Fishermen, Politicians Rally Against Federal Regulations

Written By Morgan True and Aarthi Gunasekaran

WASHINGTON –  Fishermen from across the United States descended upon Capitol Hill Wednesday to voice their displeasure with a federal bureaucracy they believe is regulating them out of business.

Politicians from both sides of the political aisle and both houses of Congress joined a crowd of several hundred current and former fishermen, along with industry advocates, in lambasting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its director, Jane Lubchenco.

One small boy wore a sign around his neck reading, “NOAA, Jesus was a fisherman. Why can’t I be?” Others waved signs declaring, “Show Me The Science” and “Let Fishermen Fish.”

A bevy of public officials spoke, including Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Scott Brown, R-Mass.
“What does it take to get fired at NOAA?” asked an incredulous Brown. He was joined on stage by a staffer holding a blown-up photograph of a $300,000 luxury craft whose purchase has been sharply criticized by NOAA’s inspector general — and which Brown has sought to make a symbol of the agency’s bureaucratic excess.

“The nation’s primary fishing regulator, NOAA, is being run by Washington insiders with a radical agenda to change the way that you do business and it’s wrong,” he charged.

In his remarks, Kerry focused on the theme of improving the science that guides regulation, declaring, “If [regulators] make judgments that are based on unsound science, no science at all or science you can’t believe in, then we are going to have a problem.”

Read the rest of the article on Seacoastonline.com

“King Tides” Illustrate Vulnerability of California Shoreline

On Monday, some of the year’s highest tides will hit California shorelines, providing a glimpse of what the state can expect as sea levels rise in the coming years. These “king tides” – as the highest winter tides are called – will be captured by citizen imagery through the California King Tides Initiative.

The California Ocean Protection Council estimates more than one foot of sea level rise by 2050 and four to five feet by 2100 along the California coast. The initiative is getting the public involved by asking residents to photograph high tides in their neighborhood, highlighting the way homes, harbors, and other infrastructure, as well as beaches, wetlands, and public access to the coast may be affected by sea level rise in the future.

The final winter king tides well occur from Monday, February 6 through February 8. These February king tides mark the third of three winter king tides events, following earlier king tide events on January 20-22, 2012 and December 23-24, 2011.

Visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website for tide charts with specific information about the timing and location of tide levels.

Where to view and photograph King Tides:

North Coast/Humboldt – Eureka: Woodley Island; Indian Island; Del Norte St. Pier; Halvorsen Park/The Adorni Center. Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary. King Salmon Beach. New Navy Base Road in Manila/Samoa.

San Francisco Area Outer Coast: Ocean Beach; Stinson Beach; Pacifica: Beach Blvd. Sea Wall near the municipal pier; Laguna Salada. City of Capitola. City of Santa Cruz.

Inner SF Bay: Proposed Treasure Island development site. South Bay: Redwood Creek and proposed Redwood City dev. site, Dumbarton Bridge. Marin: Corte Madera, Richardson Bay, Gallinas Creek (North of China Camp).

Santa Barbara Area: Isla Vista beaches, Goleta Beach County Park, Leadbetter Beach, Butterfly Beach, Miramar Beach, Padaro Lane, Carpinteria Salt Marsh, Hobson State Beach, Faria, and Emma Wood State Beach.

Santa Monica: Broad Beach, Malibu shoreline homes, Marina del Rey, Port of Long Beach, Port of Los Angeles.

Orange County: Seal Beach/Sunset Beach Oceanfront (City of Seal Beach), Huntington Harbor (Huntington Beach), Newport Beach islands and peninsula (Newport Beach).

San Diego: San Diego Bay, Oceanside Beach, San Elijo Lagoon, Del Mar Dog Beach/San Dieguito Lagoon Entrance, Torrey Pines (where Penasquitos enters the ocean), La Jolla Shores, and Mission Beach.

Plans Set for March National Fishing Rally in D.C.

By Richard Gaines | Staff Writer

The Future for the American Seafood Industry: Remarks by Eric Schwaab for the International Boston Seafood Show

Upcoming Event: Ocean Acidification

The Aquarium of the Pacific is hosting a talk on Ocean Acidification on May 25, 2011.  Below is the background and how to attend:

Implications for West Coast Ecosystems

Dr. Richard Feely

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the most important “greenhouse” gases in the atmosphere affecting the radiative heat balance of the Earth. As a direct result of the industrial and agricultural activities of humans over the past two centuries, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased by about 100 parts per million.

The atmospheric concentration of CO2 is now higher than experienced on Earth for at least the last 800,000 years and is expected to continue to rise. This will lead to significant temperature increases in the atmosphere and ocean by the end of this century. The global ocean is the largest natural long-term reservoir for this excess heat and CO2. It absorbs approximately 85 percent of the heat and 30 percent of the anthropogenic (human-sourced) carbon released into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial era.

Recent studies have demonstrated that both the temperature increases and the increased concentrations of CO2 in the ocean are causing significant changes in marine ecosystems. Many marine organisms are already affected by these anthropogenic stresses, which have led to coral bleaching and ocean acidification. Dr. Feely will discuss the present and future implications of increased temperature and CO2 levels as they relate to the health of our West Coast ocean ecosystems. He will also conduct a live demonstration of ocean acidification.

Dr. Feely is a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. He also holds an affiliate full professor faculty position at the University of Washington’s School of Oceanography. His major research areas are carbon cycling in the ocean and ocean acidification processes. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of St. Thomas, in St Paul, Minnesota in 1969. He then went on to Texas A&M University where he received both a master’s of science degree in 1971 and a Ph.D. in 1974. Both of his post-graduate degrees were in chemical oceanography.

He is the co-chair of the U.S. CLIVAR (Climate Variability and Prediction)/CO2 Repeat Hydrography Program. He is also a member of the steering committee for the U.S. Ocean Carbon and Biochemistry Program. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Feely has authored more than 200 refereed research publications. He was awarded the Department of Commerce Gold Award in 2006 for his pioneering research on ocean acidification. In 2007 he was elected to be a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.