by Allahpundit

The most important thing about this story, I think, is that it’s coming not from a conservative blog but from Politico. And it’s coming on the same day that BuzzFeed, which will also never be confused with right-wing media, is posting a list of Warren’s most embarrassing moments from this now weeks-long authenticity charade. She’s become enough of a joke, in other words, that even media outfits that aren’t hostile to her ideology can’t resist snickering.

If only most voters had an attention span of longer than five seconds, I’d think this might really hurt her in the fall.

Elizabeth Warren has pushed back hard on questions about a Harvard Crimson piece in 1996 that described her as Native American, saying she had no idea the school where she taught law was billing her that way and saying it never came up during her hiring a year earlier, which others have backed up.

But a 1997 Fordham Law Review piece described her as Harvard Law School’s “first woman of color,” based, according to the notes at the bottom of the story, on a “telephone interview with Michael Chmura, News Director, Harvard Law (Aug. 6, 1996).”…

The description of her as a minority is coming from the same person – Chmura – whose comments to the Crimson sparked the original story about her heritage, and Warren’s camp argued it’s old news.

She has said she had no idea Harvard was billing her that way or how the school found out that her family claims Native American heritage. She learned of it first from the Herald story, she said.

Yeah, Chmura was the Crimson’s source in 1996 for the “fact” that Warren was Native American. The big lingering mystery: From whom did he get that information? From those professional directories in the mid-90s in which Warren listed herself as minority? From someone on Harvard Law’s hiring committee? Or from Warren herself?

By JAY LINDSAY

BOSTON (AP) — A record number of fish populations have been rebuilt in U.S waters, even as problems continue to threaten the future of the high-profile New England fishing industry, according to a federal report released Monday.

Six species that were once considered overfished have rebuilt to optimal population levels in waters from the Bering Sea to the Atlantic Coast, according to the annual report to Congress by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries arm.

The report also said just 45 of 219 fish populations (21 percent) were considered overfished in 2011.

Still, 13 of those stocks are in New England. That's the most, by far, of any geographic region.

Emily Menashes, acting director of NOAA's sustainable fisheries office said, overall, the report shows, "We are turning the corner on ending overfishing."

But New England is defying the positive trends and it's unclear how that can change, said NOAA's Galen Tromble.

"It's a challenging situation and there aren't any easy solutions," he said.

The report looks at fish populations on both coasts and off Alaska and Hawaii, using the most recent data, generally two to three years old, Menashes said.

The six fish species now considered rebuilt include Bering Sea snow crab, Atlantic coast summer flounder, Gulf of Maine haddock, northern California coast Chinook salmon, Washington coast coho salmon and Pacific coast widow rockfish.

In the last 11 years, 27 U.S. marine fish populations have been rebuilt, according to the report.

Tromble said that reflects years of effort by fishery managers and sacrifice by fishermen to follow rebuilding plans started 10 or 15 years ago.

"We're starting to see the results of those," Tromble said.

Regulators on Monday also touted a dropping percentage of species where "overfishing" is occurring — from 16 percent in 2010 to 14 percent in 2011. That simply means fishermen are fishing too hard on fewer species now.

It differs from the falling percentage of species considered "overfished," which is down from 23 percent to 21 percent. The drop in that category means there are fewer fish populations in such poor shape that managers must devise a plan to protect them.

Still, there's not much good news in that category in New England. Its 13 overfished stocks in 2011 compare to six in the next highest region, the Pacific. The North Pacific (off Alaska) counts just 2 overfished stocks, and the Mid-Atlantic just one.

Just this month, New England fishermen absorbed a 22 percent cut in the catch of cod in the Gulf of Maine and an 80 percent cut in the yellowtail flounder catch on Georges Bank.

By Richard Gaines Staff Writer The Gloucester Daily Times Wed May 16, 2012, 05:57 AM EDT

WAKEFIELD — Big offshore draggers using their own and acquired catch share allocations have worked inside Stellwagen Bank for the past year — where they'd not been seen before — depleting a rebuilding stock of Gulf of Maine cod.

That was the testimony Tuesday from more than a dozen charter boat captains during a day-long meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council's Recreational advisory panel meeting held at a hotel complex in Wakefield.

A federal fisheries analyst also confirmed the presence, though not the impact, of the Stellwagen draggers.

Additional new fishing pressure on inshore cod stocks has come through boats operated by members of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association longlining in Stellwagen, some charter skippers also told the panel.

The advisory panel reports to the council's Groundfish Committee, which will be involved in deliberations into 2013 to develop a new rebuilding program for the most important fish stock for the recreational sector and the inshore commercial fleet based in Gloucester and found in small ports along the entire coast of New England.

"This is the most troubling situation that I've ever had to deal with," said Capt. Barry Gibson of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, chairman of the Recreational Advisory Panel and who served on the council for nine years through 1995. "Ninety-foot boats (in Stellwagen) and no trip limits."

The boats were identified as hailing from New Bedford, Gloucester and Maine.

"There is some evidence that the big vessels moved inshore," Tom Nies, a federal fisheries analyst, told the meeting.

The catch share regimen introduced in May 2010 for members of commercial fishing cooperatives called sectors replaced the previous system based on days-at-sea and trip limits, with allocations of stocks that can be accumulated — acquired or leased — and no upper limit.

Three years after a benchmark assessment found inshore cod surging toward restoration, another benchmark assessment made public late last year undercut the optimism — and put the fishery into crisis management mode.

By Hillary Chabot

The New England Historical Genealogical Society, which originally announced they found evidence of Elizabeth Warren’s Native American heritage, said today they have discovered no documentation to back up claims that she is 1/32 Cherokee.

“NEHGS has not expressed a position on whether Mrs. Warren has Native American ancestry, nor do we possess any primary sources to prove that she is,” said Tom Champoux, spokesman for the NEHGS. “We have no proof that Elizabeth Warren’s great great great grandmother O.C. Sarah Smith either is or is not of Cherokee descent.”

The Herald reported today that an Oklahoma county clerk said a document purporting to prove Warren’s Cherokee roots does not exist. ReJeania Zmek, the Logan County Clerk, said there are no marriage applications from 1894 — despite claims from a Warren family newsletter and NEHGS genealogist Chris Child that indicated otherwise.

All of which leaves Warren, who said she relied on family lore when reporting her Native American ties, once again without any proof of her heritage.

The campaign didn’t immediately respond to comment.

The Herald broke the story last month that Harvard Law School had touted Warren’s Native American roots and counted her as a minority hire. Chris Child, a genealogist with the NEHGS, originally could find no American Indian ties

By Morgan True

WASHINGTON — As the 2012 fishing year got under way May 1, New England fishermen faced an uncertain future — with reductions in the catch limits for important stocks, such as Gulf of Maine Cod and Georges Bank yellowtail flounder, underscoring the industry's economic vulnerability, while reopening questions about how the fishery is managed.

The catch share system was implemented in 2010 by the New England Fishery Management Council from among several options available under federal law. The council is among eight such regional councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, first enacted a third of a century ago to govern fishing in coastal regions.

The catch share system allocates among "sectors" — groups of fishermen — a percentage quota of the total amount of fish allowed to be caught. These quotas can then be bought, sold or leased. Fishermen who are not part of a sector do not receive a quota; instead, they are allocated a certain number of days at which they can be at sea working their trade, as was the case before catch shares were adopted.

"A lot of people feel the present system is not working out," said Brian Rothschild, a fisheries scientist at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a veteran of the New England fishing industry.

Dick Gracheck, a retired fisherman from the fishing community of Point Judith, R.I., agreed, adding he is troubled by the consolidation he has seen within the New England fishery as a result of the catch share system.

"One major problem is that it separates the fish from the fishermen, and makes it a commodity on the open market — so that anyone with capital can come in and own fish and turn around and rent it back to fishermen," Gracheck said.

Although some contend that consolidation was under way during the previous "days-at-sea" fishery management system, a 2010 report by NOAA — cited in Patrick's recent request to Bryson — said that just 10 percent of fishermen in the New England groundfish fishery accounted for 57 percent of the total revenue that year. That's a sharp increase in consolidation over 2009, when those 10 percent took in 47 percent of total revenues.

Less than five months after the catch share system was implemented in 2010, 55 of the 500 boats in the New England groundfish fishery controlled 61 percent of the revenue, according to a study done by Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.

The cities of New Bedford and Gloucester, Mass., in conjunction with a number of fishing interests, are challenging the legality of the catch share system in a case being heard by the Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

By DON CUDDY
doncuddy@s-t.com
May 12, 2012 12:00 AM 

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An emergency action by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday closing a large area off the coast of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia to scallop fishing was welcomed by the fishing industry.

"This is a benefit to me," said local scallop boat owner Dan Eilertsen, who has one trip to the Delmarva remaining on his boat Justice. "It's a long steam down there and it was getting a little scratchy," he said. Eilertsen held off on making that last trip, hoping that such a move would be approved.

"This is the first news I've heard of it," he said when informed by The Standard-Times of the decision Friday. "But it's good news for me."

Scallop boats such as Justice with unused trips will now be compensated with trips to Closed Area 1, a New England scallop ground much closer to New Bedford that opens to fishermen on June 15. The New England Fishery Management Council had asked the National Marine Fisheries Service to take this action and to move quickly to prevent economic losses to the boats that still had Delmarva trips.

According to a new release from NOAA late Friday, the closure is intended to prevent high levels of fishing in the area that could reduce the catch and affect the overall health of the scallop biomass in Delmarva. Fisheries managers, and the industry, feared that weakened stocks could compromise the rotational management program that has successfully rebuilt the scallop fishery.

The Delmarva closure remains in effect for the rest of the 2012 fishing year, which runs through March 1, 2013.

ZACK MCDONALD / News Herald Writer
@PCNHzack

PANAMA CITY — Rep. Steve Southerland’s amendment to stop the expansion of a controversial form of fisheries management has passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

However, it still is a long way from becoming law.

The subject of Southerland’s amendment is Limited Access Privilege Programs, commonly called “catch shares.” The system essentially uses a quota-like system in an effort to prevent overfishing.

Earlier last week, the House voted 220-191 to pass the Southerland-Grimm Amendment to stop new federal funds for catch share programs not already developed, approved or implemented for any fishery along the Atlantic coast or Gulf of Mexico.

“By gifting a select few with a stake of the annual allowable catch, catch shares amount to nothing less than a cap-and-trade management system that privatizes access to once open waterways,” said Southerland, R-Panama City, in a press release.

Catch share programs are unpopular with many in the fishing industry because of the finite number of fish that can be caught through the distribution of individual fishing quotas to fishery participants. The current quotas along the Gulf of Mexico only apply to grouper and red snapper.

“About 300 people own catch shares and 95 percent of shares are owned by 30 to 40 boats,” said charter boat Capt. Bob Zales of Panama City. Zales is president of  the National Association of Charterboat Operators. “Fifteen percent are owned by people who don’t own a boat. They just sit around and lease their shares out.”

According to Matthew McCullough, communications director for Southerland, implementation of catch shares has caused dramatic decreases in the fleet, forcing many out of business.

Read more: http://www.newsherald.com/articles/panama-102672-share-amendment.html#ixzz1uxiCvEwg

By Hillary Chabot

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s campaign today blasted Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren’s “integrity and truthfulness,” and again called on her to release documentation showing whether she listed her Native American heritage on personnel records.

“The question here is not about Elizabeth Warren’s credentials so much as it is about Elizabeth Warren’s integrity and truthfulness and willingness to be transparent,” said Brown’s campaign director Jim Barnett. “Why is she listing herself as a native American with exactly zero evidence?”

Barnett said genealogist Chris Child, who discovered Warren’s Cherokee roots, relied on a family newsletter, and not primary source material, to prove that her great great great grandmother is Native American. He also pointed to a recent report showing that the University of Pennsylvania listed Warren as a Native American.

Warren’s campaign and Child have declined further comment, and Warren hasn’t released personnel reports from Harvard Law School or the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Records from other schools, such as the University of Texas Law School and Rutgers University, show that Warren listed her as white

By Richard Gaines

Their agreement is that the federal government has been levying excessive fines and overregulating the fleet, which has been further weakened from a combination of statutory limits on catch levels and a commodification market program adopted in 2010 and taken directly from a policy paper co-written by NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco while she was still serving on the board of directors at the Environmental Defense Fund. The lead financer for the policy paper advocating catch shares was the Walton Family Foundation, endowed with Wal-Mart profits and controlled by the family that founded and still owns the world's largest retailer.

Asked by the Times to respond to a 30-second radio ad that began running last week about what ails the fishing industry, Warren issued a statement that did not attempt to differentiate herself from Brown's extensive pronouncements. Brown has also filed multiple bills to ameliorate the problems.

"Our fishermen work hard and play by the rules, and they deserve to have a fair shot at success," Warren said in the prepared statement.

"For years, fishermen have been hammered by unfair enforcement and unfair regulations," she continued. "Federal regulators need to do a better job of working with fishermen and scientists to ensure we have sustainable fishing stocks, but in a way that doesn't drive fishermen out of business. As a senator, I will listen to Massachusetts fishermen, I will stand with them, and I will fight for them."

