[Fishlink] ~~>FISHLINK SUBLEGALS 5/10/02<~~
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~~>FISHLINK SUBLEGALS 5/10/02<~~
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A WEEKLY QUOTA OF FISHERY SHORTS CAUGHT AND
LANDED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR FISHERIES RESOURCES
AND THE PACIFIC COAST FEDERATION OF FISHERMEN'S
ASSOCIATIONS
VOL. 05, NO. 09 10 MAY 2002
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This week's issue of Sublegals is available in PDF format on the web at
www.sublegals.net. We have also pasted the text below for those who
still wish to read it through your email. In the coming weeks we will be
posting all past issues as well as a search engine. In addition to this new
look, we are continuing our Sublegals Fundraiser to support the Institute
for Fisheries Resources and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's
Associations in publishing this weekly newsletter free of charge. We
have recently passed our 100th issue, with very little funding, and are
looking to our readers to sustain the continuation of this effort. Go to
www.sublegals.net to donate to this effort. Thank you for your support
of community fisheries education.
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"What we need to search for and find, what we need to hone and perfect
into a magnificent, shining thing, is a new kind of politics. Not the
politics of governance, but the politics of resistance. The politics of
opposition. The politics of forcing accountability. The politics of
slowing things down. The politics of joining hands across the world and
preventing certain destruction. In the present circumstances, I'd say the
only thing worth globalizing is dissent."..........Arundhati Roy
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IN THIS ISSUE
PCFFA Warns Congress, "Don't Make Sharecroppers
Out of Fishermen." 5:19/01.
NMFS Releases Status Report on U.S. Fisheries. 5:19/03.
California Releases Second Version of Nearshore
Fishery Management Plan. 5:19/05.
WTO Negotiating Committee Takes on Fishery Subsidies. 5:19/07.
New ESA Bill Introduced in the U.S. Congress. 5:19/08.
AND MORE......
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5:19/01. "DON'T MAKE SHARECROPPERS OUT OF
FISHERMEN" PCFFA TELLS CONGRESSIONAL PANEL: In
testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on
Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife & Oceans, PCFFA Executive Director
Zeke Grader warned members of Congress that if the current moratorium
on individual fishing quotas (IFQs) is allowed to expire, national
standards had to be established to, among other things, assure that these
fishing rights could only be held by working fishing men and women,
not fish processors, banks or lending institutions, or otherwise fishermen
would simply become ocean sharecroppers. At the 2 May hearing in
Washington, DC, chaired by Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD),
PCFFA opposed lifting the IFQ moratorium but argued for standards for
quota shares if the ban is allowed to expire, such as those put forward by
the Marine Fish Conservation Network, with special emphasis on the
need to restrict ownership of shares to fishermen working on board
vessels. New IFQ standards were part of a Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation & Management Act reauthorization discussion draft that
was the focus of the hearing.
The IFQ section of the Chairman's discussion draft was of major
concern for PCFFA since the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS), along with the Heinz Center, had excluded the west coast's
largest fishing organization from participation at a national conference
on fishing quotas (see Sublegals, 5:17/11). NMFS, which supports
IFQs, has opposed national standards, preferring to leave the matter up
to the regional councils. The National Fisheries Institute (NFI),
representing fish importers, exporters and other shoreside sectors of the
fishing industry, has also argued for individual fishing quotas for fish
processors. The discussion draft, released just shortly before the
hearing, had not been reviewed by many fishing groups, including
PCFFA. Grader's comments in much of his testimony were, therefore,
his own based but on his experience and PCFFA policy positions. Some
highlights of that testimony include:
BYCATCH. A definition is needed to distinguish between fish and
other marine life returned to the ocean alive with good survival rates
from that dumped overboard dead or dying. More effort is needed to
reduce the latter form of bycatch.
