)

Today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) released the Interim Report for Fishing Year 2010 on the Performance of the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery (May 2010-January 2011), which examines gross revenues, fishing effort, average vessel performance, distribution of revenues, and employment for the first nine months of the 2007 through 2010 fishing years. As expected under the new sector management system, which went into effect last May, the report shows an increase in gross revenues in 2010 compared to previous years. However, since the report does not take into account expenses such as vessel operating costs or the costs associated with joining a sector, the effect of sectors on net revenues in the fishery still remains to be seen.

Haddock, one of the species managed as part of the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery (Photo credit: NOAA)

Still, NOAA’s statement on the release of the report expressed optimism.  “The report provides welcome news about Northeast groundfish revenues,” said Eric Schwaab, NOAA assistant administrator for fisheries. “For example, the higher revenues occurred without exceeding this year’s groundfish catch quotas. And while many fishermen are doing better, we also know that some fishermen and businesses are not doing as well.”

The report noted that many trends observed in 2010 were continuations of trends that had been apparent since 2007 or even earlier, including declining landings, a declining number of active vessels, and increasing concentration of groundfish revenue among the top-earning vessels. Some other trends observed this year are new, and these trends are of a more positive nature, including increases in gross revenues, increases in prices of both groundfish and non-groundfish species, and increased economic performance in terms of revenue per unit effort.

As mentioned above, data from the final three months of the fishing year and data on the costs associated with the new system have yet to be incorporated into NEFSC’s analysis, so a final assessment of the first year of sectors is not currently possible. The interim report will be updated in August 2011 to take into account this additional information.

To read more about the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery and the sector system, please visit Talking Fish, a new blog created by CLF and other like-minded organizations and individuals to foster informed and productive discussion about New England’s fisheries and coastal communities.

Recovered Oil Sample from Spill in Buzzard's Bay

CONGRESS VOTING TODAY ON BILL TO MANDATE OIL DRILLING ON EAST COAST

Congress will vote today on a highly flawed bill which will require oil and gas leasing to take place in New England’s ocean — including on Georges Bank or any other historic fishing grounds or important ocean wildlife areas.

The text of HR1231 actually requires the Department of Interior to “make available for leasing and conduct lease sales including at least 50 percent of the available unleased acreage within each Outer Continental Shelf planning area” or “any state subdivision of an Outer Continental Shelf planning area that the Governor of the state that represents that subdivision requests be made available for leasing.”

This bill would require oil and gas development in New England’s ocean despite test drilling in the 1970s and early 1980s that shows New England’s ocean has only 3 percent of US oil and gas deposits. The harmful effects of oil drilling on New England’s ocean wildlife and recovering fish populations would likely create more economic costs than gain. The industrial development that accompanies oil drilling such as onshore pipelines and infrastructure would irrevocably alter our coastal communities.

HR1231 would also require drilling along the rest of the east coast, the entire west coast, the Arctic and other places in Alaska. HR1231 would also require taxpayers to pay half of the costs of certain oil exploration. This is a bill we do not need and cannot afford.

Call today Thursday, May 12. Call early – the vote could happen as early as noon.

Please call your Representative through the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge him or her to vote against HR1231.

Photo credit: National Park Service

We’re excited to share that we’re very close to reaching our Earth Day Challenge goal of raising $41,000 which CLF board members have agreed to match dollar-for-dollar, making your gift work twice as hard! We’d like to extend an enormous thank you to all of you who reached for your credit cards and checkbooks– and for those of you who haven’t, to announce that you’re not too late! Just to be absolutely sure that we meet our goal, we’re extending our Earth Day Challenge deadline until midnight on April 30. You can help push us over the finish line by making a new or increased gift today!

Today, 41 years after Earth Day’s founding, its purpose of shining a spotlight on environmental issues is more poignant than ever. In the past few weeks alone, we have watched with terror as a nuclear disaster unfolded in Japan and, just two days ago, solemnly observed the one year anniversary of the BP oil disaster. Yet, in the current political climate, our national resolve to avert disasters like these and protect our environment is weak. That’s why every day is Earth Day at CLF.

Whether it’s working to ensure that appropriate caution is taken with the proposed Northern Pass transmission project in New Hampshire, or fighting to prevent Vermont’s state lands from being ravaged by ATVs, we shine a spotlight every day on the issues that concern you.

Tackling these challenges – and turning them into victories – is not possible without your help. Thank you in advance for all you do to help CLF protect our New England, today and every day.

Original photo: William Hyler

If you read CLF Scoop or follow fishery management news through other means, you know that since last May, the New England fishing industry has undergone its most significant changes in 30 years. The introduction of the new “sector” management system and new rules for harvesting groundfish like cod, haddock and flounder have been highly controversial in this region and beyond, and never before has a dialogue been more needed to help ensure that New England’s fishermen and the resources they rely upon continue to thrive. While we blog about these issues on the Scoop from time to time, we felt it was important to create a space dedicated to carrying out this dialogue—a forum where science and data meet ideas and experience in an informed, respectful and lively conversation. Today, we invite you to join that conversation at www.talkingfish.org.

At Talking Fish, we will present a wide range of news and views from scientists, researchers, economists, academics, environmental advocates, fishermen, resource managers, foodies and journalists. Our hope is to build a community with a shared goal of a prosperous and sustainable fishing industry and an abundant, diverse fish population for generations to come. We’ll continue to keep our Scoop readers up to date on fisheries management in New England, but we hope that those of you who are interested in delving into these issues further will become frequent readers of www.talkingfish.org as well.

Join us as we Talk Fish by:

• Going to www.talkingfish.org to read, comment, or subscribe to Talking Fish via e-mail or RSS
• Liking us on Facebook
• Following us on Twitter
• Dropping us a line at editor@talkingfish.org