The Senator’s full remarks and exchanges with the witnesses can be found here.
Washington, DC – Yesterday, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Coast Guard, Maritime, and Fisheries, led her fellow Democrats at a hearing titled, “Finding Nemo’s Future: Conflicts over Ocean Resources” to examine the effects of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing on the United States. Blunt Rochester’s questions were focused on shining a light on how proposed and already realized cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) make it harder for our nation to protect our supply chains and enforce our laws.
To watch the full hearing, click here.
Senator Blunt Rochester: “Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is a serious and growing global threat. Not only does it harm American fisherman and coastal communities – which Delaware actually is a coastal community and has many coastal communities – but it destabilizes marine ecosystems and even has national security implications. In my home state, the mislabeling of Chesapeake Blue Crab undermines the livelihoods of thousands of Delawareans. It’s reported in a 2015 study, in an investigation, they found that fraudulent labeling of domestic crab occurred in about 48 percent of mid-Atlantic crab cakes. The good news is we have experts at NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service that collect data on this industry to enable enforcement of science-backed regulations. Unfortunately, the administration has fired about 18 percent of NOAA’s Fisheries staff and is looking to cut the budget by 30 percent. To make matters worse, cuts to the rest of the agency are undermining this work even further. NOAA Fisheries relies on the NOAA fleet to conduct stock assessments and surveys – a fleet that required skilled, credentialed, civilian mariners to operate. And due to the ongoing hiring freeze, 30 percent of NOAA’s research ships will not leave the dock this summer. Fewer research ships in the water will result in fewer assessments and surveys, opening the door for illegally caught and fraudulently labeled products to flood the market, which would undercut our own domestic seafood industry and threaten consumer safety. Illegal fishing is also increasingly connected to criminal activity, like forced labor, human trafficking, and organized smuggling operations.”
“Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is an environmental issue, an economic issue, a national security issue, and a moral issue. And it’s time for us to invest in the policies, agencies, and personnel NOAA and the Coast Guard need to protect American fishermen and the consumers that rely on access to quality, ethically sourced seafood. I look forward to today’s discussion and to continuing the incredible bipartisan work of this subcommittee and this committee, and our work to address this global challenge.”
Senator Blunt Rochester: “I want to put a fine point on a comment that was said at the very end of your testimony, Dr. Saumweber, where you said this used to be a secondary issue. I was just writing down different words, from jobs, and the economy, and our small businesses and mid-size businesses that are impacted, our environment, as Senator Whitehouse mentioned, criminal activity, trade, I wrote down technology, I wrote down health, because we haven’t really talked about the health impact of this, but when we’re dealing with illegal products, we don’t know what’s in some of these things, so even our health status, national security – we talked about Russia and China and just the impact that they have not just on our national security, but also on… their influence in other places around the world – and markets, our market power, piracy, international trade, technology – to me, this is a front and center issue. And so, I want to start off, my first comment, to say I’m excited to join the FISH Act, that’s number one, and secondly, Dr. Saumweber, I wanted to ask your opinion: we know that NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service plays a vital role in combatting IUU fishing. From your experience can you talk about what the impact, operational impact, of a 30% budget cut to NOAA’s enforcement activities and could you describe how these cuts would affect NOAA’s ability to conduct investigations into seafood fraud and mislabeling, which was another thing that we mentioned, issues that directly impact not only consumers but domestic fisheries?”
Dr. Saumweber: “Yes, thank you for that question. A 30% cut in NOAA’s budget would be devastating to these efforts on a number of fronts. First of all, among the first things to go with any budget cut, even a much smaller cut than 30% is the kind of interagency coordination that is hard, difficult, requires time, but is sometimes seen as being outside of kind of the core, day-to-day mission of good federal workers. And so, they don’t dedicate time to those kinds of things that are complicated but necessary to attack this kind of really difficult challenge. And so right out the window, you’d sort of lose that coordination capacity that is so fundamental to this effort. Next, you’re going to lose the ability to have supporting science, to have the necessary kind of research done to understand how these stocks are changing, to understand what critical limits may or may not be being passed, and to be thinking about how this is really impacting our fishermen here at home. And then finally, and I think as important in any of those situations is the ability as I mentioned to be present, to be part of these international negotiations, to be at the regional fishery management organizations, where we’re negotiating with China, where we’re negotiating with our competitors, where we need to be educated and speak in a way that is informed about the state of affairs in the world and about the nature of fish stocks and the health of the ocean. And with those cuts, it will fundamentally damage the ability to do that.”
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Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester represents Delaware in the United States Senate where she serves on the Committees on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.