BUYBACKS: The government has an obligation to those fisheries
where it encouraged or aided fleet buildup, but without having first done
the research to determine what level of fishing effort the fish stocks
could sustain. With billions for agriculture in the Farm Bill, "how about
some millions to assist fishermen working to reduce fishing effort?",
Grader asked.
ESSENTIAL FISH HABITAT: PCFFA began working for inclusion
of habitat language in the Magnuson Act as early as 1977, since habitats
and ecosystem functions may have an even greater impact on fish
populations in some fisheries than fishing harvesting itself (e.g., Pacific
salmon). If fishermen do not protect habitats from serious damage by
fishing gear, how can the fishing industry then argue for protecting fish
habitat from non-fishing activities? There should be no retreat, no
reversal from strong fish habitat protection.
RESEARCH: The problems facing many fisheries today could have
been avoided if there had been adequate population studies and stock
assessments early on. More research is needed on many fish stocks.
Research costs, however, could be contained by utilizing fishermen and
their vessels, wherever practical, in data collection efforts. Language
should be included in Magnuson-Stevens, such as that proposed in H.R.
2570 (Farr, et al.), to fund research and experimentation with
Saltonstall-Kennedy Act funds, as well as foster collaboration between
fishermen and scientists.
OYSTER RESTORATION: In addition to a program for restoring
oysters in Chesapeake Bay, a similar plan should be instituted on the
west coast for San Francisco Bay, which had a large oyster fishery prior
to World War II, and where native oyster populations are currently at
such depressed levels they could be candidates for listing under the
Endangered Species Act (ESA). San Francisco Bay is the most
important estuary on the west coast of North and South America.
Copies of Grader's statement are on PCFFA's website at:
www.pcffa.org. The complete testimony from the Subcommittee's
hearing of 2 May on the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act
can be found at: http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/107cong/fisheries/
2002may02/agenda.htm.
5:19/02. NMFS ISSUES NEW RULE ON NORTH PACIFIC IFQ
PROGRAMS: On 29 April, the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) published in the Federal Register (Vol. 67, No. 82,
pp.20915-20918) its final rule for implementing Amendment 54 to the
Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the Groundfish Fishery of the
Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area, Amendment 54 to the FMP for
Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska (Amendments 54/54), and an
amendment to the Pacific halibut commercial fishery regulations for
waters in and off Alaska. These amendments make three changes in the
Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program to: (1) allow a quota share (QS)
holder's indirect ownership or affiliation to a vessel, through corporate or
other collective ties, to substitute for vessel ownership in the QS holder's
own name for purposes of hiring a skipper to fish the QS holder's IFQ;
(2) revise the definition of "a change in the corporation or partnership'' to
include language that explicitly specifies the point at which estates
holding initial allocations of QS must transfer the QS to a qualified
individual; and (3) revise sablefish use limits to be expressed in QS units
rather than as percentages of the QS pool. These IFQ programs were in
place prior to passage of the current moratorium on IFQ programs that
was part of the language in the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996. For a
copy of the new rule or for more information, contact Glenn Merrill at:
glenn.merrill@noaa.gov.
5:19/03. NMFS RELEASES REPORT ON STATUS OF U.S.
FISHING INDUSTRY: On 1 May, the U.S Department of Commerce's
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released its report on the
status of U.S. fisheries, finding that the number of fish stocks in jeopardy
(i.e., overfished, experiencing overfishing, or both) has declined for the
first time since reporting began in 1997. The number of fish stocks in
jeopardy fell to 93 from last year's record high of 107. Titled "Toward
Rebuilding America's Fisheries," the report shows that where
conservation measures have been implemented, fish stocks have
responded.
The report found the following:
* Fish stocks in jeopardy continue to raise concerns. Just under a third
of those stocks whose status has been evaluated are either overfished,
experiencing overfishing, or both - 93 out of 304 (30.6%).
* Overfished stocks declined for the first time. The number of
overfished stocks has declined for the first time since NMFS began
publishing the status report in 1997 -- from 92 to 81 (11.9% decline).
