Alaska/Pacific Coast
Sablefish season to open with slight increase, along with uncertainty Alaska Journal of Commerce by Elizabeth Earl - January 29, 2019 Alaska’s sablefish fishermen will go into the 2019 season in March with no change to their overall catch limit but some debate about the state of the stock. http://www.alaskajournal.com/2019-01-29/sablefish-season-open-slight-increase-along-uncertainty#.XFMVwvx7mu4 East Coast Fishery NOAA official: Agency behind on East Coast due to shutdown The Associated Press - January 29, 2019 GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) — The administrator of a federal fisheries office says the government is behind schedule on actions related to oceans management because of the long shutdown. https://wtop.com/national/2019/01/noaa-official-agency-behind-on-east-coast-due-to-shutdown/ Environment/Science Ocean heat waves like the Pacific’s deadly ‘Blob’ could become the new normal Science Magazine by Warren Cornwall - January 31, 2019 When marine biologist Steve Barbeaux first saw the data in late 2017, he thought it was the result of a computer glitch. How else could more than 100 million Pacific cod suddenly vanish from the waters off of southern Alaska? https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/ocean-heat-waves-pacific-s-deadly-blob-could-become-new-normal 2018 Status of the Gulf of Alaska Ecosystem NOAA Fisheries - January 29, 2019 The goals of the Ecosystem Status Reports are to: (1) provide stronger links between ecosystem research and fishery management and (2) spur new understanding of the connections between ecosystem components by bringing together the results of diverse research efforts into one document. Beginning in 2016, we split the report into four separate documents, one for the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, eastern Bering Sea, and the Arctic. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/data/2018-status-gulf-alaska-ecosystem Another big lobbying year for industry, Pebble venture E&E News by Dylan Brown - January 30, 2019 The company behind the Pebble mine outspent its critics last year on K Street as the mining sector overall doled out more lobbying cash for a second straight year. In the last quarter of 2018, Pebble LP registered one of the 10 largest lobbying contracts on Capitol Hill. The mining company paid $410,000 to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Over the course of 2018, the nation's top lobbying firm received a total of $740,000 from Pebble for eight lobbyists. That was actually $10,000 less than the year before, but since signing the contract in August 2015, Pebble has paid Akin Gump $2.4 million to help ferry its major gold, copper and molybdenum mine proposal through the federal permitting process. The Army Corps of Engineers is slated to release a draft environmental impact statement soon, but the Trump administration has not eliminated proposed EPA restrictions that limit the mine's scope in order to to protect salmon in the Bristol Bay region. With uncertainty still hanging over the project, Pebble paid its Senior Vice President Peter Robertson $760,000 to lobby last year. The veteran lobbyist and former EPA staffer made $30,000 less than he did in 2017. Pebble also hired Squire Patton Boggs, the nation's fourth-largest lobbying firm, in February 2018. The company spent $380,000 last year for a team of lobbyists, which has added late Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) former chief of staff Pablo Carrillo since registering (Greenwire, Feb. 28, 2018). Former California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo's lobbying shop, Gavel Resources LLC, got $90,000 from Pebble last year, while the company terminated its contract with Van Ness Feldman LLP after spending less than $20,000 in 2018. Critics The groups fighting the Pebble mine also spent on lobbyists, though far less. Western-focused lobby shop Strategies 360 received $80,000 from the Bristol Bay Native Corp. (BBNC). Lobbyists Tylynn Gordon, Matt Gall and Phil Hardy have worked on behalf of the Alaska Native group since April 2017. BBNC also employed the services of Birch Horton Bittner & Cherot last year, but the firm worked on federal procurement programs, not the Pebble mine. The long-running lobbying contract was also terminated in last year's first quarter. The Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. also paid for lobbying work unrelated to the mine. Last year, the group spent $102,000 for Adams and Reese LLP to work on maritime issues and less than $20,000 for KPMG LLP to examine tax issues. The Pebble mine, however, did make the list of lobbying issues for the New Venture Fund. The Washington, D.C.