Gulf Council

This Tuesday, Food & Water Watch applauded as two separate lawsuits where filed in Florida, challenging the legality of a recently finalized program known as catch shares that would privatize access to tilefish and grouper – public fish stocks – in the Gulf of Mexico.

One challenge came from the 90,000 member-strong Coastal Conservation Association, a recreational fishing group based in Texas. The other came from an independent small-scale commercial fisherman with a strong backbone named Brian Lewis, based in Clearwater, FL. Both legal complaints cite the unfair (and likely illegal) process used to develop and finalize the privatization plan, and the unfair intended outcome: creating a program that makes a "free market" tradeable commodity of the ability to catch fish – principally to enable a handful of businesses to control public fish resources.

Titled the Amendment 29 to the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Fishery Management Plan, the plan was approved by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) despite glaring problems – including the failure to conduct a social impact assessment; the awarding of the bulk of the catch shares to fishermen who use a gear type known as longlines, which might not even be allowed in the Gulf in the future due to the fact that they are suspected of killing ten times the number of sea turtles allowed; and a sham referendum that excluded 70 percent of commercial fishermen whose jobs were at stake if the plan passed.

In June 2009, Food & Water Watch provided NMFS with an 18-page comment letter outlining problems with the plan, including the privatization aspect and violation of the national and international laws.  Food & Water Watch also conducted its own re-referendum surveying the fishermen who were excluded from the initial vote and found that the nearly 90 percent of respondents opposed the privatization plan. Had these fishermen been included in the initial vote, it is questionable whether the plan would have passed the referendum hurdle. Still, NMFS proceeded to approve the plan seemingly without regard for this clear opposition and the risk of massive job loss.

The legal challenges by Brian Lewis and the CCA will hopefully result in an end to fishery privatization in the Gulf. Food & Water Watch is opposed to privatization of public resources and is calling for Congressional oversight hearings to raise the matter to a national level.

See our Fair Fish campaign and fact sheet for more information on the issue and on ways to help protect our oceans and give fish and fishermen a fair chance.

In a refreshing display of dedication towards fish safety, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, owner of the Savoy chain, have promised to serve sustainable seafood as part of their Green Cuisine program. Specifically, they are removing Chilean sea bass and bluefin tuna from their menus, and are looking into forming partnerships with “reputable seafood watch organizations.” We hope that they give Food & Water Watch a call!

A commitment to serve sustainable seafood is something that other restaurant and hotel chains should follow.  In addition, while Fairmont should be commended for taking this step, there are many other seafood choices to include, or exclude, for the sake of safety and sustainability. We encourage them to look at our Smart Seafood Guide to see what recommended alternatives there are to popular seafood choices, and to observe the following guidelines when buying their seafood.

With our Food and Drug Administration looking the other way when it comes to inspecting the majority of seafood imports – in 2006 they inspected less than two percent of 860,000 of these imports for contaminants – it is essential for individuals and organizations to take it upon themselves to seek out the safest options they can find. With farmed fish potentially on the rise, as shown by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s decision to allow ocean fish farms in U.S. waters, it is all the more vital for restaurants and other food providers to show their commitment to sustainability by choosing wild-caught or domestic-farmed over imported and farmed.

Restaurants and specialty seafood stores are also exempt from country-of-origin labeling (COOL) – therefore, it’s up to these places to follow Fairmont’s lead and actually make an effort for their customers by providing seafood choices that are greener and safer. COOL regulations themselves need to be changed to remove this exemption. Processed fish is also outside the COOL regulation requirements – this means canned, smoked, or cooked seafood, or that which is mixed with other ingredients need not be labeled. These types of seafood has a higher risk of contamination, therefore labeling is essential so that consumers can be aware of where their fish comes from and can choose accordingly.

Consumers can do their part to get other restaurants to follow Fairmont’s lead, such as by printing out a copy of our Seafood Restaurant Card and dropping it off at their favorite restaurant.

- Sofía Baliño

Change. It’s the promise that propelled our new President into office. Recently, however, I watched the state of our fisheries change for the worse as the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council approved a plan to allow industrial fish farming in Gulf waters.

Ocean fish farming, also known as offshore aquaculture or open-water aquaculture, is the mass production of fish in large floating pens or cages in ocean waters. With the U.S. already dealing with issues such as run-off pollution, loss of wildlife, and overwhelming coastal development – what incentives would there be to worsen the situation through aquaculture? The answer lies in personal profits. Proponents of offshore aquaculture on the Council have already received over $10 million in financial support from the federal government for aquaculture research and endeavors – which explains why the 16,000 letters and e-mails protesting the Council’s plan fell on deaf ears.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, tasked with the conservation and management of natural marine resources, has been feverishly pushing to allow offshore aquaculture in U.S. waters for years. This is clearly a poorly disguised way for NMFS to excuse their own poor stewardship of marine resources. The agency projects that domestic ocean fish farming will provide new jobs, reduce pressure on depleted wild fish populations, and lessen our dependence on seafood imports. However, the opposite is far more likely.