This still represents 26.6% of the stocks that have been assessed.
* Decline in the number of overfished stocks was enhanced by NMFS
administrative decisions. NMFS removed 9 endangered West Coast
salmon stocks from the list of overfished stocks, because fishing is not a
primary reason for their depleted status, not because of an improvement
in their status. If salmon are removed from consideration, the decline in
overfished stocks is only two nationwide (2.2% decline).
* Overfishing declines. The number of fish stocks experiencing
overfishing declined from 72 to 65 stocks last year (9.7% decline). This
still represents 21.4% of the stocks that have been assessed.
* Overfishing of depleted stocks continues. Fifty-three of the 81
overfished stocks are still experiencing overfishing (65.4%), thus
frustrating efforts to rebuild these depleted stocks.
* Status information on the vast majority of managed fish stocks is
unavailable. Adequate information is not available to determine whether
655 stocks out of 959 stocks (68.3%) are overfished.
* Early warning measures are ineffective. Since 1999, only two stocks
that were listed as approaching an overfished condition were removed
from the list because their status improved. Three have been listed as
overfished, two were shifted to unknown status, and one has remained
on the list for three years.
For a copy of the full NMFS status report, go to:
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/reports.html. For an accompanying news
report, see the 2 May Eureka Times-Standard article by John Driscoll at:
http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127%257E2896%257E5
86182,00.html.
5:19/04. ANTI-LONGLINE BILL INTRODUCED IN CONGRESS:
At the behest of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), a
pro-sportfishing, anti-commercial fishing advocacy group, California
Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) has introduced legislation in
the U.S. House of Representatives aimed at preventing the use of pelagic
longlines for the take of swordfish and tunas in federal waters (Exclusive
Economic Zone, or EEZ) along the U.S. west coast. H.R. 4618, the
Pacific Highly Migratory Species Conservation Act of 2002, was
introduced on 30 April and is intended to prevent a proposed
experimental fishery being considered by the Pacific Fishery
Management Council (PFMC) to determine whether longlines may be
preferable to drift nets in some areas of the Pacific for the take of
swordfish and other highly migratory large pelagic species. While
California's swordfish and thresher shark driftnet fishery has made great
strides at eliminating bycatch, some believe longlines in certain areas
could be even more selective in the effort to get as close to zero as
possible of any incidental take of seabirds, sea turtles or marine
mammals. The RFA proposes commercial fishermen harpoon swordfish,
or use surface lines or rod-and-reel gear. Pacific swordfish stocks are
believed healthy, as are thresher shark and most tuna stocks found in the
U.S. EEZ along the west coast. For more information on the bill, contact
Tom Porter at (202) 225-5672 or go to: www.house.gov/hunter.
5:19/05. CALIFORNIA FISH & GAME RELEASES SECOND
VERSION OF NEARSHORE PLAN: The California Department of
Fish & Game (CDFG) released the second version of its Nearshore
Fishery Management Plan (NFMP) at the 9 May meeting of the
California Fish & Game Commission (see Sublegals, 5:17/13). The new
NFMP is a revision of a plan presented to the Commission and public
last year. It was redrafted to address public input and comments received
from a scientific review panel.
The NFMP is designed to guide CDFG's management of both the
commercial harvest and sport catch of 19 finfish species found in
nearshore waters along the state's 1100 mile coast.
The NFMP is an outgrowth of a bill drafted by PCFFA and introduced
in the California Legislature by then-State Senator Mike Thompson
(D-St. Helena). The measure was crafted to cover many inshore
groundfish and other fish stocks that were not under federal management
to provide a framework for research, management and limiting effort in
the fishery as well as assure a future for the emerging live fish fishery.
The live fish fishery was a high value, low impact fishery it was thought
could provide a decent income for a limited fleet of small boats along the
whole of the California coast, fishing by either hook-and-lines or traps.
