Sea Port’s Letter to Congress Regarding the Reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and Suggesting How We Can Both Protect and Modernize it for the 21^st Century

RE: Sea Port’s view on HR 1335 and a suggestion for modernizing the Magnuson-Stevens Act for the 21^st century

HR 1335: Sea Port has concerns that the tone, in a portion of this bill, in regards to adding flexibility in dealing with negative socioeconomic impacts to fishing communities does not resonate with the principles contained within National Standard 1, which we believe, is the cornerstone of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Sea Port believes that the MSA has become a resounding success because the focus has been on improving the health of the fish stocks and that this success was made possible by the application of best fishery science practices that were free from the constraints of non-scientific flexibility schemes and undue political influences designed to prop up fishing communities.

This late Senator Stevens quote from a 2000 subcommittee hearing on oceans and fisheries can serve as a seminal reminder for us today that we must continue to keep our focus on protecting the fish stocks from which we know all good catches flow:  “I do think that it’s incumbent upon the people in the fishery, without regard to whether you’re historical or not, to protect the species. …….I just wish I’d hear a little bit more about protecting the species rather than protecting the heritage of the fishermen.”

Sea Port believes that the following quote by Dr. Bill Hogarth,  former NOAA assistant administrator for fisheries, serves to highlight Magnuson-Stevens’ success that was achieved by keeping true to the overriding principles in National Standard 1:  “Based on the actions of the fishery management councils, it appears that the U.S. has fundamentally ended overfishing in federally-managed domestic fisheries.  This is an enormous achievement, and one that, Congress and the Administration clearly intended in its 2007 reauthorization of [the MSA]….The Magnuson-Stevens Act is without doubt the premier fisheries law in the world.”

Please stay on the successful course of the MSA by continuing to safeguard National Standard 1’s immunity from being trumped by socioeconomic or political pressures.

Modernizing the MSA for the 21st century by creating “National Standard 11 – Aquaculture”

Sea Port believes that this Congress and Administration should boldly seize the opportunity to modernize Magnuson-Stevens by codifying the importance of aquaculture within the MSA list of National Standard principles by adding a new “National Standard 11 – Aquaculture”.  We must face the reality that aquaculture provides nearly 70% of America’s most commonly consumed seafood, wild harvest levels are essentially maxed out, and as our world population explodes to nearly 10 billion by 2050, the additional protein needed will predominantly come from aquaculture.  Aquaculture will become super critical for our national food security.

We believe future generations will look back and thank you for your foresight in recognizing the need to establish a new “National Standard 11 – Aquaculture” and how it paved the way for our wild fishery stocks and aquaculture to harmoniously and sustainably provide us with one of the most healthy food proteins on the planet!

Please go make bipartisan history and thank you for your consideration of Sea Port’s perspectives.

Sincerely,

David Glaubke, Director of Sustainability Initiatives 

Sea Port Products Corp.

Possible Positives for Wild Fisheries and Aquaculture Coming From a CO2 Fertilization Effect Due to Our Planet’s Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide?

This spring, NOAA announced that for the first time since they have been tracking the carbon dioxide level in the global atmosphere that the monthly average concentration of this greenhouse gas has surpassed 400 parts per million.  In the announcement, they stated that this marks the fact that our burning of fossil fuels has caused this and that half of this man-made increase has occurred just since 1980!

Sea Port has blogged in the past about how human caused global climate change driven by an increasing CO2 level may be the ultimate upcoming challenge to sustainably managing wild fisheries and aquaculture. However disconcerting the news announced by NOAA is, we should open our eyes to the possibility that positive environmental consequences may spring forth from this elevated CO2 level that the seafood industry could possibly benefit from. 

Possible Positives for Wild Fisheries and Aquaculture Due to CO2 Fertilization

of Terrestrial and Aquatic Plant Life

•   An increasing CO2 concentration when combined with adequate fresh water, light, temperature,

     physical space and availability of nutrients may cause dramatic increases in terrestrial plant
     growth and its expansion into nontraditional areas of the globe resulting in:

       

        -  possible increased production of crops for human consumption and for livestock/aquaculture
           feeds

        - possible increased plant production in existing and new emerging grazing areas for livestock
          that may reduce the need for using fishmeal and fish oil as supplemental livestock feeds

•  An increasing CO2 concentration may result in more beneficial oceanic phytoplankton that may

    increase the base of the marine food chain resulting in:

        -  increased production of aquatic organisms higher up the marine food chain that may increase

           certain wild fishery stocks providing greater harvests for our benefit

        -  increased wild and farmed micro and macro algae that humans could consume directly or use
           as feeds for livestock and aquaculture

In Summary:  In our new Anthropocene Epoch, humankind has markedly, factually, and rapidly increased the atmospheric CO2 concentration according to NOAA.  However, our seafood industry may not want to exclusively dwell on the negatives of climate change such as increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, and ocean acidification. Our seafood industry should ready itself to rapidly adapt and prosper from any possible positives that may manifest themselves due to the increasing of atmospheric CO2.  While we all strive to reduce our global emissions of greenhouse gases, let us not ignore the possible positives for wild fisheries and aquaculture that may come from a potential CO2 fertilization effect.  

Go Blue! For Our Health – For Our Environment – For Sustainability

Sincerely,

David Glaubke – Director of Sustainability Initiatives

Review, Update & Comments on the Presidential Task Force to Combat IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud

Last August, Sea Port went to Washington, D.C. to attend the first Presidential Task Force meeting to combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing (IUU) and seafood fraud.   Sea Port was one of several seafood industry representatives that were asked to offer their perspectives regarding the need for the Federal Government to greatly expand regulations and enforcement schemes to eliminate IUU fishing and seafood fraud.
 

Update:  Since last August, the Presidential Task Force has transitioned to the National Ocean Council under a newly established standing Committee on IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud.  In March of this year, a multiyear action plan was released listing major milestones to be accomplished by December 2016 regarding establishing international agreements, enhanced enforcement schemes, private sector partnerships, and a comprehensive traceability system to aggressively combat IUU fishing and seafood fraud.   The committee is asking for public input concerning their plan until June 8^th.  Sea Port has recently participated in two committee public webinars.  During the most recent of May 12^th, the committee was asked to identify specific at-risk species that they will target with their newly announced action plan.  They responded that this determination would be made in July.

Comments:

-  The seafood industry will be ready to provide the committee with more meaningful inputs once they reveal their list of at-risk species for IUU fishing and seafood fraud

-  The committee should be aware that preventing IUU caught seafood from entering the U.S. may simply result in its redirection to other countries that still accept IUU.  Long-term action plans addressing this predominantly foreign fishing problem at all the overseas sources should be the ultimate goal

-  The committee should also entertain the possibility that by concentrating on blocking all short weight  or mislabeled seafood from entering our country, they just may accomplish advancements on the IUU fishing front too because honest weights/proper labeling are predominantly associated with ethical and law abiding seafood companies that do not engage in IUU fishing

Looking Forward:  Sea Port looks forward to updating again once the committee reveals specifically what species it initially plans to target in its Presidential directive to boldly combat IUU fishing and seafood fraud.  Stay tuned.

Sincerely,

David Glaubke, Director of Sustainability Initiatives