U.S. Seafood Producers to White House: Don’t Harm Fisheries for Ocean Monuments

WASHINGTON (NCFC) – September 12, 2016 – Today, in advance of the “Our Oceans” conference being held later this week at the State Department, the National Coalition for Fishing Communities (NCFC) delivered a letter to the White House calling on the President to refrain from designating new marine monuments under the Antiquities Act. Copies of the letter were also delivered to the offices of Senators representing the states of the signers.

The letter, with over 900 fishing industry signers and supported by 35 fishing organizations that represent the majority of domestic seafood harvesters, instead urges the President to conserve marine resources through the federal fisheries management process established by the bipartisan Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Management Act (MSA).

“The federal fisheries management process is among the most effective systems for managing living marine resources in the world,” the letter states. “The misuse of the Antiquities Act to create a marine monument is a repudiation of the past and ongoing efforts of almost everyone involved to continue to make Magnuson-Stevens management even more effective.”

The NCFC members join an ever-growing list of fishing organizations and individuals opposing new ocean monuments via use of the Antiquities Act. TheAtlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Council Coordination Committee, and over two dozen individual fish and seafood industry trade organizations have previously written to the White House asking for the MSA continue to guide fisheries management.

Mayors from major East and West coast ports have previously expressed their concerns with monument designations in letters to the White House. NCFC members have also spoke out in opposition to designating a monument off the coast of New England, which would hurt the valuable red crab, swordfish, tuna, and offshore lobster fisheries.

Today’s letter was signed by the following fishing organizations:

• Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers
• American Scallop Association
• American Albacore Fisheries Association
• At-Sea Processors Association
• Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Association
• Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association
• California Fisheries and Seafood Institute
• California Lobster & Trap Fishermen’s Association
• California Sea Urchin Commission
• California Wetfish Producers Association
• Coalition of Coastal Fisheries
• Coos Bay Trawlers
• Directed Sustainable Fisheries
• Fisheries Survival Fund
• Fishermen’s Dock Co-Op
• Garden State Seafood Association
• Golden King Crab Coalition
• Groundfish Forum
• Hawaii Longline Association
• Long Island Commercial Fishing Association
• Midwater Trawlers Cooperative
• National Fisheries Institute
• North Carolina Fisheries Association
• Oregon Trawl Commission
• Organized Fishermen of Florida
• Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations
• Pacific Seafood Processors Association
• Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative
• Southeastern Fisheries Association
• Sustainable Fisheries Coalition
• United Catcher Boats
• Ventura County Commercial Fishermen’s Association
• Washington Trollers Association
• West Coast Seafood Processors Association
• Western Fishboat Owners Association

Download/read the letter here [PDF]