-based liberal nonprofit sparked controversy last year as a key donor for the Stand for Salmon initiative in Alaska (Energywire, Oct. 26, 2018). The ballot measure, which would have tightened regulations for anadromous fish impacts, failed, but campaign Director Ryan Schryver got his paychecks from the New Venture Fund. At the same time last year on Capitol Hill, the nonprofit hired Natural Resource Results LLC. The New Venture Fund spent $90,000 on lobbying to "support robust transparent review of Pebble Mine permit application," according to lobbying disclosure. Its lobbyists assigned were George W. Bush administration staffers David Anderson and Mitch Butler, along with Sara Tucker, a former Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee staffer. The same three worked on Bristol Bay as one of many issues for Trout Unlimited. The anglers' group paid Natural Resource Results $80,000 in 2018. Trout Unlimited also paid $375,000 for its senior vice president for government affairs, Steve Moyoer, to lobby on a slate of topics, including Bristol Bay. The Pacific Seafood Processors Association paid its in-house lobbyist Kristine Lynch between $30,000 and $35,000 to work on Bristol Bay issues as the canners' lobbying disclosure cited "fish habitat impacted by proposed Pebble Mine." The League of Conservation Voters and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) also listed the Pebble mine or Bristol Bay as a lobbying focus. The Alaska Conservation Foundation did not continue lobbying on the issue last year, but the National Taxpayers Union did, listing it as an issue in-house lobbyist Pete Sepp was monitoring. Mining sector Despite having only one asset, Pebble LP ranked fifth on the list of top lobbying spenders in the mining industry. Overall, the sector doled out $18.3 million to K Street, up from $15.2 million in 2017 and a second consecutive annual increase, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (E&E Daily, Jan. 26). The company atop the list was once again Peabody Energy Corp. The nation's biggest coal producer spent $2.6 million on lobbying in 2018, compared with $2.2 million the previous year. The National Mining Association finished second again, but paid out less for lobbying as payments dropped from $1.9 million to $1.6 million last year. International titan Rio Tinto PLC overtook gold giant Newmont Mining Corp. to take third place overall and the top hardrock mining company slot. Rio spent $1.3 million on lobbying last year, up from $950,000. Newmont paid $1.1 million, up from $988,000. After Pebble, the top mining lobbying expenditures were $670,000 by Canadian company Barrick Gold Corp., $620,000 by Arch Coal Inc. and $530,000 by coal firm Contura Energy Inc. Twin Metals Minnesota LLC, a subsidiary of Chilean copper king Antofagasta PLC, spent $440,000 on lobbying as its project remains ensnared in the federal courts and permitting process (Greenwire, Jan. 23). Rounding out the top 10 was Tahoe Resources Inc. The Canadian company paid $430,000 for lobbyists to defend its business operations in Guatemala, for which President Trump has threatened to cut off aid. Reprinted from E&E Daily with permission from E&E News. Copyright 2019. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals at www.eenews.net. For the original story click here. Federal Register Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pacific Cod by Vessels Using Pot Gear in the Western Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska A Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 01/30/2019 NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific cod by vessels using pot gear in the Western Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the A season allowance of the 2019 Pacific cod total allowable catch apportioned to vessels using pot gear in the Western Regulatory Area of the GOA. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/01/30/2019-00300/fisheries-of-the-exclusive-economic-zone-off-alaska-pacific-cod-by-vessels-using-pot-gear-in-the FYI’s Alaska Board of Fisheries Agenda Includes Finfish Issues Fishermen's News - January 30, 2019 The Alaska Board of Fisheries will consider 33 proposals related to Alaska Peninsula, Chignik and Aleutian Islands finfish when it meets Feb. 21-26 at the Sheraton Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska. http://fnonlinenews.blogspot.com/2019/01/alaska-board-of-fisheries-agenda.html
Ann Owens Pacific Seafood Processors Association Office Manager 1900 W Emerson Place Suite 205, Seattle, WA 98119 Phone: 206.281.1667 E-mail: pspafish@gmail.com; Website: www.pspafish.net Our office days/hours are Monday-Friday 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. *Inclusion of a news article, report, or other document in this email does not imply PSPA support or endorsement of the information or opinion expressed in the document.