The PCFFA-crafted bill was intended to assure fish stocks were
protected for a sustainable fishery and recreational uses would also be
preserved. The Thompson nearshore bill was subsequently incorporated
into Assemblyman Fred Keeley's (D-Boulder Creek) Marine Life
Management Act that was passed in 1998. The NFMP is organized into
three main sections - the fishery management plan, environmental
document, and regulations. It focuses on 19 finfish species, including
cabezon, California scorpionfish and sheephead, kelp and rock
greenlings, monkeyface prickleback, and 13 species of rockfish, and
contains 14 management options for the Commission to consider upon
the plan's adoption. Those options relate to annual control rules (the
opening and closing of the fishery and the take of certain species),
allocation of fish between sport and commercial users, and the potential
use of marine protected areas (MPAs) as a tool to conserve nearshore
stocks. It divides the state into three manage-ment areas. Also included
are sections on research needs and costs associated with implementation.
Written comments will be accepted from 9 May through 27 June and
should be mailed to: California Fish & Game Commission, Draft
Nearshore Fishery Management Plan, 20 Lower Ragsdale Dr., Suite 100,
Monterey, CA 93940, or faxed to (831) 649 2894. The following is a list
of scheduled Commission meetings and special hearing dates:
* 9 May, Commission meeting (CDFG presents revised plan), City
Council Chambers, 2600 Fresno St., 2nd floor, Fresno.
* 21 May, Commission public hearing, Elihu Harris State Office
Building, 1515 Clay St., Oakland.
* 7 June, Special Commission public hearing, Santa Barbara Veteran's
Memorial Building, 112 West Cabrillo Blvd., Santa Barbara.
* 20-21 June, Commission meeting, Lakeland Village Beach and
Mountain Resort, Lakeshore Room, 3535 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake
Tahoe.
* 12 August, Commission meeting, City Council Chambers, 990 Palm
St., San Luis Obispo.
* 29-30 August, Commission meeting (adoption hearing), Elihu Harris
State Office Building, 1515 Clay St., Oakland.
For additional information on the nearshore fishery, go to CDFG's
Website at: www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd. The NFMP is available by request on
Compact Disc (CD), at: www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/nfmp, and in hard copy by
request. Contact Maura Leos for a CD or hard copy at (831) 649-2829;
e-mail: mleos@dfg.ca.gov. Copies (in-house review) will be available at
Marine Region offices, CDFG regional offices, Sea Grant offices, the
PCFFA library (San Francisco), selected harbor and marina offices, and
coastal libraries.
5:19/06. FARM BILL PASSES WITH NEARLY $90 BILLION IN
SUBSIDIES FOR AMERICAN AGRICULTURE: The Farm Bill
passed the U.S. Congress this week and was sent to President George W.
Bush who is expected to sign it (see Sublegals, 5:18/02; 5:17/04;
5:16/02; 5:11/02; 5:08/03; 5:07/06; 5:04/10). The bill has a number of
good provisions in it for fisheries, including a requirement for country of
origin of labeling, some Klamath Basin relief/restoration funds, and
some farm conservation incentives that could improve the nation's water
quality. The major part of the bill, however, is pure pork. The
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has stated the proposed increase in
farm spending contained in the bill, if spread over 10 years, would total
$82.5 billion instead of the original $73.5 billion. The CBO's cost
estimate rose because commodity prices are expected to be lower than
the assumptions on which the bill is based. CBO predicts that of the
new total, $56.7 billion will go towards commodities programs. The
University of Missouri's Food & Agricultural Policy Institute figures
show that, relative to baseline, net outlays for commodity programs will
rise by $49.7 billion over the next 10 years. Fisheries programs,
meanwhile, go begging. For more information, go to:
www.familyfarmer.org.