In his ad, Brown said, "We have a proud tradition of fishing in Massachusetts. It's been the subject of countless books and movies. It's also been a source of strength for our economy, going back to our earliest days. But our fishing industry is dying, and Washington is to blame. Fishermen have been hit with crushing fines, unrealistic catch limits, and arbitrary enforcement.

"As a result, people have lost their jobs, their homes, and their way of life. The agency responsible for this crisis is completely out of touch and unresponsive. ... Our fishermen and their families deserve better from their government, and I'm going to fight to protect them."

By Jennifer C. Braceras

Try as she might, Liz Warren has been unable to put to rest the flap over her claimed Native American ancestry.

That’s because the controversy raises legitimate questions about the integrity of this Senate candidate and Harvard Law prof, who once listed herself as a minority — despite being, at best, only 1/32nd Cherokee.

But the story also has legs because of questions it raises about affirmative action in the 21st century — and about Warren’s views on this issue

A bit of context:

When I was a student at Harvard Law School in the early 1990s, the faculty was notoriously divided along ideological lines. “Beirut on the Charles” was the apt description given to the law school by GQ Magazine. And, indeed, so antagonistic was the climate that the faculty was unable to come to agreement on new hires. Professors distrusted one another, and their animosity seeped into the student body.

In early 1992, in an attempt to break the political gridlock, Harvard Law offered tenured faculty positions to four candidates — two liberals and two conservatives.

Although ideologically diverse, all were white males.

To a radicalized and disgruntled student body, the “compromise” was like a match to a powder keg. And it wasn’t long before the campus erupted in a series of highly-publicized protests and sit-ins.

Against this backdrop of racial and gender politics, Liz Warren arrived in Cambridge the following fall.

Then a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Warren came to Harvard Law as a visiting professor (on a sort of trial basis).

We now know that during this time, Warren listed herself as a “minority” in a professional directory used by law schools for recruiting purposes. Warren says she did this in order to meet other Native Americans. More likely she did so in order to catch the eye of hiring committees at prestigious law schools

By Richard Gaines

A mini-budget containing language that stops the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from developing, approving or implementing new catch share fishery management programs along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico was approved Thursday by the full U.S. House of Representatives.

If it survives reconciliation with the Senate's version of the Appropriations Act for Commerce, Justice and Science, the anti-catch share rider would not affect the catch share regimen that — working in concert with statutory limits on catch limits since 2010 — has thrown the New England and Northeast groundfishery into tumult and contraction, shedding jobs in Gloucester and elsewhere as fishermen sell permits or lease their quota and stay at home.

But it could bar NOAA and its New England Fishery Management Council from launching a catch share program to restructure the Northeast monkfishery. A limited-access privilege program for monkfishing — as catch share systems are formally known — has been under study in the council for some time.

Monkfish are now managed separately from groundfish though they inhabit many of the same waters, ranging from Maine to North Carolina. Once considered a "junk" fish, monks now are highly valued, and landings in recent years produced upward of $50 million to fishermen at the docks.

The anti-catch share rider sponsored by Republicans Steve Southerland of Florida and Michael Grimm of New York was approved late Wednesday on a 220-191 roll call vote along party lines. In a letter to colleagues before the vote, Southerland and Grimm described catch shares as a concept to enrich the few at the expense of the many by "privatizing access to a once open fishery."

Democrats John Tierney, who represents Cape Ann, Barney Frank, whose district includes New Bedford, and William Keating, who represents small ports along Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod, continued their opposition to the signature fisheries policy of the Obama administration, by siding with the majority, as they did last year when a similar rider — sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican — was approved 221-121 before being watered down in the Senate.

By Richard Gaines

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown Wednesday faulted NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco for overseeing an agency without accountability.

In a letter to Commerce Secretary John Bryson, Brown asked the Commerce chief to review and report on two new instances of unexplained actions — the brief solicitation for a "magician" to preside at a leadership conference, and a mass meeting of agency lawyers at a hotel in Philadelphia, a two hour ride from NOAA's Silver Spring, Md., headquarters.

"NOAA's continued disregard for being efficient and effective stewards of taxpayer dollars illustrates the rampant culture of waste at this agency, which has been fostered by Administrator Lubchenco's failure to punish obvious misconduct," Brown wrote. "NOAA's decision to seek an outside magician is just another troubling example.

"It has already been documented that Administrator Lubchenco previously retained an employee who made 80 percent of the agency's law enforcement files disappear in a 'shredding party' during an Inspector General investigation. This is the same well-paid NOAA employee who supported the purchase of a $300,000 luxury fishing boat, despite warnings from a NOAA procurement lawyer."

Brown was referring to a published solicitation for a speaker for a day at a leadership conference scheduled for June. The specifications for the speaker included mastery of magic as applied to inspire. The request for applications for the assignment was taken down after press inquiries.

The "shredding party" refers to actions authorized by the then director of law enforcement, Dale Jones, in November 2010, while the Commerce Department inspector general's teams were gathering evidence of abuse of the Asset Forfeiture Fund and making targets of fishing industry representatives. IG Todd Zinser reported the shredding event during sworn testimony Congress in March 2010.

By Hillary Chabot

Elizabeth Warren’s tumultuous Senate campaign was back on defense yesterday over her purported Native American roots after documents showed that a second law school touted her minority status.

The University of Pennsylvania, where Warren worked from 1987 to 1994, listed her as a minority in a “Minority Equity Report.” The report comes after Harvard Law School claimed Warren as a diversity hire in 1996.

Campaign officials, who have struggled to move beyond the issue, were forced once again to insist that Warren never used her lineage for personal gain as the scandal stretched into its second week.

“At every law school where Elizabeth was recruited to teach, it has been made absolutely clear she was hired based on merit, on her accomplishments and ability,” spokeswoman Alethea Harney said in a statement.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

A second law school, the University of Pennsylvania, has touted Elizabeth Warren as a minority faculty member in an official school publication, according to an online document obtained by the Globe.

The University of Pennsylvania, where Warren taught at the law school from 1987 through 1995, listed her as a minority in a “Minority Equity Report” posted on its website. The report, published in 2005, well after her departure, included her as the winner of a faculty award in 1994. Her name was highlighted in bold, the designation used for minorities in the report.

A spokesman for the law school did not immediately return a phone message today.

The reference offers another piece of evidence that Warren was identified as a Native American as part of her professional career. Warren has said she was unaware that Harvard University, her current employer, had described her as a Native American when it was under fire for a lack of diversity on its law school faculty.

Meanwhile, the Globe has also obtained a portion of Warren’s 1973 application to Rutgers, where she attended law school. That document specifically asks: “Are you interested in applying for admission under the Program for Minority Group Students?” Warren answered “no.”

In addition, a newly unearthed University of Texas personnel document shows that Warren listed herself as “white” when she taught at the law school there from 1981 to 1991.

The undated document, obtained by the Globe through a public records request, supports Warren’s statement that she did not present herself as a Native American when hired for the job. But it leaves open the question of why she later listed herself as a minority in a legal directory that is often consulted by hiring deans.

Sovereignty: Even if he's not re-elected, the president hopes to leave behind a treaty giving a U.N. body veto power over the use of our territorial waters and to which we'd be required to give half of our offshore oil revenue.

The Law Of The Sea Treaty (LOST) has been lurking in the shadows for decades. Like the Kyoto Protocol that pretended to be an effort to save the earth from the poisoned fruit of the Industrial Revolution, LOST pretends to be an effort to protect the world's oceans from environmental damage and remove it as a cause of potential conflicts between nations.

Like its Kyoto cousin, LOST is an attempt at the global redistribution of power and wealth, the embodiment of the progressive dream of the end of the nation state as we know it and the end of political freedom by giving veto over all of mankind's activities to a global body — in this case something called the International Seabed Authority, located in Kingston, Jamaica.

The ISA would have the power to regulate 70% of the earth's surface, placing seabed mining, fishing rights, deep-sea oil exploration and even the activities of the U.S. Navy under control of a global bureaucracy. It even provides for a global tax that would be paid directly to the ISA by companies seeking to develop the resources in and under the world's oceans.

As Heritage Foundation senior fellow Peter Brookes notes, the U.S. government now can collect royalty revenues from oil and gas companies that wish to drill on our extended continental shelf — the undersea areas beyond 200 miles of our coast. But if we ratify LOST, we'd have to fork over as much as 7% of that revenue to the ISA for redistribution to poorer, landlocked countries.

Maritime and jurisdictional disputes would be settled by the ISA, which presumably would tell the U.S. Navy where it could and could not go. Freedom of navigation has been guaranteed by the U.S. Navy and, before it, the British Royal Navy. Now it would be the ISA. This meets perfectly the definition of the "global test" Sen. John Kerry, a backer of LOST, said in 2004 that our actions must meet

by Ashe Schow

Has Senator Kerry flip-flopped? It’s hard to tell, but whether you’re on the right or left or somewhere in between, his claims about the treaty deserve scrutiny.

Here’s a noodle-scratcher for you: Senator John Kerry (D-MA) – a self-proclaimed environmentalist and strident believer in manmade global warming – is apparently carrying water for America’s oil and natural gas companies.

What could Senator Kerry and “Big Oil” have in common?  They both support the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), which cedes America’s sovereignty and royalties to a United Nation’s subsidiary.

According to a source familiar with his sales pitch to Republicans and conservatives, Senator Kerry claims that “in 5 years most of the Arctic ice will have been melted due to climate change, opening up vast new shipping lanes that will give access to resources that were unreachable before. China and Russia have been pushing to get at those resources. We need to make sure our oil and gas companies have the certainty they need to develop our resources in the Arctic.”

Senator Kerry is trying to sell LOST as a pro-business and pro-energy treaty. Essentially, oil and gas companies cannot have business certainty – especially in the Arctic – without this treaty. It is a finely calculated pitch, pulling in conservative rhetoric on taxes (“certainty”) and the GOP’s fight to expand production of oil and gas resources.

Many in the environmental movement would be surprised to learn that Senator Kerry’s lobbying is remarkably similar to the pitch made by the oil companies lobbying for LOST. Last year, an oil company executive testified before Congress on the benefits of the treaty, as it related to the oil and gas industries.

Regardless of the merits of their arguments as it relates to their business model, the implications of LOST are much broader, and the invested interests are very diverse and often contradictory.  The real question Americans, lawmakers and the media should be asking is whether Senator Kerry is shilling for “Big Oil” or simply playing both sides of the aisle. Remember, groups such as the World Wildlife Fund, Ocean Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife, Oceana and a host of other environmental groups have lobbied on behalf of the treaty.

On one hand, he is ginning up environmentalists who believe this treaty will “protect” the Arctic; and on the other, he is telling Republicans that it is pro-business and pro-energy.

By Associated Press

BOSTON - Massachusetts Democrats have filed an ethics complaint over reports that GOP Sen. Scott Brown’s campaign used a video taken by an official Senate aide.

The Massachusetts Democratic Party pointed to a report by The Boston Globe that a video of Brown sinking a half-court basketball shot during a visit to a Hyannis youth center was taken by Brown’s Senate communications director Marcie Kinzel

By DON CUDDY

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has selected 13 collaborative projects for $12 million in research intended to help the scallop industry maintain a healthy fishery.

Since 1998, the scallop industry has set aside a portion of its annual catch limit to fund collaborative research with marine scientists. This year, that figure is 3 percent of the total catch, which equates to about $12 million.

The money is awarded by NOAA and distributed as grants to various research institutes. Among federal fisheries, set-aside programs are unique to the Northeast region.

"It's a really great way to get fishermen and scientists working together, learning from each other and coming up with good science that's used for management purposes," said NOAA's Earl Meredith, of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, who has coordinated the program since 2006.

"The number of grants that we are awarding has been expanding," he said. "It used to be just six or seven. Last year, it was 12 and we had 18 applicants this year."

In the past, the money has been used for a variety of projects to help manage the fishery sustainably, including stock assessments in areas where scallop boats fish, bycatch avoidance programs and, most recently, a modified scallop dredge designed to prevent loggerhead turtles from becoming entangled in the fishing gear.

"I attribute all of the progress in the scallop fishery to the research set-aside," said Ron Smolowitz of the nonprofit Coonamessett Farm Foundation in East Falmouth, which led the research into the new turtle gear.

It was a 1996 letter from Smolowitz to the New England Fishery Management Council suggesting an industry set-aside that initially led to the program's foundation.

"It was clear that the National Marine Fisheries surveys weren't accurate enough to give us catch levels for individual access areas," Smolowitz said.

By Richard Gaines

Scott Brown's U.S. Senate campaign today introduced a 30-second radio spot that synthesizes multiple complaints he and others in Congress have registered regarding perceived injustices to and federal mismanagement of the commercial fishing industry.

Since January, as part of the Republican's effort to win a full six-year term for the seat he took in a special election in 2010 after the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Brown's campaign has been running weekly radio spots on topics as varied as "Americans First," "military jobs," "tax," "jobs" and "the Red Sox."