Fish farms will probably reduce jobs, causing economic problems for coastal communities. In British Columbia, Scotland and Norway, the salmon-farming industry dramatically expanded production without creating new jobs, in some cases decreasing employment. U.S. ocean fish farms are also likely to outcompete and replace traditional fishing, causing widespread job losses and harming support businesses in the process.

Farming fish could increase fishing pressure on wild fish and disrupt ecosystems. Ocean farms in U.S. waters will need fish for use as protein in feed – likely local wild fish. These often are the same that wild fish and marine birds eat, leaving less food in the wild and disrupting ecosystem balance. In addition, because ocean fish farms allow free flow of water between the cages and the ocean, concentrated amounts of fish food, wastes, diseases, chemicals or antibiotics can flow directly into ocean waters.

These farms are unlikely to eliminate our seafood deficit. Currently, the U.S. exports about 71 percent of its domestic fish production, including tilapia, tuna, salmon, crab, and some shrimp – which are also among its top seafood imports. The U.S. exports its fish to fetch a higher price, serving cheaper, often industrially produced, lower-quality, imported fish in domestic restaurants and markets. The same may occur with domestic farmed fish.

For now, we wait for a final decision on the Gulf aquaculture plan, and hope that the new administration demonstrates the change that was promised by fighting it. Then we ask them to focus on better management of wild fish and explore truly sustainable sources of aquaculture to benefit the entire nation, not just a few self-interested people.

 - Marianne Cufone

Food & Water Watch's fish team is currently in the Gulf of Mexico region, working to bring out a variety of local voices to the Gulf Council's public hearings on aquaculture. Marianne and Sascha, two of our fishy fighters, send dispatches from their work in the north Gulf region.

We hit the ground running on Wednesday, having meetings with various local allies in Mississippi to plan our week. In the evening, we were invited as guest speakers for the local Mississippi Sierra Club chapter. We had a great discussion about ocean fish farming, and in particular concerns with use of wild fish in feed for farmed fish. About 1 billion pounds of Gulf Menhaden are already taken annually from the Gulf of Mexico – and these fish are important in the wild as food for larger wild fish, birds and other marine wildlife. The chapter is very interested in Gulf of Mexico issues, and a group of people from the meeting agreed to attend the Gulf Council public hearing Monday night! They plan to carpool down to Mobile. We also had an interview with a reporter from the Associated Press by phone. That night, we headed up to New Orleans to stay with friends.

Thursday, we spent the day hanging flyers announcing the meeting at New Orleans colleges, including Loyola and Tulane, two schools with well-known environmental programs. We contacted some professors to get the students up on the Gulf fish farming issue. A number of students have already committed to attend the Council’s comment session Monday night, so we have arranged free transportation to and from the meeting for them, and are hoping more will join us. We also spoke to a Times-Picayune reporter who expects to come to the Council meeting in Mobile from New Orleans.

Friday was a very busy day! We headed out early to drive down to the bayou – through Galliano, La Rose, Cut Off and more to meet up with some of our local fishermen friends.  We had an hour at radio station KLRZ with Ken Friedlander, the “Rajun’ Cajun,” on Talk on the Bayou, to let people know about the upcoming Council meeting and the final decision on fish farms for the Gulf. Margaret Curole from Commercial Fishermen of America joined us to talk about how ocean fish farming in the Gulf can hurt Louisiana’s coastal communities. She also detailed the horrible conditions she’s seen in fish farms while traveling internationally. We had a number of callers tell us they are very worried about fish farms in the Gulf and that they are planning to come to the Council meeting to voice their concerns. It’s sounding like the Council meeting is going to be very interesting with the various types of people planning to attend.

Early on Saturday, we met up for breakfast with some of our local allies in Gretna, a historic community on the outskirts of New Orleans. We then went downtown to catch up with our fish team colleagues Christina and Justine, who had been working in the southern Gulf. They came north for VooDoo Fest, a local music event. Our fish mascot is going to VooDoo to tell people about the Gulf Council’s plan to permit offshore aquaculture in the Gulf and collect signatures on a petition. We had a quick collective chat, then split up again – our team headed back to Biloxi, and Justine and Christina to VooDoo Fest. Our plan for Biloxi was to stop at the various docks and bait shops to tell people about the Council meeting. We hung a number of flyers and handed out many packets of information. Some people told us they hadn’t heard anything about the fish farming plan, and were very concerned.

The Gulf coast seems to be slowly rebuilding from the storms in recent years. There were a number of new houses and docks, and there were noticeably more boats in the marinas than last year at this time. One area we stopped still had no parking lot – just some gravel and sand. We learned that in such cases, we should park the car elsewhere and walk to the docks – we got the car stuck in the sand for a while, until some of the fishermen noticed and came to help push us out (it was a great ice-breaker!).  We stopped at the local TV and radio stations, then at the Sun-Herald newspaper office. We had a late dinner at a local seafood restaurant, then drove back to New Orleans. We are going to VooDoo tomorrow!

– Marianne Cufone and Sascha Bollag