5:19/07: WTO NEGOTIATING GROUP TAKES UP MEASURES
TO CUT FISHERIES SUBSIDIES: As the U.S. Congress passed the
Farm Bill to provide billions in subsidies to the nation's agricultural
producers and the U.S. Senate prepares to take up legislation authorizing
"fast track" trade negotiating authority for the Bush Administration, a
World Trade Organization (WTO) committee was considering ways to
slash subsidies to fisheries worldwide. On 6-7 May, at the second
formal meeting of the WTO Negotiating Group on Rules, discussions on
how to deal with "developmentally and ecologically harmful fisheries
subsidies" were held. The Negotiating Group was established after
members agreed in Doha, Qatar last November to negotiate on the
Antidumping and Subsidies & Countervailing Measures (SCM)
Agreements, together with rules on regional trade agreements, "in an
effort to clarify and improve the respective disciplines and procedures."
The Doha Declaration paragraph 28, for example, makes special mention
of "disciplines on fisheries subsidies", which are further referred to in the
negotiating mandate on trade and environment. In addition, paragraph 28
provides that the rules negotiations shall take into account the special
needs and interests of developing countries.
At the meeting on the 6th, the so-called "Friends of Fish" nations -
Australia, Chile, Ecuador, Iceland, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines and
the U.S. - put forward a communication (WTO document TN/RL/W/3,
searchable at http://docsonline.wto.org/gen_search.asp) aimed at
"providing some early direction to discussions" on fisheries subsidies.
Stating that government transfers to the fisheries industry were boosting
the "race for fish" in the fisheries sector, the submission asserts that
overcapacity and trade distortions resulting from fisheries subsidization
would "impede the sustainable development of many countries with
significant fisheries resources." The group of countries further argued
that fisheries subsidies, unlike subsidized production in other sectors,
would not only distort the competitiveness of traders in markets, but
would also "distort access to shared fish stocks" and limit "productive
access by other participants by depleting an exhaustible resource." As
another damaging consequence, competition from subsidized
distant-water fishing fleets would be a disincentive for developing
countries to establish their own fishing industries. As the current SCM
provisions were mainly concerned with the effects of subsidies in
markets, but not with the trade and production distortions that subsidies
in the fisheries sector can generate, the paper concluded that the SCM
Agreement needed to be improved. Norway, Barbados, Mexico,
Malaysia and Thailand expressed support for the paper. As anticipated
by trade sources, however, Japan and Korea vehemently rejected the
'Friends of Fish' paper, while questioning whether the WTO was the
appropriate forum to address fisheries. One trade source said the
European Community (EC) occupied a middle ground position, as it
took note of the points put forward but cautioned that Members needed
to see how far the raised issues could really be tackled within the SCM
framework. Canada objected to a sectoral approach, which it said could
fragmentize the SCM Agreement. The issue of fisheries subsidies is
being discussed under the general "subsidies" topic (see BRIDGES
Weekly, 23 April, at:
http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/02-04-23/wtoinbrief.htm).
On 7 May, members addressed general subsidies and
antidumping-related topics. In its submission (TN/RL/W/4), India
addressed the question of how to re-evaluate certain thresholds set out in
the SCM and Antidumping Agreements to better protect developing
countries from disproportionate use of counter-vailing and antidumping
measures. Japan and Chile, on behalf of 13 countries (Brazil, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Israel, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland,
Thailand, Turkey and Hong Kong/China), tabled a paper (TN/RL/W/6)
outlining a list of 12 antidumping issues which, according to the
submitters, needed further clarification and improvement. Brazil put
forward a paper (TN/RL/W/7) calling for more special treatment for
developing countries in the area of trade remedies. In a separate
submission (TN/RL/W/5), Brazil suggested ways to strengthen SCM
provisions on export credits that it regarded as "clearly insufficient in
coverage." Canada tabled a paper (TN/RL/W/1) on improved trade rules
disciplines (see BRIDGES Weekly, 12 March, at:
http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/02-03-12/story4.htm). Sources reported that
the U.S. (which has no fishermen advisors on its delegation) was rather
defensive in its statements, stressing the need to maintain effective
disciplines on unfair trade practices. Addressing antidumping, China, on
the other hand, said that current rules had led to increased antidumping
activity so that anti-dumping was now one of the biggest obstacles to
trade, especially for developing countries. The U.S., along with
Argentina and India, is one of the top three users of trade remedy
measures.