Brown and the presumed Democratic nominee, Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren, have been locked in a tight and high visibility race since the start of the year, when Warren became a national favorite of party activists and donors.

The gist of the Brown ad that began running today implicitly flails the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reprising and broadening a kicker Brown first enunciated last June 20 during a field hearing he organized in Faneuil Hall of a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee.

After he questioned the top appointee of NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco about the Commerce Inspector General's findings that the federal fisheries law enforcement system had been corrupt, Brown asked whether any NOAA oficials had been subject to discipline; instead, key figures leaders had been transferred.

"What does it take to actually get fired at NOAA?" Brown asked at the hearing.

In his radio ad, which refers to NOAA only as "the agency," Brown's question is: "What does it take to get fired in Washington?"

The theme of the Brown radio ad asserts that "our fishing industry is dying, and Washington is to blame. Fishermen have been hit with crushing fines, unrealistic catch limits, and arbitrary enforcement.

By Richard Gaines

The special judicial master whose initial investigation into NOAA enforcement action against the fishing industry yielded a Cabinet-level apology and reparations is believed to have completed and filed with Commerce Secretary John Bryson a second and final report.

The report is expected to document additional violations of fishermen's rights.

The initial report was submitted to Bryson's predecessor Gary Locke — now ambassador to China — on April 14, 2011, and, after extensive redacting, made public on May 17, 2011.

Bryson's communications office did not respond to telephone calls and emails Monday, but Pamela LaFreniere, a New Bedford attorney, said she believes Special Master Charles B. Swartwood III has completed his work and submitted it to Bryson.

One of Lafreniere's clients, former scallop fisherman Larry Yacubian, was given $400,000 in reparations last May, and she said Swartwood had delved into the complaints of more than an additional dozen of her clients in the still unresolved package.

In a letter updating Bryson last December, Swartwood said he was looking into 66 separate claims of justice miscarried by agents and litigators at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In that letter, Swartwood said he hoped to have his case studies, together with finds, conclusions and recommendations resolved by March 15. But about then, he also told the Times in a telephone interview that he was not close to finished.

A retired federal magistrate and chairman of the Massachusetts Ethics Commission, Swartwood did not return phone calls seeking comment Monday, and a spokeswoman for JAMS — the arbitration, mediation and judicial mastering service that employs Swartwood and has the Commerce Department contract for his services — said it had no information on the status of the second report.

Swartwood's case study of the Yacubian case brought howls for different reasons from the Coast Guard's Administrative Law Judge system that tried the case, and from NOAA critics due to redactions in it.

The judges objected to Swartwood's finding that the trial judge had ignored a federal court judge's directive and in attending an overseas conference that also included the prosecutors of the case left the impression of a possible conflict of interest. Swartwood also noted that it was a nearly universal belief that fairness could not be gotten in trials presided over by the Coast Guard judges.

By Matt Stout and Laurel J. Sweet

The shocking news that a Burlington mother’s stabbing death was watched by a stunned teen over a live iPad video chat opens new possibilities and difficult questions about Web evidence in a heavily plugged-in world, lawyers say.

“Welcome to the worst aspect of the 21st century: cyber horror and its progeny. This is just one more step in a horrible direction,” said defense attorney Jeffrey Denner.

By Gayle Fee And Laura Raposa

The Harvard Law School prof was campaigning on the North Shore last Saturday while Harvard’s Native American Program filled Radcliffe Yard with Native American singers, dancers and drummers.

“The Harvard Powwow ... is a great way to bring local tribes into the Harvard community, acknowledging the ancestral homelands, and show our heritage,” Cesar Alvarez ’13, the incoming president of Native Americans at Harvard College, told the Harvard Gazette

So where was Liz while the Native Americans were doing their thing on the Radcliffe Lawn? According to her tweets, the candidate spent April 28 at the Third Middlesex Area Democrats Breakfast in Waltham, the Three Towns & Two Cities Breakfast with more Dems in Newburyport, campaigning in Lynn, and hanging with the local branch of the American Federation of Teachers in Quincy.

Schafer fisheries has grown this into a $10 million a year operation, mainly on the back of Asian carp. The invasive species now account for 80 percent of his business.  It’s a bony fish so    much of the carp is ground up.

They've experimented with a variety of Asian carp recipes and have a buffet set up at their store. They serve us taco meat, chili, spaghetti, and even hot dogs made from Asian carp.  The ground meat resembles ground turkey, though not as firm. Still there is no hint of fishiness to it. It takes on its seasonings rather well.  The hot dog is also good.  Schafer says he has plans to market it under the name Omega Nationals. The hot dogs are fully kosher.

And while there are still serious concerns here about the Asian carp's impact on the environment, more people here in Illinois are seeing an opportunity and cashing in.

“They’re here to stay,” said Schafer

By Jeffrey Jones

(Reuters) - TransCanada Corp is taking its second shot at asking Washington to approve the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline, betting that a new route through Nebraska and post-U.S. election time frame for a decision will push the project forward. 

The reapplication to the U.S. State Department on Friday comes after Canada's largest pipeline company carved the proposal into two parts in hopes of kickstarting the project.

U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the full $7.6 billion project early in this election year as concerns spread about the proposed northern portion of the route near an aquifer in Nebraska. Obama has expressed support for the southern portion.

TransCanada has been negotiating with Nebraska state officials over a new route and hopes to have U.S. State Department approval for the northern part of the line early next year with the aim of putting it in service by the end of 2014 or early 2015. That portion would cost $5.3 billion.

On Meet the Press, David Gregory ask's the Vice President about gay marriage.

Joe Biden sigh's deep and say's, It's about "who do you love."

Well. Who do you looove????

Good stuff.

By Jim Hutchinson, Jr., managing director, Recreational Fishing Alliance

Missing from much of the debate regarding President Obama’s executive order for a National Ocean Policy (NOP) is the fact that legislative attempts to create this new bureaucracy were regularly defeated by the House going back to the 108th Congress. No companion bill was every debated before the Senate or Senate committee, and the House version of this overreaching national policy never made it to the floor.

Mind you, this was not partisan gridlock which stymied this big government policy directive, but a coalition of Democrats and Republicans alike who would not support movement of this flawed legislation. In member debate before the bipartisan House Natural Resources Committee, the original NOP bill (known as “Oceans 21”) was called “bad legislation” being pushed by “an overzealous group of people” opposed to fishing. Committee members criticized the legislation for "creating a new bureaucracy and potentially costing taxpayers more money,” while one of the longest tenured Democrats on the committee even expressed concern for “unintended consequences for fisheries management” should the bill move forward.

By Seth Borenstein

WASHINGTON—A federal agency needs illusionist David Copperfield to help escape from criticism over now-canceled plans to hire a speaker to train agency leaders using "magic tools."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is in hot water because on May 1 it posted a notice seeking a magician motivational speaker for a June leadership conference in suburban Maryland. The agency said presentations should include "physical energizers, magic tricks, puzzles, brain teasers, word games, humor and teambuilding exercises." It asked for the performer to create "a unique model of translating magic and principals of the psychology of magic, magic tools, techniques and experiences into a method of teaching leadership."

In an eight page bid solicitation, the agency in charge of weather, climate and oceans said it wanted to use the emotional intelligence techniques of a prominent Harvard professor who has written five books, but misspelled his name.

By Jesse Roman

Marisa DeFranco, a Peabody immigration lawyer who lives in Middleton, said yesterday she has collected the 10,000 signatures she needs to be eligible to get her name on the ballot for U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary in September. DeFranco plans to hand-deliver the signatures on Monday to the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office.

"It's a great day; we're all very enthusiastic," said DeFranco, who said more than 100 volunteers have worked since February collecting signatures all over the state. "It was a dedicated group of volunteers and sheer determination."

DeFranco's spot on the ballot isn't assured yet. She still must receive at least 15 percent of the delegate vote during the state Democratic Convention June 2 in Springfield. But history is on DeFranco's side. Since the rule was put in place in 1982, no frontrunner has been able to eliminate all opponents by getting more than 85 percent of the vote, said Kevin Franck, communications director for the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

"Some Democrats will support the type of grass-roots campaign that can collect 10,000 signatures because they feel they deserve to go to the primary," Franck said.

If and when she clears that final hurdle, DeFranco said she will get to work fundraising, a task she has largely ignored, choosing instead to devote her time to building a network needed to get on the ballot.

She had about $8,000 cash on hand as of April 1.

Warren has $11 million.

"I don't need $15 million. I need enough to be competitive," DeFranco said yesterday. "There's one thing that trumps money, and that's people power."

By Richard Gaines

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was looking for a little magic this week.

The federal agency was advertising for a certified motivational speaker for a one-day conference who could inspire leadership using magic techniques.

The winning bidder for the contract, according to a job posting that went up Tuesday, but was then removed Thursday after press inquiries and commentary by U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, would have come from a controversial school of educational theory developed by Harvard University's Howard Gardner, who developed the idea of multiple intelligences.

According to the ad, the winning bidder was to take "a multidisciplinary approach using experiential exercises, physical energizers, magic tricks, puzzles, brain teasers, word games, humor and team-building exercises designed to demonstrate how to stimulate creativity, encourage active participation, and practice needed skills and competency."

Headline writers at Government Executive ("NOAA seeks magician for training conference") and Politico ("NOAA makes magic ad disappear") had fun at the expense of the agency, but posters on the Government Executive website were mostly indignant at the sensationalizing of the idea, notably references to the ill-conceived, gluttonous, no-holds-barred, $823,000 General Services Administration 2010 conference in Las Vegas that featured a magician as well as a mind reader, and commemorative coins and other acts that stayed in Vegas — exploding into the media last month with career-shattering impact.

Back in Black - Artisanal Foods

Lewis Black warns that, chances are, you're not eating what you think you're eating -- unless it's a hot dog, then you know you're eating pig snouts and anuses.

By Joe Battenfeld and the voters
Elizabeth Warren’s stumbling efforts to douse the firestorm surrounding her claims of being a Native American minority have raised concerns among local and national Democrats who are questioning her campaign’s competence.

“There’s nobody watching this that doesn’t think she’s in big trouble,” one well-known Massachusetts Democrat said.

Some national political experts had much stronger words for Warren’s conflicting explanations about why she listed herself as a minority in university directories.

“This takes her biography into a bizarre dimension,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “It has derailed the effort to define Warren in a voter-friendly way.”

Sabato also said that Warren’s claim that she didn’t list herself as a minority to gain an employment advantage is not believable.

“This is what happens when candidates don’t tell the truth,” he said. “It’s pretty obvious she was using (the minority listing) for career advancement.”

One well-known Massachusetts Democratic strategist faulted Warren and her campaign for failing to put out a consistent message

Warren then recounted how a relative had told her that her Native American heritage was why her grandfather had “high cheekbones like all of the Indians do” — a response that critics have pounced on as perpetuating Native American stereotypes.

“That’s kind of racism,” Sabato said.

taxachusetts01
Is this the best that the Dems can bring to the table? We in big trouble.

Paulbud
Lizzie faces a real dilemma next week when Cleveland comes to Fenway. Root for the Sox? Or the Indians?

LuvUSA
Not only did she cheat real minorities, she basically gave the finger to ever hard working female Caucasian by cutting the line for her job. So much for womens rights. You can't can any lower then Liz Warren.

RememberFan
Keep digging. Did she list herself as Native American on college and law school applications? Did she receive scholarship money or awards based on her claim?

kjjoconnell
You are easy to poke fun at, but it is the sadness that resonates with me. I don't think Republicans 'walk on water', but your deviousness, your inability to give a minimally rational explanation, about your outrageous ethnic claim, is very telling. You are genuinely, a low life, of the most obscene kind. You make these grand pronouncements, about how you feel the pain, and what you want to do for the disadvantaged middle class, et al, and here you are, scamming the system. Belittling these very same folks, with these false/vague, unsubstantiated minority claims. You purport to be the 'savior' of these very same minorities, while you try to take advantage of the rules and regulations, put in place to support them. Your pronouncement of 'Savior' rings hollow, quite frankly you are the' poster child' for what ails this great country. You and your party talk 'fair share', how about playing fair!! Isn't that the most basic starting point!! SHAME ON YOU AND ALL YOUR SUPPORTERS, you are a true AMERICAN disgrace

It's true.

And so begins the destruction of the Eastern Seaboard that all the Wind mill, "Drill Baby Drill" people have been waiting for.

It's all about energy independence, right? Reducing global warming, green energy, not letting the Chinese beat us in the "Green Race"

Well. It's gonna cost us, and it's gonna cost a lot more than money. It's gonna cost a lot of marine life, and this is only the beginning as this administration opens up the North West Atlantic to energy production.

I wonder if my green friends thought it would only be the "passive" windmills that would be in that big energy Super Highway that they couldn't wait to see develop.

One in particular claims to be an environmentalist, or so it seems. That broad brimmed hat does not fool me.

Well, here ya go. Just what you've been waiting for.

I received an email from Jim Lovgren, forwarding his written comment's to BOEM, made at BOEM’s public hearing, the only one scheduled for New Jersey  to voice their opposition to these proposed seismic surveys that will be taking out whales, dolphin's and anything else in the survey area in the quest for energy, green or black.

borehead, don't know whether you saw these or not, but these are my written comments to BOEM, feel  free to use the comments, they need to be spread around as much as possible. This issue could be used to clearly define the eco frauds from the true environmentalists. There has been no sign of PEW  PEG or EDF so far as I have heard regarding this proposed massive slaughter of marine mammals.  NRDC has been hot in opposition, and it was their Micheal Jasny who had an opinion piece published in the Asbury Park Press a couple weeks ago, that made me aware of the estimated marine mammal takes.  Clean Ocean Action of which I am a board member then reviewed the EIS and  confirmed NRDC's numbers, while breaking down individual takes of each species. COA  really organized and energized the AC hearing and many of their affiliated groups presented testimony in opposition. Also Food and Water watch has been on the right side of many fishery issues and  presented testimoney along with Surfriders, and NJ sierra club.  Although NRDC is not anywhere near or dear to me, at least they have moral standards that they are abiding by,  and are not toeing the pew line for the money.  I can respect that.  Jim

Author: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Gulf of Mexico OCS Region

 http://www.savingseafood.org/images/boem-2012-005-vol1.pdf

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Blasts shake up fishermen. Seismic blasts in search of oil would likely affect marine life in area

CLEAN OCEAN ACTION ASKS FOR PUBLIC SUPPORT

FISHERMEN CALL FOUL

OTHERS POTENTIALLY AFFECTED BY SEISMIC BLASTS SPEAK OUT

SEISMIC BLASTS ARE PART OF THE PRESIDENT’S PLAN

WHAT COMES NEXT

A VICTORY ALONG THE WAY TO PRESERVING THE OCEAN

http://starnewsgroup.com/weekly/2012/04.27.12/blasts_shake_04.27.12_63780.html#.T5sL2_uRLJ4.newsvine

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These are Jim Lovgrens remarks.

My name is James Lovgren and I am a commercial fishermen representing the Fishermans Dock Co-op of Point Pleasant, and the Garden State Seafood association. GSSA  represents hundreds of fishermen from New Jersey and some neighboring states plus various support industries.

Thank you for holding this hearing on an issue that is vitally important to the east Coast fishing industry.  Seismic testing is known to have devastating effects on the marine ecosystem and the sea life that my industry depends on for our livelihood’s.  It has the potential to cause huge financial loses on an industry struggling to meet government imposed stock rebuilding targets.  The fishing industry already has to deal with an overzealous NMFS, but at least they notify us when they are holding public hearings concerning matters that affect our livelihood’s. In this case BOEM has not made the slightest effort to contact fishermen, or their organizations,  docks, ect,  of what they are planning.  We simply do not exist in your world. I’m here to tell you we do, and we have enormous concerns about your proposed actions.  We will be submitting detailed written comments in the near future but for now, in my generously granted 3 minutes, I will touch on some of our major concerns.

          The most outrageous aspect of this seismic testing proposal is its impact on marine mammals. Your environmental impact statement  estimates up to 138, 612 Level A takes over an 8 year period starting in 2013.  This includes an estimated 10 critically endangered Northern Right Whales. Amazing.  NMFS has held the fishing industry to what amounts to a zero tolerance of marine mammal  takes in many fisheries, and caused the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars to the fishing industry and its supporting infrastructure in the last decade. In the last two weeks NMFS has announced a two month closure of the Gill net fisheries in the Gulf Of Maine due to Porpoise interactions, and a coming massive closure of 40 different gill net fisheries due to atlantic Sturgeon interactions.  Yet your department, and the oil industry that runs you, can cavalierly nuke every whale, Dolphin, and endangered species, on the east coast into oblivion and no one cares. We want an answer to this seemingly contradictory action by two different departments of our government. Why can big oil kill anything they want but the poor little fishermen, gets crucified if he looks crossed eyed at a whale or dolphin?  Scoreboard shows; Big Oil,  38, 637 marine mammals a year.  Fishing industry zero.  I know some Congressmen and Senators who are going to be a little bit upset by this seeming double standard.

Level B takes, which are not as serious but could still result in eventual death as these now deaf dumb and blind creatures stumble around disoriented in a shell shocked stupor is an astounding 13, 586, 251 marine mammals over the 8 year period.  Has NOAA leadership seen these numbers? Because if they have and they do nothing about it, someone should go to jail.

          Seismic testing around the world has been controversial everywhere it has taken place. Unfortunately definitive data proving ecological harm is  scarce as little research has been done to monitor and document its effects. Presently seismic testing is being done off the coast of Peru by a US company, that has assured the Peruvian government that seismic testing has no impact on the marine environment. Curiously within weeks of the start of testing hundreds of dead dolphins started washing up on the beaches, hundreds more were observed at sea. It must have been some renegade fishermen and their walls of death.

But enough about mammals, Australian  fishermen have watched as their scallop beds have died a few months after seismic testing took place. It seems the testing weakened their immune system and they then succumbed to disease.  The scallop industry in the Mid Atlantic is the largest and most profitable in the region with an  annual dockside value in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Economic multipliers taking into account the cost of the scallop from the sea to the dinner plate is over a billion annually.

          70 percent of the summer flounder quota  is allocated to the states from NJ to North Carolina. This ranges from 6 to 12 million pounds a year, 10 to 20 million dollars annually. Loligo and Illexx squid are major fisheries in the mid atlantic, with annual landings of 20 to 50 million pounds each. Squid have been shown to be affected by high frequency sound waves,  and suffer disorientation, sensory problems and susceptibility to predation because of them.  These are just a few of the fish species that fishermen will come knocking on your door seeking just compensation for. How about Bluefin tuna, red snapper, striped bass, weakfish, sea bass, surf clams, quahogs, grouper, mackerel, herring ect…  Research has also shown that fish eggs and larvae are also detrimentally impacted by seismic testing. 

Someone needs to explain how after 20 years of suffering from reduced catches due to government imposed regulations to restore our fish stocks, another government agency can come along and ruin our sacrifices in an instant.  I sure hope you indemnify this project with a ton of money, you’re going to need it. And I  haven’t  even mentioned the potential impacts on the recreational sector. Just double the number and you’re  in the ballpark.

I would be remiss if I didn’t question why we even need to do this testing, There is an estimated 60 day supply of oil on the whole of the east coast, and that is estimated to be able to reduce the price of gas by 3 cents in 20 years. Goldman Sachs will guarantee we never see a penny of that difference. Lastly there has to be a better less environmentally destructive way of  searching for oil and gas deposits then air gun testing.  Think about this, if I were to light off an M80  explosive in this building every 10 seconds you would all run as quickly away as you can, possibly with hearing damage, and I would be arrested.  Air gun testing is equivalent to that example, only many of the sea creatures cannot run away and predictably will die.  The few survivors will probably die in a few years from an oil spill. There has to be a better way.

Much has been written about Whole Foods Market's decision to stop selling "red-rated" seafood. And the opposition of many New England fishermen to this decision has been widely reported. But the problem is not Whole Foods' decision to sell sustainable seafood, which is commendable. The problem is that Whole Foods is buying fish based on the on often-biased and frequently out-of-date rankings from Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Blue Ocean Institute. That ignores information from credible universities and institutions, as well as the latest government statistics.

By law, all American-caught seafood must be managed so that it is sustainable. We have the most stringent laws in the world. The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that all American fisheries must be returned to a state of "not overfished," where "overfishing is not occurring." At the same time, we import 85 percent of our seafood, including product from nations with less-stringent regulations. We have seen product imported under unsanitary conditions. And, as the Boston Globe reported in its award-winning series, mislabeling remains a widespread problem among some imports.

Since the United States has the most stringent fishing laws in the world, those who support sustainability should encourage the purchase and consumption of American product. A correctly implemented plan would achieve that end. But Whole Foods has chosen to use the rankings of just one organization; an organization that purports to uphold high standards of accuracy, but often doesn't.

For example, thanks to years of cooperation between the industry, scientists and regulators, the Atlantic sea scallop has recovered and is widely regarded as the poster child for sustainability. A well-designed rating system would reflect that. But the Blue Ocean Institute rates Atlantic sea scallops as "yellow," the mid-range of their rating system. They rate farmed Chinese and Mexican scallops as "green," their highest rating. However, the information they use to determine this rating is not comprehensive, and ignores important facts.

Blue Ocean gives scallops the lowest rating for fishing gear impacts because they say ,"The main adverse environmental effects from dredging and trawling are degradation of the seafloor, sediment suspension, change in chemical makeup of sediments and overlying water, and alteration of benthic communities." But they ignore how quickly the habitats recover. A study by the UMass School for Marine Science and Technology in New Bedford (Stokesbury et al., 2004) found the highest concentrations of scallops on sea floors made up of sand and granule pebbles. These habitats routinely endure a great deal of natural disturbance from currents and storms, and naturally recover quickly.

By Richard Gaines

The Walton Family Foundation has announced making $71 million in conservation grants last year, including more than $13 million to the Environmental Defense Fund, the nonprofit giant with which it joined in producing a controversial 2008 paper on fisheries to push the controversial catch share fishery management system.

In a press release issued last Wednesday — three days after The New York Times published a massive expose of corporate corruption by Walmart in Mexico and a cover-up at headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. — the $3.5 billion foundation controlled by descendants of the retailing colossus linked their grants together by the term "conservationomics."

The Walton foundation has given EDF, the driving force behind fishing's catch shares, more than $40 million in the five years beginning with 2007.

In a release, Scott Burns, environmental focus area director for the foundation, defined it to mean "that conservation solutions (that) will last are the ones that make economic sense."

But outside the foundation, EDF, which has had a corporate partnership with Walmart since 2005, and the minority within the fishing industry that has taken grants from EDF, the Obama administration's catch share policy, adopted as if the paper "Oceans of Abundance" were a economic engineering blueprint, is seen as a hyped-up excuse to replace the local, owner-operator business model still prevalent in most U.S. fisheries with one that better integrates global marketing principles, including investor-inviting consolidation.

Critics cite the elimination of family-owned farms and mom-and-pop shops as indicators of where the catch share policy, promoted in "Oceans of Abundance" by the Walton Family Foundation, EDF and their partners, will take the nation's fisheries.

"'Oceans of Abundance' is propaganda," Brian Rothschild, the distinguished marine scientist at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "It's hard to know where to start critiquing it, there are so many misleading statements."

Among the wildest were claims that "scientists report 90 percent of large fish" are gone, and a "scientific consensus" that due to the fundamental alternation of ecosystems by fishing, seas "are increasingly likely to yield massive swarms of jellyfish rather than food fish."

Both claims woven together by the authors — including Jane Lubchenco, who was then a marine scientist at Oregon State University and an EDF board director, and would be named by President Obama to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and implement EDF's catch share proposal — have been widely rebutted and refuted.

By Associated Press

BOSTON — U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is again calling for renewed bipartisanship and civility in government.

Brown told students and teachers at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston on Wednesday that "basic respect across party lines" is needed to avoid "bad laws and a lot of ill will."

The speech was also designed to emphasize a campaign theme of "Americans First" that echoes a radio ad Brown unveiled on Tuesday

In that 60-second ad, Brown says that one of his proudest days was standing with Democratic President Obama as he signed Brown’s "Hire A Hero" bill, which offers tax credits to businesses that hire veterans. Brown mentioned the bill in his speech.

Brown is in a tight race with Democratic rival Elizabeth Warren. Speaking with reporters after his speech, he called Warren elitist for some of her views

By Hillary Chabot and Chris Cassidy

Fending off questions about whether she used her Native American heritage to advance her career, Elizabeth Warren said yesterday she enrolled as a minority in law school directories for nearly a decade because she hoped to meet others with tribal roots.

"I listed myself in the directory in the hopes that it might mean that I would be invited to a luncheon, a group, something that might happen with people who are like I am," Warren said. "Nothing like that ever happened, that was clearly not the use for it, and so I stopped checking it off."

Measured by any meaningful criteria the Keep Fishermen Fishing rally held on the steps of the Capitol on March 21 was a stunning success. It was attended by thousands of fishermen from as far away as Alaska, twenty one Senators and Members of the House of Representatives, and at least a half a dozen other VIPs made room in their busy schedules to come out and address the people who attended.

From the most conservative of the conservatives to the most liberal of the liberals, these politically divergent speakers had one message; fix the Magnuson Act and bring back the balance between conservation and harvest.

For the second time at the national level recreational and commercial fishermen - no matter what fisheries they participated in, no matter what their disagreements on allocation or lesser issues were, and no matter where they were from – were standing together and demanding a return to the original intent of the Magnuson Act; that independent fishermen regain the significant role they once played in Magnuson management which has been pre-empted by environmental extremists, the bureaucrats who seem to be at their beck and call, and their pet “fishermen.”