The trade issue, of course, looms very large for U.S. fishermen,
perhaps none more than U.S. west coast salmon fishermen. For a
comprehensive report on this issue, see the April 2002 issue of The
Fishermen's News, "Not Fish-Friendly: The WTO's New Doha Agenda
For Fisheries" by Victor Menotti, Glen Spain and Zeke Grader (pp.
14-17) or go to PCFFA's website at: www.pcffa.org/fn-apr02.htm.
5:19/08. U.S. ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT REFORM FIGHT
TAKES NEW TACK: On 24 April, U.S. Representatives George Miller
(D-CA) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) reintroduced H.R. 4579, the
"Endangered Species Recovery Act" (ESRA). The bill is an effort to
redirect the debate over changes to the federal Endangered Species Act
(ESA) back to making the law better accomplish its goals of species
recovery - rather than "reforming" it out of existence (see Sublegals
5:12/11; 3:20/02; 3:15/02). H.R. 4579 currently has 79 co-sponsors,
more than any other ESA reform bill in the House.
Since the 104th Congress, the issue of ESA reform has been largely
captured by opponents of the law; there are at least a dozen bills in the
107th Congress intended to weaken or gut the ESA under the guise of
reform. This is the third Congress in which this or a similar more
moderate bill by Miller has been introduced, but in prior Congresses
these bills have never even been given hearings or a vote on the House
floor, blocked in past years by hostile committee chairmen and extremist
members of the House of Representatives. The ESA was supposed to
have been reauthorized by Congress in 1992, but because of the ongoing
political dispute over changes in it, it has been extended since then on an
annual basis. The Miller-Pallone bill has broad support within the
fishing, conservation and scientific community, and is also supported by
PCFFA. Among other things, the ESRA provides for deadlines on
adopting recovery plans, conservation incentive funds, a clearer and
more streamlined process for critical habitat designation, and better
implementation and recovery plan funding. Current ESA
implementation funding amounts to less than one dollar per capita per
year. For the bill itself go to: http://thomas.loc.gov. To see
Congressman Miller's statement, go to:
http://www.house.gov/georgemiller/rel42402.html.
5:19/09. CANADIAN ENDANGERED SPECIES BILL IN
LEGISLATIVE LIMBO: Canada's own endangered species protection
bill is still languishing as members of Parliament try to come up with
compromise language, according to the 1 May Toronto Globe & Mail.
Reports indicate the bill now has a 50-50 chance of dying, which would
mark the third failed attempt by the Canadian government to protect its
own endangered species. Lack of any Canadian equivalent to the U.S.
Endangered Species Act (ESA) means that some species, such as Pacific
salmon, that are already ESA-listed in the U.S. lose all protections once
they swim into Canadian waters, putting many west coast Pacific salmon
fisheries at risk. Canada also currently has no mechanism to prevent the
extinction of indigenous Canadian salmon stocks, many of which have
been seriously damaged by habitat loss in British Columbia (see
Sublegals 5:02/07). For the 1 May article, search:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com. For more information on the
Canadian ESA issue, go to:
http://www.chebucto.ca/Environment/FNSN/hp-cesc.html.
NEWS, COMMENTS, CORRECTIONS: Submit your news items,
comments or any corrections to Allison Vogt, Editor at:
ifrfish@pacbell.net or call the IFR/PCFFA office with the news and a
source at either: (415) 561-FISH (Southwest Office) or (541) 689-2000
(Northwest Office).
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