But, and this will come as no surprise to anyone with a knowledge of the hundreds of millions of dollars that a handful of charitable foundations have been shoveling into the coffers of what can only be described as anti-fishing ENGOs (for an idea of their contributions, visit The Big Green Money Machine at http://www.fishtruth.net), there were isolated voices raised both pre- and post-rally distorting the purpose of the rally and the single unifying message of Keep Fishermen Fishing. There was also a paucity of coverage in the main stream media, which might be understandable considering there were no crises involved (other than the manufactured world crisis in fishing), no angry confrontations and no civil or uncivil disobedience.

Just a bunch of hard working people who invested their own time and money into trekking to Washington to voice their dissatisfaction with job-killing federal fisheries policies and their elected officials who have taken their dissatisfaction seriously and intend to do something about it.

Who were these people who objected to the rally?

http://www.fishnet-usa.com/Their%20Masters%20Voice.pdf

By Marla Lehner

The cameras document the highs and lows of crab fishing on Deadliest Catch – but there are things even the camera can't quite capture for viewers.

"A few things that the camera doesn't see are smells. Smells are the big thing," says Captain Scott Campbell Jr., one of the Discovery Channel show's newest and youngest stars, who describes the stench of dead fish and sweaty, un-showered deckhands as the worst offenders.

Oh, and the true sensation of being constantly thrown up and down by the enormous waves on the Bering Sea is also hard to convey on screen. "The waves, when you're going up and down, 40-feet up and down," says Captain Johnathan Hillstrand. "[Viewers] don't know that feeling."

According to the two captains, the hardest part, though, is being confined to a small space for long periods of time.

"After three months, it's a little too long to be on a boat," says Hillstrand, who helms the Time Bandit. "It's like being in jail, but you're going to make a lot of money."

Campbell Jr. agrees: "That's the difference between actually going to jail and being a crab fisherman – they both are about the most miserable thing in the world, but when you go crab fishing you actually get a paycheck when you get out."

Deadliest Catch airs Tuesdays (9 p.m. ET) on Discovery Channel.

Watch the video.

By DAVID GOODHUE

Legal staff from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration went on a three-day conference in Philadelphia this week, but no one from the agency will say what the meeting’s purpose was, why the location was chosen and how much it cost taxpayers.

The meeting has raised red flags within the agency, according to sources close to NOAA law enforcement, especially in the wake of the recent scandal plaguing the General Services Administration. That agency, which handles much of the federal government's procurement, came under intense fire after it was revealed that 300 of its employees went on an extravagant trip to Las Vegas, Nev., in 2010, costing taxpayers more than $820,000.

Two sources familiar with the NOAA Office of the General Counsel trip, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meeting's location may look suspicious, since there are no NOAA facilities in Philadelphia other than weather stations. This means the cost of the trip -- hotel rooms, meals, travel -- would be paid for by the public.

The conference was held at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel from Monday through today.

Adam Issenberg, a section chief with the General Counsel's Fisheries and Protective Resources Section, said Tuesday that the conference was taking place but that he "is not in a position to speak" to the press about the nature of the meeting.

Issenberg referred questions to NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen, who did not return e-mails or a phone call by press time Tuesday. The Reporter/Keynoter also e-mailed three other NOAA spokespeople Monday and Tuesday with questions about the conference. Those e-mails were not returned by Tuesday afternoon.

By Richard Gaines

In a letter to Commerce Secretary John Bryson, Massachusetts' U.S. senators and four representatives Tuesday asked for an emergency increase in the size of the Georges Bank yellowtail flounder catch limit, which has been pared by more than 50 percent based on an update of the 2008 benchmark assessment showing a shrinkage in the biomass of the prized flatfish.

The industry was facing a cut in the total allowable catch of Georges Bank yellowtail as high as 80 percent before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday it would allow groundfishing boats to land yellowtail not caught as bycatch for the scallop boats.

Even with the excess bycatch from the scallop fishery, the groundfishing fleet working offshore faces a 61 percent cut, which could make yellowtail a "choke" stock and bar landings of other stocks once the yellowtail limit were reached.

Signed by Sens. John Kerry and Scott Brown and Congressmen John Tierney, Barney Frank, Stephen Lynch and William Keating, the letter went out to Bryson at the opening of the third year of a regulatory system that promised conservation and prosperity but so far has produced mysterious scientific evidence of widespread losses in biomass across much of the groundfishery and consolidation of the fleet.

Urged on by NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, the New England Fishery Management Council opted to launch a commodities market "catch share" fishery in May 2010, just as the industry faced statutory catch limits and impending 10-year deadlines for reconstruction of weakened stocks.

The congressional delegation also urged Bryson to "begin forming a joint agency working group similar to that convened to address the recent crisis in the reductions of Gulf of Maine cod," and said the National Marine Fisheries Service should "explore every option available to maximize the allowable catch of Georges Bank yellowtail stocks."

The letter also raised suspicion that NOAA's stock data based in large part on trawl surveys has become skewed via the replacement of the former survey vessel, Albatross, by a new $54 million research vessel, the Henry B. Bigelow.

Yet let's never forget that NOAA and its parent U.S. Department of Commerce have not only refused to grant the very realistic economic disaster declaration sought by Gov. Deval Patrick and backed by U.S. Sen John Kerry and others. Commerce officials, following true to the form of NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, haven't even shown the respect or decency to respond to the requests.

And let's especially not forget the most shameless slap in the face to fishermen and their backers, inside and outside Congress and state houses around New England and beyond. That's the fact that this fishery "crisis" — supposedly in cod, yellowtail and now even sturgeon, a fish that's suddenly been declared an endangered species without NOAA undertaking a single trawl study or other stock assessment — is an economic disaster that's been created by NOAA from the start.

That's right, folks. Our own federal government — led, of course, by a president who continues to stress his purported push for "jobs, jobs, jobs" — is the single driving force in the absolute decimation of fishermen's and other waterfront jobs, and the hits those policies have wreaked on fishing communities such as Gloucester, New Bedford and so many others.

The truth is, there remain dire questions about the research that led to the latest cod and yellowtail numbers, and the endangered species protections accorded the ancient sturgeon without a single stock assessment reiterates what many have long realized — that NOAA is willing to regulate based on pure science fiction if it brings the result Lubchenco and her corporately-backed nonprofit groups want.

By Howie Carr

Who can forget Elizabeth Warren’s “rise from poverty.” That hasn’t been mentioned much since we found out that by 1965, her family had three cars, one of which was Granny’s white MG, a car that was, the Globe sadly informed us, “beat up.”

And you say Pocahontas Warren hasn’t got a right to sing the blues?

Then there was Granny’s $168,000 gig working for Travelers Insurance when they were trying to fend off lawsuits from victims of asbestos poisoning. Kind of like Deval Patrick being on the board of subprime monster Ameriquest, or Barack’s dealings with convicted racketeer Tony Rezko.

All of them, they’re better than you, because you’re an oppressor. They’re the oppressed — they went to Harvard Law.

By Richard Gaines

The 2012 fishing cycle dawns today, less than a week after the other shoe has dropped on the New England groundfishery.

The first shoe was the 22 percent in the allowable catch of Gulf of Maine cod, a fishery based in Gloucester, which will be followed by even more extreme measures in coming years, after a benchmark stock assessment last year overturned optimistic findings from a 2007 stock assessment.

The other shoe, outlined last week, is an 80 percent cut in the allowable catch of Georges Bank yellowtail flounder, a fishery based in New Bedford, after an updated assessment.

Together, the constrictions threaten to strangle the oldest industry in America, one which began in Gloucester in 1623 and has continued unabated ever since, albeit in a constantly evolving form.

"An 80 percent cut in yellowtail is a bigger crisis for the draggers of New Bedford than Gulf of Maine cod is for Gloucester," said Richie Canastra, owner of the region's dominant fish auction, which is based in New Bedford, and treasurer of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, which is the region's largest industry group and based in Gloucester.

"We're set for a disaster for the industry," he added in a telephone interview.

Canastra said he doubts the accuracy of the trawl survey on which the yellowtail catch limit was based.

"It all comes back to NOAA research vessel Bigelow," which took over from the Albatross three years ago, he said. "Yesterday, a dragger came in to port (New Bedford) with 40,000 pounds of yellowtail."

The trawl surveys, which are done in the spring and fall, have become an increasingly dominant element in the formula used to determine the vitality of stocks. Since 2004, the ratio of weight given to the survey versus the catch reports of the fleet has tilted toward the trawl survey.

In 2004, Canastra said, the Georges Bank yellowtail assessment formula weighed catch to survey at a 40 to 60 ratio.

The ratio has been regularly weighted more heavily toward the survey until last year — the year on which the 80 percent cut in the catch is based. It was 10 to 90, with the landings counting for the smaller percentage and the trawl survey counting for the 90 percent.

By John Laidler

A federal agency’s decision to close part of the Gulf of Maine to gillnets each October and November starting this fall in order to reduce harbor porpoise deaths is drawing protests from local fishermen.

The National Marine Fisheries Service said it was required to take the action because the number of porpoises dying as a result of being ensnared in gillnets - fixed lines placed on the ocean floor - exceeds rates set under a 2010 management plan.

But the ruling is raising alarm among commercial gillnet fishermen, who said it will only add to the economic stress they are facing because of other regulatory moves in recent years.

Most of those gillnetters belong to Sector 3, a cooperative in Gloucester with 34 members, according to Jackie Odell, executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, which represents commercial groundfishermen from Maine to Long Island.

“They are furious,’’ Odell said of the gillnetters. “We are trying to get more flexibility for fishermen to be able to fish in times and in areas where groundfish stocks are located and abundant and where there are healthy stocks like pollock. . . . This goes completely contrary to all we are working on.’’

Odell warned that the closure could have a “tremendous impact on the day boat fishermen who are already tremendously impacted’’ by other rules.

Harbor porpoises, a protected species under the federal Marine Mammal Act, inhabit ocean waters extending from Nova Scotia to North Carolina, according to David Gouveia, coordinator of the marine mammal and sea turtle conservation program for the National Marine Fisheries Services northeast regional office in Gloucester.

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) May 1, 2012 -- Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown, together with Congressmen Barney Frank, John Tierney, Stephen Lynch, and William Keating have written to the Secretary of Commerce asking for the following:

An emergency regulation to temporarily allocate a higher allocation for yellowtail in this fishing year.

Additional funding beyond what has been announced from the scallop set-aside program for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) on their yellowtail avoidance program.

Direct the New England Fishery Management Council to maintain the yellowtail quota given to scallopers to ensure their continued participation in the avoidance program and not provide a disincentive to participation by decreasing the scalloper quota based on the program's avoidance success.

Explore any further flexibility the International Fisheries Clarification Act might provide and look at the possibility of increasing the yellowtail TAC toward the high end of the allowable range.   

Implement a side-by-side trawl survey tows using a commercial vessel to compare data from the research vessel Bigelow and provide a more reliable assessment of this species, because they have been advised by experts that the "four seam bottom trawl equipped with a rockhopper sweep" is not the most efficient means of catching groundfish.
 
The text of the letter follows:

Oh Liz, Liz, my heart is broken.

We on the Estrogen Express thought we’d finally found our Golden Girl.

And now?

This could be your Seamus moment.

This could be the beginning of your end — like when Rim Tim Tim Murray rope-a-doped about releasing his cellphone calls.

I just can’t shake the ridiculous image of you, Liz — a blue-eyed blonde almost as pasty white as me — letting yourself be described as a minority professor, a Native American, for years.

You’ve played the Indian card. You’ve grabbed for minority cred without enduring the minority grief. It’s poached diversity. It’s glommed onto, what, five generations removed, assuming there were some facts way, way back when, as your campaign aides claimed last night.

How long before wise guys in feathered headdresses start dancing around parking lots at your events? Somebody told me yesterday your campaign needs to lie low and “circle the wagons.” Whoops. That same someone quickly realized it was the pioneers who circled the wagons when your Cherokee ancestors were blazing across the prairie on the warpath

BY JIM HADDADIN
PORTSMOUTH — By boat, by car and on foot, local Democrats gathered at the commercial fishing pier in Portsmouth on Monday to make themselves heard during an appearance by Republican Mitt Romney.

Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, campaigned at the Portsmouth Fishing Pier on Monday with Sen. Kelly Ayotte.

As early as 8 a.m., more than two hours before Romney's scheduled appearance, about a dozen supporters of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign had gathered on the sidewalks lining the road to the fishing pier, chanting intermittently and holding signs in support of Obama.

At about 9:30 a.m., a contingent of seven Obama supporters advanced to the center of a small bridge overlooking the fishing pier and began hollering "flip-flop" toward the empty stage — an apparent effort to lampoon Romney.

They were eventually asked to exit from the bridge by security personnel in anticipation of the appearance, which was attended by tight security.

Among the Romney opponents in attendance Monday was Hampton resident Marcella Quandt, who held a tall, wooden paddle with at least four Obama campaign posters affixed to it. Quandt said she holds liberal beliefs on social issues and is fiscally moderate, but began supporting Democrats when the country waged war in Iraq, and wanted to show her support for the president.

Members of the group Americans United for Change maneuvered a small boat into the waters near the fishing pier during Romney's appearance, according to member Lauren Weiner, who provided a photograph of the vessel via email after Romney's speech. They carried a sign that read "Mitt is Bad 4 NH."

In an early morning appearance at the fishing pier, Portsmouth Rep. Terie Norelli, the Democratic minority leader of the New Hampshire House, also offered a rebuke of Romney's "budget-busting" policies.

Ticking off a list of her concerns, Norelli highlighted Romney's support for the budget advanced by Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, Romney's efforts to "cut health care services for women," and to "eliminate Planned Parenthood," and his support of tax breaks for wealthy Americans.

By contrast, Norelli said, the president is implementing policies that will foster an "economy that's built to last."

Romney and Ayotte were surrounded by more than a dozen local fishermen, and used the setting to highlight new limits on commercial fishing that went into effect in 2010.
With the masts of fishing vessels bobbing behind him, Romney explained that fishermen are suffering both from strict limitations from the government and the rising price of fuel. Romney said commercial fishermen burn an average of about 100 gallons of diesel fuel a day, and the president's reluctance to tap the country's oil resources will only exacerbate the price increases.

“We need a President who understands the power of free enterprise because he's lived it, and I have, and I will, and I'll make sure that's part of our future,” Romney said.

Ayotte, who endorsed Romney early in the presidential nominating process, is one of a few more than a dozen Republicans Romney has said he would consider as a potential running mate.

Romney also recently appeared with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, another lawmaker rumored to be on his short list.
Ayotte has co-sponsored legislation with Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown that would potentially scrap the new fishery management regulations that went into affect in New England in May 2010.

“Make no mistake,” Ayotte said. “Commercial fishing is part of the heart and soul of New Hampshire's economy, but more importantly, it's who we are. And maybe the bureaucrats in the Obama administration don't understand that, but thank God Mitt Romney does.”

Instead of limiting the number of working days available to commercial fishermen, the new management system requires fishermen to purchase permits and tally their catches of different fish species, such as cod and flounder, to avoid hitting a regional quota.

The system, which was implemented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has been met with resentment by some fishermen in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Among them are many small commercial fishing boat operators, who argue the regulations favor large fishing fleets, which can secure more permits and better adapt to the catch share system.

Five months after federal catch shares went into effect, 55 out of the original 500 boats in the New England fishery controlled 61 percent of the revenue, according to information provided last year by Ayotte's office.

Capt. Ford owns and operates a trawler that can no longer sell to Whole Foods Market. He wrote this letter to Whole Foods last November upon learning that they decided to implement their new purchasing policy this year instead of in 2013.  Captain Ford views the ratings of Monterey Bay Aquarium and Blue Ocean Institute as inconsistent, noting that gill nets, which are considered acceptable in the ratings, have issues with marine mammal captures.

By DON CUDDY
doncuddy@s-t.com
April 28, 2012 - 12:00 AM

NEW BEDFORD — Fishermen and industry leaders in New Bedford predict that cutting the allowable yellowtail flounder catch by 80 percent will have disastrous effects on the New Bedford groundfish fleet, and they say flawed science, rather than depleted stocks, has created the crisis.

"This is a bigger disaster for New Bedford than the Gulf of Maine cod crisis is for the Gloucester fleet," said Richie Canastra, co-owner of BASE New England, the seafood display auction. "This will close down the sectors, plus the boats that were not fishing and leased out their quota will have to liquidate."

He cited one boat owner who leased 30,000 pounds of yellowtail quota for $1 per pound last year.

"He only got 4,000 pounds this year," Canastra said. "He'd need $10 a pound just to stay in the game."

Yellowtail landings account for roughly 20 percent of groundfish revenue in New Bedford, according to Canastra. Through February this year, more than 1.5 million pounds of yellowtail were landed here, and this year's quota is 565,000 pounds, he said.

News of the cuts emerged Wednesday evening at the New England Fishery Management Council meeting in Mystic, Conn., just days before the new fishing year begins on May 1. The news caught many in the industry by surprise.

"We expected some reduction," said New Bedford seafood consultant Jim Kendall. "But we were thinking maybe 15 percent."

The drastic cut has angered fishery insiders who have repeatedly questioned the reliability of the stock estimates derived from the NOAA trawl surveys.

"First, it was pollock, then Gulf of Maine cod and now it's yellowtail estimates that were revised," Kendall said. "The common denominator for me is the Bigelow," he said, referring to the survey vessel operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fishery science center in Woods Hole. "They are using roller gear."

Fishermen know that rollers on the net bottom allow flat fish to escape beneath it, he said. Flat fish include flounder.

On the waterfront, fishermen were equally taken aback by the reduction in quota. "If we can't catch yellowtail, then we'll have to stay off Georges Bank because you can't catch flounder without catching yellowtail," said Sean Machie, captain of the 76-foot steel dragger Apollo.

By John Zaremba

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is vowing a “full-court press” on federal fishing regulators to seek relief for New England groundfishing fleets facing an 80 percent cut in the amount of yellowtail flounder they’re allowed to catch.

“I am deeply concerned about the recent yellowtail news,” Brown said. “That, combined with Gulf of Maine cod and the ongoing struggles under catch-shares, could mean a devastating year for Massachusetts fishermen.”

Brown, U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank are expected to make a joint statement on the regulations next week.

By Chris Cassidy

Despite claiming she never used her Native American heritage when applying for a job, Elizabeth Warren’s campaign admitted last night the Democrat listed her minority status in professional directories for years when she taught at the University of Texas and the University of Pennsylvania.

From 1986 to 1995, Warren’s name is included in the Association of American Law Schools’ annual directory of minority law teachers, according to records obtained by the Herald.

“This story raises serious questions about Elizabeth Warren’s credibility. The record now shows Prof. Warren did claim to be a ‘minority,’ and that she attempted to mislead the public about these facts when she was first asked about the issue last week,” said Brown spokesman Jim Barnett. “Prof. Warren needs to come clean about her motivations for making these claims and explain the contradictions between her rhetoric and the record.”

But the Warren campaign insisted the candidate did nothing wrong

By Howie Carr

Her campaign is still looking for “evidence.” In the meantime they’ll be praying the story goes to the Happy Hunting Ground, just like her demands to a New York reporter that her $1.7 million teepee in Cambridge be considered “off the record.”

The fact is, you can’t get much lower than being accused of being a fake Indian. It puts you in the same category as that pony-tailed fraud from the University of Colorado, Ward Churchill. You remember, the fake Indian who said all the people murdered in the World Trade Center on 9/11 were “little Eichmanns.”

Now she claims she doesn’t “recall” if she played the race card when she applied for her big-wampum $350,000-a-year job at Harvard Law. You see, it was so many moons — I mean years, ago. Sounds like a lot of bull — Sitting Bull.

I rarely agree with Michael Conathan's views as far as fishing industry policy.

We have different perspectives on policy, and other fishery related issues, but as always with ENGO's the articles seem to come in batches on the subject of the moment.

 A well cordinated campaign blitz of the Environmental Journalist Society is usually implemented for complete saturation of the media.

Whole Foods Market announced earlier this month it will stop selling fish caught that is not deemed as "sustainable," or that is caught by what the Texas-based grocery chain says are ecologically damaging methods, including octopus, gray sole, skate, Atlantic halibut and Atlantic cod reeled in by trawlers.

 U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is asking Whole Foods to reconsider a decision to no longer sell seafood that it doesn't consider sustainable.

In a letter to Whole Foods co-CEOs John Mackey and Walter Robb, Brown said Monday he was concerned the decision has more to do with political correctness than sound reasoning.

The Massachusetts Republican questioned what he called "uncertain science," and said the decision will hurt Massachusetts fishermen.

From MichaelConathan

In recent weeks some of the nation’s biggest media outlets have turned their eyes toward seafood sustainability—a subject that can be as slippery and tough to pin down as a fish flopping across the deck of a pitching and rolling fishing boat.

As consumers and corporate buyers allow sustainability ratings to drive more of their purchasing choices, it's becoming increasingly important to know who is doing the rating and how they're arriving at their decisions. The ultimate goal of such programs is to allow the market to drive behavior; in this case, the manner in which fishermen go about the business of fishing. But if doing so makes it impossible for fishermen to maintain their business, then the ratings are forfeiting one of the inherent goals of sustainability: the availability of fish over the long term.

David Goethel, a member of the New England fishery management council, touting the stringency of U.S. fishery management, arguably the strongest in the world, and suggesting “using the word ‘sustainable,’ maybe it looks good in your advertising. But, without being too harsh, [the word] means absolutely nothing.” 

In an interview with Boston’s WBUR radio, chef and National Geographic fellow Barton Seaver said, “We're talking about a human product. As much as we talk about sustainable seafood, let's talk about sustainable fishermen. Because of all the charismatic species on the redlist, those in most danger, fishermen are right up there.”

By Steve Urbon

NEW BEDFORD — Sharp restrictions on catching yellowtail flounder in the coming year will cause heavy economic damage to the fishing ports of the Northeast, say those affected.

But at this point no one appears to have a good grasp of how the loss of yellowtail allocation will ripple through the industry.

Vito Giacalone, analyst for the Northeast Seafood Coalition, based in Gloucester, said the New England Fishery groundfish catch could drop by half, or $30 million.

The Commerce Department shocked the industry this week by announcing that the allocation of yellowtail for the year starting May 1 would be 218 metric tons. (A metric ton is about 2,200 pounds.)

In the current year, the groundfish fleet working Georges Bank landed about 1,140 metric tons.

Losing four-fifths of the catch will cost roughly $2 million at the dock, said Dr. Brian Rothschild of the UMass School of Marine Science and Technology.

By the time it makes its way through the economy its net effect will be $8 million, Rothschild said.

Richard Canastra, owner of the New Bedford Seafood Display Auction, said that boats fishing for other species may get caught by the yellowtail restrictions. “The Georges Bank flounder boats won’t be able to catch them without catching yellowtail.” If they have to stop, ”that will be millions,” he said.

The same applies to skate fishermen, he said.

Canastra said there is a likelihood that fresh fish will disappear from the markets. “For the fish that are brought in, the price is going to be higher. But there won’t be much around,” he said.

“Domestic fish processors will fill in with previously frozen (fish) while they wait for the availability of yellowtail,” he said.

Catherine O’Keefe, a research assistant at SMAST, said that the scallop fleet should be able to fish as usual in the coming year since its yellowtail allocation was adequate.

But after that, there have been no allocations and the potential for trouble is unknown.

Scallopers routinely catch yellowtail as bycatch, although in recent years a system developed at SMAST has made it possible for boats to report yellowtail hot spots so other boats can avoid them, sharply reducing bycatch

By Hillary Chabot and Matt Stout

Elizabeth Warren said yesterday she is “proud” of her Native American heritage and indicated she had no problem with Harvard Law School using her roots to claim her as a diversity hire, but her campaign still could not produce documents proving her lineage.

“I am very proud of my Native American heritage, thank you,”

They said the Delaware Tribe that Warren is from had become assimilated, and because of that there is lax record-keeping.

Warren, who said she was told through family lore that her maternal parents were from the Cherokee and Delaware tribes, said she could not “recall” ever listing her Native American background when applying for college or a job.

Chris Miller, a secretary with the Delaware Tribe in Oklahoma, said he could not find Elizabeth Herring or Elizabeth Warren listed in the tribe’s official records.

By Richard Gaines

It has been more than five months since Gov. Deval Patrick, backed by Sen. John Kerry and the state's heavily Democratic congressional delegation, approached the Obama administration to get a federal fisheries disaster declaration.

Notwithstanding NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco's assurance to the Senate Commerce Committee in October that "we can turn it around quickly," the governor's Nov. 15 filing has gone unanswered, with no explanation from Commerce Secretary John Bryson — or from Patrick, who agreed in February to co-chair President Obama's re-election campaign.

The state's request for the administration to recognize that transformation of the groundfishery into a catch shares quota trading system has become a government-issue economic calamity reputedly backed by two scientific studies. The first concluded that most of the groundfishing business hadn't broken even in the first year of Amendment 16, which contains the catch share framework; the other was a case study showing hardship concentrated in the smallest of owner-operated fishing boat businesses, spread throughout secondary ports between Gloucester and New Bedford.

Since then, the economic condition and prospects of the Northeast groundfishery have only worsened, with a dire Gulf of Maine cod assessment bringing on an interim 22 percent cut in the total allowable catch for the 2012 fishing cycle that begins on Tuesday, and discouraging updates of past assessments assuring widespread constrictions next year in catch limits for groundfish stocks in Georges Bank.

Combined with dramatic cuts in the coming year in Georges Bank yellowtail — a core stock and potential impediment as bycatch to scalloping, New Bedford's golden egg-laying goose — and even deeper and wider cod cuts expected in 2013, the industry finds itself propelled by government policy and science onto an accelerating downward cycle.

The three-day meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council that ended Thursday in Mystic, Conn., was a compendium of discouragement, according to Jackie Odell, executive director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, the region's largest non-profit industry group.

In an email from Mystic Thursday, Odell listed the impediments that have combined into a "resource disaster and fishery disaster."

By Colleen King and Eric Colvin

OCEAN COUNTY — Local fishermen and environmental protection groups are joining forces to protest the proposed seismic surveys planned from Florida to the Delaware Bay, which have the potential to damage local marine life and marine ecosystems.

The seismic surveys involve towing airgun arrays behind survey ships, and regularly and repeatedly blasting sound waves through the ocean and deep into the ocean floor to pinpoint locations of sub-seabed oil and gas deposits.

Recently, the United States Department of the Interior announced it was taking steps to assess the conventional and renewable energy resource potential in the Mid and South Atlantic.

“For the first time in over 25 years, the Atlantic Ocean is under the gun,” said Cindy Zipf, executive director of COA. “We must not sacrifice the region’s vibrant, clean ocean economy as the mainstay of the Atlantic seaboard — it’s killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

“The [federal] administration is searching for oil in all the wrong places under the pretense of reducing gasoline prices,” Ms. Zipf continued.

The New England Fishery Management Council, not to mention fishermen out of Gloucester and across the region, have a new obstacle to face when they begin the new fishing year next Tuesday. And this one's spawned from a NOAA decision that may truly mark a new low, even for an agency with virtually no credibility left.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has declared the Atlantic sturgeon as an endangered species, and that bodes badly for fishermen across the region.

It's not that New England fishermen are illegally hauling in a lot of sturgeon. But the declaration also means that fishermen cannot haul up sturgeon in their bycatch — the fish that nets accidentally snag when fishermen are targeting other species. And that may mean dire new limits on the catches for other species in the sturgeon's habitat, which ranges up and down the Atlantic coast.

Now, you might think that, to issue the endangered declaration, NOAA would have solid data regarding the sturgeon population, indicating the need for such a job- and even industry-killing step.

But this is NOAA — and you would think wrong

By Hillary Chabot

Elizabeth Warren’s avowed Native American heritage — which the candidate rarely if ever discusses on the campaign trail — was once touted by embattled Harvard Law School officials who cited her claim as proof of their faculty’s diversity.

Warren’s claim, which surfaced yesterday after a Herald inquiry, put the candidate in an awkward position as campaign aides last night scrambled but failed to produce documents proving her family lineage. Aides said the tales of Warren’s Cherokee and Delaware tribe ancestors have been passed down through family lore.

“Like most Americans, Elizabeth learned of her heritage through conversations with her grandparents, her parents, and her aunts and uncles,” said Warren’s strategist Kyle Sullivan

The Ivy League law school prominently touted Warren’s Native American background, however, in an effort to bolster their diversity hiring record in the ’90s as the school came under heavy fire for a faculty that was then predominantly white and male

Thomas "Tommy" Marth, 33, who played saxophone on live tours with The Killers between 2008 and 2010 and on their albums "Sam's Town" and "Day & Age," was found dead on Monday.

His death has been ruled a suicide by officials in Clark County, Nevada, where Las Vegas is located.

"Last night we lost our friend Thomas Marth. Our prayers are with his family. There's a light missing in Las Vegas tonight. Travel well, Tommy," The Killers posted on Twitter.

The Killers, made up of lead singer Brandon Flowers, guitarist Dave Keuning, bassist Mark Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci, rose to fame in 2004 with their debut album "Hot Fuss," and have gained global success with singles such as "Mr Brightside" and "When We Were Young."

Two story's. Two sources. One good, one not so good.

Is the glass half empty or half full, and does that depend on who's pouring it?

From the Boston Globe.

It’s not easy counting river herring. Occupational hazards include eye strain from staring at the same spot of water for 10 minutes, boredom when the fish aren’t there, and panic when they surge past in such high numbers that counting seems impossible. There’s also the occasionalaggressive swan or swooping seagull to contend with.

Being a herring is no piece of cake, either. Bowing to nature’s imperative, the fish migrate in the spring from the ocean back to their birthplaces in freshwater ponds up and down the East Coast - a course studded with such obstacles as hungry striped bass and cormorants, low water, trawlers’ nets, human poachers, manmade dams, and pollution.

“It certainly is a gantlet they have to run through,’’ said John Sheppard of the state Department of Marine Fisheries. “It’s almost like a war of attrition just to get to the spawning grounds.’’

This year, however, the herring are winning that battle, with record numbers of counters reporting thousands of fish.

At Weymouth’s herring run in Jackson Square, for example, the count was up to 200,000 as of April 20, and the season has weeks to go, according to town Herring Warden George Loring.

While far lower than the peak of 860,000 fish recorded in 1995, the count is on track to overtake last year’s approximately 260,000, he said. And that number was up from 80,000 in 2005.

“There have been some spectacular pulses of fish coming through [in Weymouth]. It’s just been shoulder-to-shoulder fish, if fish had shoulders,’’ said Scott Dowd, a freshwater biologist at New England Aquarium and member of the Weymouth Herring Committee.

The rest of the story. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/04/26/healthy_herring_numbers_in_weymouth_and_south_shore_are_a_good_sign/

From the Ellington - Somers CT Patch.

Forget the recent headlines suggesting that there is no decline in the numbers of alewives, the precious little forage fish that, along with its lookalike blueback herring cousin, underpins the marine food pyramid.

Alewives swarming up local rivers to spawn in recent weeks have inspired talk that the fish are as plentiful as in the past, but the runs are deceptive. To the contrary, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is investigating whether to afford protection to the alewife and bluebackherring, together called river herring, under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). A determination on whether to propose classification of the fish as ‘threatened” under the act may be made as early as this autumn.

“There is no evidence yet that there is a better alewife run than normal,” says Steve Gephard, veteran fisheries biologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEEP).

Low water has made fish more evident and warm weather not only triggered the run almost a monthearly but probably brought more people to waterside to see the fish as they moved up from the sea. An accurate assessment of the alewife run cannot be made until another month or more passes, says Gephard, who also notes that blueback herring begin spawning runs in May. Low water, due to lack of rain, may impede upstream traffic of the river herring, says Gephard. Beaver are building dams to raise water levels, creating another potential barrier, he adds.

The decline of river herring has been long in the making. River herring hatch upstream but mature in the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast, where they spend most of their lives. A classic tome on fisheries published in 1953, Fishes of the Gulf of Maine, notes that when Europeans arrived in New England, a stream without a river herring run was rare. Sharp declines in spawning runs were noted as far back as the 1940s. By the 20th century runs of millions of fish were a memory

The rest of the story. http://ellington-somers.patch.com/articles/river-herring-populations-teetering-on-the-brink-5e5ca59f

Both story's descibe actions taken to restore habitat, although the Globe article is more descriptive of steps taken to insure a healthy clean environment with a lot of volunteer pro- active effort.

Habitat and water quality is essential to spawning fish.

The Patch article is more typical of the run of the mill herring articles that are pushed by ENGO's such as Pew, which has waged a pointed attack campaign to blame ocean harvesters, while giving very little attention to habitat consideration's.

Last August, the Natural Resources Defense Council petitioned the NMFS to have river herring listed as “threatened” under the ESA.

Many conservation groups claim that the bycatch of river herring taken offshore by industrial-scale trawlers fishing for Atlantic herring is decimating mature river herring populations

 However, a study published in 2008 by the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries suggested that, while significant, the bycatch alone is not responsible for the plight of river herring.

It appears that the ENGO's prefer to continue the well coordinated attack on the herring fishery that had it's quota cut by 40% in 2010, by suing the NMFS, which is costing us money every time one of these groups has a concern, and they will always have some concern about some thing.

Is bringing suit the only purpose for their existence? If it is, lets start calling them what they really are.

Scummy lawyers looking for the next ambulance to chase. The next grift.

If they want to defend our resources, they should pullon a pair of boots and and clean some herring habitat, go after the municipality's that have allowed the habitat to degrade. Do something positive, instead draining the tax payers.

Pay them back for your organizations tax free status instead of screwing them twice.

By Richard Gaines

The New England Fishery Management Council Wednesday grappled with pending implementation of a NOAA decision to give Atlantic sturgeon the extreme protection of the Endangered Species Act all along the Atlantic coast.

Although there is not even a rough outline of the protective action, the development is destined to come at a heavy price paid by commercial fishermen, especially gillnetters, whose gear can snare the ancient giant that swims along the inshore waters and breeds in rivers.

Ron Smolowitz of the Fishery Survival Fund predicted an impact on commercial fishing that rivals the listing the "spotted owl" had on logging in the Pacific Northwest, making "protected habitat" of millions of acres.

NOAA estimates the survival rate of sturgeon hauled up in fishermen's bycatch — collateral fish pulled up when fishermen are targeting other species — is remarkably high, at roughly 80 percent from gillnets, 95 percent for sturgeon hauled up in trawl nets.

"I've probably caught two sturgeon in 35 years," said Richard Burgess, who owns and operates multiple gillnet boats based in Gloucester. "This year alone, our 36 boats (in the Gloucester gillnet sector) have released four to five alive."

Burgess said the last time he caught one was 2001.

"It was eight feet long, it took three of us to put it back live," he said. "They're strong as bulls and often break out of gillnets."

NOAA estimates the survival rate of sturgeon hauled up in fishermen's bycatch — collateral fish pulled up when fishermen are targeting other species — is remarkably high, at roughly 80 percent from gillnets, 95 percent for sturgeon hauled up in trawl nets.

Although there has never been a stock assessment for sturgeon, the listing decision was made Jan. 31 in response to a petition filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

By Richard Gaines

A U.S. Senate appropriations subcommittee has directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to use its revenue stream from seafood import duties — an estimated $119 million next year — on fisheries research, as the 1954 Saltonstall-Kennedy Act required and Sen. John Kerry requested.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science.

Her subcommittee wrote language into President Obama's $5.1 billion 2013 NOAA budget request that requires the agency to use all Saltonstall-Kennedy funding for "fishery activities related to cooperative research, annual stock assessments, survey and monitoring projects, interjurisdictional fisheries grants, and fish information networks."

"I'm deeply grateful to Sen. Mikulski for making this happen, because I wasn't willing to wait for passage of my Saltonstall-Kennedy bill to achieve its intended results," said Kerry in a prepared statement. "Using the Saltonstall-Kennedy funds for their intended purpose is a down payment on trust."

It could not be determined if and how the directed spending would alter NOAA budgetary priorities.

Although Congress over the decades has come to allow NOAA to spend Saltonstall-Kennedy monies for general operations, the agency has continued to budget for the specific purposes described in the subcommittee language.

Kerry and Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, co-filed legislation in March that restructures the original Saltonstall-Kennedy Act to work through the eight regional fishery management councils established in the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Act. Co-sponsors include Sens. Scott Brown and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

By Boston Herald Editorial Staff

President Barack Obama’s poll numbers are down among younger voters. So what’s a candidate for re-election to do?

Why, pander, naturally! And Obama did so expertly on Tuesday, hopping on to Air Force One for yet another one of his campaign swings that masquerade as official business.

Obama pointed the presidential jet in the direction of college campuses in swing states, where he held de facto students-for-Obama rallies, demonized Republicans for plotting to increase the cost of a college education and even recruited Twitter followers to champion his cause

by Lisa Linowes

This month, two subcommittees of the House of Representatives Science, Space, and Technology Committee [1] held a joint hearing,  “Impact of Tax Policies on the Commercial Application of Renewable Energy Technology.”

I was one of nine witnesses testifying. In addition to myself, the let-the-market-decide witnesses were Dr. Benjamin Zycher, Visiting Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, Tax and Other Subsidies for Renewable Energy Should Be Abandoned; and Margo Thorning, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, American Council for Capital Formation (testimony here).

The subcommittee Republicans were prepared, well informed, and interested in drawing out the facts. The Democrats, on the defensive, complained that the hearing was happening, argued the subcommittees lacked the jurisdiction to hold the hearing, and claimed that renewables were being short-changed compared to oil and gas.

A summary of my testimony (full version here) follows:

By Anne Blythe / McClatchy Newspapers

GREENSBORO, N.C. — While John Edwards was in the last stages of his 2008 presidential campaign focusing on the poor, his pregnant mistress and political aide were exploring the wealthy upper side of Edwards’ "two Americas."

The first two days of testimony in the criminal trial of the one-time Democratic hopeful have focused on posh hotels and resorts, big houses in exclusive neighborhoods and the super rich who can dole out thousands of dollars on short notice

Andrew Young, the former campaign aide, was on the witness stand in a federal courtroom all Tuesday and much of Monday. His testimony has detailed how he spent the largesse of rich supporters first to mollify Edwards’ restless mistress, Rielle Hunter, and then to hide her from tabloid reporters once she became pregnant.

Young moved from house to house and hotel room to hotel room on a harried cross-country odyssey with a pregnant Hunter, his wife Cheri, and, for part of the journey, the three Young children.

They stayed in pricey hotel rooms and luxurious estates in Florida, California and the Colorado resort town of Aspen. They lived in the gated Governor’s Club in Chatham County, N.C., and eventually moved in to a $1.5 million house the Youngs built on a lot just outside Chapel Hill, N.C.

Young testified that Hunter insisted on staying in the best rooms of fancy hotels that had the "right energy." She shopped at Neiman Marcus and fancy food stores and had people run errands for her while living in exclusive neighborhoods. At one point, Young said, Hunter tried to arrange a deal so she could stay in a glitzy Aspen vacation home complete with a first-floor pool that lit up at night like the constellations

"I applaud Senator Kerry for his leadership on this issue and for making sure that this funding is used for its intended purpose - to help the fishing industry, not to cover NOAA's administrative overhead," said Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.  "We are at a critical juncture at which we absolutely must provide more funding for cooperative fisheries science so we can base management policies on sound data, and we should make good use of the world-class institutions in the Bay State, like SMAST, which have special expertise in this area."
Today, tensions between federal regulators and the fishing community have reached a boiling point. The emerging cod situation elevates the urgency of collaboration beyond any measure. If there is going to be a well-managed outcome to this situation, it hinges on a level of trust and partnership that has been so elusive in recent years. I believe the only appropriate option is to rapidly develop a response that is fair and sound and that our fishermen can trust.
 
Accordingly, I request that you provide $2 million within the Saltonstall-Kennedy Act funding, to develop a new Gulf of Maine Cod Assessment that fully includes fishermen in the process.  As you are aware, the 2008 Gulf of Maine Cod Assessment showed a stock level of 34,000 metric tons of cod which allowed for fishing limits of 12,000 metric tons of cod. The new report shows a stock level of only 11,400 metric tons of GOM cod. While the fishing levels for 2012 are 6,700 metric tons, I am concerned that without a new assessment that includes our fishermen, NOAA could be forced to establish a fishing limit for 2013 as low as 1,000 metric tons of cod.  I am extremely concerned that this action would effectively shut down the fishery.

By Jerry Kronenberg

Massachusetts fishermen’s earnings sank by 14.2 percent in 2011 — a record drop that some blame on the first full year of new federal catch limits, the Herald has found.

“They’re just killing us,” said Plymouth fisherman Jim Keding, who sold his boat and downsized into a smaller home because he couldn’t make ends meet under the new system.

A Herald review of U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis figures shows that workers in the state’s “Forestry, Fishing and Related Activities” sector earned $54 million less in 2011 than they did in 2010

“What (the catch-share program) did is take the in-shore fleet and just ruin it,” said Keding, who caught 72,000 pounds of groundfish in 2009 but only got a 17,000-pound quota for 2010.

Critics claim the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration deliberately set quotas low to force “small-boat” fishermen to quit the industry and sell their licenses to bigger players

By Richard Gaines

In an email to his brother Cameron, U.S. Sen. John Kerry wrote that "despite all the opportunities we've given her," NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco "has failed" to convey to the fishing industry that she is doing everything possible to help it through increasingly hard times.

The Massachusetts Democrat, one of President Obama's essential allies in the Senate, said that, in his 26 years in Washington, he'd never seen a "supposedly friendly (administration)" in such a position.

"I know that it's hard to deliver bad news, but there are ways to do it that make people feel you're doing everything possible to help," Kerry wrote to his brother. Cameron Kerry is general counsel to the Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's parent federal agency.

"Lubchenco has failed to convey that despite all the opportunities we've given her," the senator wrote.

"I'm aware and at wit's end," Cam Kerry wrote back.

A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers, including Democratic Congressman John Tierney and Barney Frank, Republican Sen. Scott Brown and Republican Congressman Walter Jones of North Carolina have all urged President Obama to replace Lubchenco as the essential first step in rebuilding trust by the industry in the government.

The email exchange between the Kerry brothers was obtained via the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

John and Cam Kerry declined to comment Monday; Lubchenco did not respond to emails from the Times.

The Kerrys' email exchange took place last Oct. 13, shortly after 8 a.m. It came 10 days after Lubchenco testified at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing organized in Boston by Kerry, and a day after a state legislative committee hearing on the impact of federal fisheries policy.

The morning the Kerry brothers shared their exasperation at Lubchenco, the Times reported that she had left Kerry's hearing early for a meeting with The Boston Globe's editorial board.

Read More

By Hillary Chabot

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown said this morning he’ll unveil six years of his tax returns this Friday and challenged Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren to release the same, saying she’s trying to hide potentially unfavorable legal work like her work against asbestos victims in 2006.

“The tax years you are attempting to conceal contain important and potentially revealing information, including income you received for outside legal work, such as when you assisted Travelers Insurance in a case against victims of asbestos poisoning,” wrote Brown’s campaign manager Jim Barnett in a release this morning. “The people of Massachusetts deserve better from their candidates for Senate than the type of political gamesmanship you are engaging in.”

Warren said last week that she will release two years of tax returns, and when pressed on whether she will release six years she demurred, saying it depends on Brown.

Sarah Parsons
Forget cheeseburgers and French fries—the new American meal of choice is shrimp. American shrimp consumption has increased by more than 300 percent since 1980 [PDF]. Jumbo-sized bags of the crustaceans fill supermarket freezers from New York City to Norfolk, Arkansas. Shrimp used to only appear on the menus of upscale restaurants. Now, chains like Red Lobster, Popeye’s, and Long John Silver’s offer up shrimp dishes for as little as $5.99

Most shrimp consumed in the U.S. doesn’t come from American waters. In fact, about 90 percent of it originates at farms in Thailand, Vietnam, South America, and China. Using aquaculture to mass-produce the crustaceans has dropped prices to all-time lows, but increasing evidence suggests that the savings to consumers are fueled by human rights abuses and environmental disasters at shrimp farms.  Read More

Phatthana was recently accused of human rights abuses disturbing enough to turn even the most die-hard shrimp eaters off their po’ boys: The company allegedly holds Cambodian workers against their will and pays them so little money they can’t even afford to buy food.  Read More

Shrimp farms take their toll on the world’s oceans, too. According to Kennedy Warne, author of the book Let Them Eat Shrimp: The Tragic Disappearance of the Rainforests of the Sea, shrimp farmers regularly feed their crustaceans fish meal made from ground-up fish, a practice that depletes ocean ecosystems of fish stocks. It takes about three pounds of fish protein to make one pound of shrimp—a ratio that does not add up to a sustainable food source.  Read More

By Richard Gaines

"I would love more than anything to be able to talk about some of the things we have done, but it simply is not possible,"

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee says it is "greatly concerned with NOAA's lack of cooperation" with the Commerce Department Inspector General's efforts at investigating the "wasteful purchase" of a 35-foot motor yacht intended for undercover operations, but used for joy rides and partying in Seattle's Puget Sound.

The committee inserted the unusually strong language in the markup of the NOAA budget for fiscal 2013, which begins Oct. 1, after President Obama failed to respond to Sen. Scott Brown's letter urging a Justice Department investigation into corruption in NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco's agency. The committee's statement also came after Secretary of Commerce John Bryson failed to respond to a letter by Sen. Susan Collins, which recounted the Seattle boat saga and other examples of NOAA mismanagement and malfeasance.

Brown wrote to the President on Friday, April 13, and Collins wrote to Bryson on March 22.

Both are Republicans, but have worked in a bipartisan fashion with Democrats as aggravation with NOAA has spilled across the aisles. Republicans Brown and Congressman Walter Jones of North Carolina — along with Massachusetts Democratic Reps. John Tierney and Barney Frank — have repeatedly asserted that Lubchenco's performance warrants her dismissal.

Collins, a Maine senator who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, asked Bryson for a meeting among the state of the Senate and House Appropriations Oversight Committee "attended by representatives from your office, NOAA officials, and the office of the Inspector General, no later than April 12, 2012, to provide a direct accounting of these issues. Please have your staff contract my staff," she added.

But no response came from Bryson's office, Collins' staff told the Times on Friday.

The White House also did not respond to a series of calls and emails by the Times seeking comment on the Brown letter.

Brown along with Rep. John Tierney, whose district includes Cape Ann, used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of a report by the Commerce Department Inspector General's office that revealed how the Seattle office of NOAA had gamed the procurement system to acquire an unessential $330,000, well-equipped cabin cruiser, and then used it for joy rides and parties in Puget Sound.

In testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee, Lubchenco implied that punishment had been meted out to members of the scandalized Office of Law Enforcement and litigators who had been exposed by multiple reports from the office of Inspector General Todd Zinser.

By Dan K. Thomasson

Meanwhile, the FBI and the Justice Department appear to have colluded to keep out of public reach a report that should send a chill through all those seeking a fair trial. The once glorified FBI crime lab, it turns out, has kept its considerable mistakes out of the hands of defendants and their attorneys, denying them potentially exculpatory evidence, a policy that has cost who knows how many accused years of freedom.

The initial investigation of a few errant Secret Service agents by the agency itself has revealed that as many as 21 prostitutes and an equal number of agents and military personnel assigned to advance the president’s South American summit in Cartagena participated in what is likely to become the worst scandal in the agency’s history

A week ago, The New York Times published a story on how an altrustic Environmental Defense Fund, encouraged by Wal-Mart, has been nudging the world's largest retailer toward more enlightened and sustainable opeations.

The report in last Saturday's edition described a scene in which Wal-Mart's CEO and EDF's president went Zen-like to the White Mountains of New Hampshire to discuss "climate change" and its effect on the sale of Wal-Mart products, including coffee.

Wal-Mart's motive for seeking enlightenment was a better image and market share; EDF's was selfless — a greener world. EDF, The New York Times reported, "does not accept contributions from Wal-Mart or other corporations it works for."

While technically correct, the story missed a key point, the reporter, Stephanie Clifford, conceded to an extent in an email exchange with the Gloucester Daily Times.

The $1.3 billion Walton Family Foundation, started in 1987 by Wal-Mart's founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and directed now by the second and third generation of Waltons, has been underwriting EDF's successful effort to replace the nation's mostly small-business, owner-operated fishing industry — especially in communities such as Gloucester — with a model that works like a commodities market, with fishermen's "shares" of an allotted catch traded and potentially concentrated in the hands with the deepest pockets.

The approach, which EDF and the Walton Foundation branded as "catch shares," was marketed in a policy paper primarily financed by the Walton Foundation and primarily produced by EDF in 2008. "Oceans of Abundance" was by a working group that included EDF's then-chairman N.J. Nicholas and board vice chairwoman Jane Lubchenco, who was chosen by President Obama to head NOAA in 2009, and has pushed catch shaers as the agency's national policy ever since.

LOS ANGELES — Commentator and editor Andrew Breitbart, a polarizing website publisher who once helped edit the Drudge Report and found his way to tea party stardom in recent years, died of heart failure and hardening of the arteries, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Friday.

The office ruled that the cause of Breitbart’s death was heart failure and hypertropic cardiomyopathy with focal coronary atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.

Coroner’s officials deemed the death "natural," and toxicology tests detected no illicit drugs in Breitbart’s system. His blood-alcohol level was 0.04 percent

By Hillary Chabot

Republicans are demanding Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren bounce Calypso king Harry Belafonte as co-host of her ritzy New York fundraiser tomorrow night, saying the crooner’s controversial comments are “anti-American.”

Harry Belafonte’s anti-American views are extreme and repugnant. He has praised Castro and Chavez, blamed the United States for the terrorist attacks that took place on 9/11 and denounced America as a villain in world affairs,” said MassGOP Executive Director Nate Little.

By Joe Battenfeld

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown may be rooting for the Red Sox [team stats] against the Yankees this week, but the head of the hated Pinstripes is going to bat for Brown.

Randy Levine, president of the New York Yankees, donated the maximum $2,500 to the Massachusetts Republican’s re-election campaign last month, according to newly released campaign finance records.

That’s right, the commander of the Evil Empire is helping to pay for all those Brown ads championing his support of the Red Sox

By Drew Katchen

Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and incumbent Mass. GOP Sen. Scott Brown both joined Morning Joe today at Fenway Park (though at different times) to discuss what has become a fairly tight race in the Bay State. And one of the most watched Senate races in the country right now.

New polls from the University of New Hampshire/Boston Globe and WNE show Brown in the lead -- with 37 percent and 49 percent, respectively -- and a new PPP poll shows Warren enjoying a slight lead at 46 percent to Brown's 41 percent. Similarly, a new Rasmussen poll shows Warren leading Brown by one percentage point. But then again, we've still got several months for things to run back and forth

She told Joe and Mika that she enjoys campaigning because "you get to talk about things you think are really important with people,"

"We need problem solvers; we don’t need rock throwers. And that’s what I am is a problem solver," he said.

By Laurel J. Sweet
A movie producer’s personal plotline is taking a detour to prison after he pleaded guilty yesterday to stealing $4.7 million from taxpayers to see his dreams in lights.

Director and screenwriter Daniel Adams, 50, of Barnstable is scheduled to begin serving a two- to three-year state prison sentence May 10.

Adams’ lawyer James Greenberg said the married father of a 10-year-old daughter is “destitute” after sinking everything into 2008’s “The Golden Boys,” starring David Carradine, Rip Torn and Bruce Dern, and 2009’s “The Lightkeepers,” with Richard Dreyfuss, Blythe Danner and Mamie Gummer, daughter of actress Meryl Streep.

Ball fired back: “Maybe he goes to the Lottery. Maybe he makes ‘Titanic.’ He stole $4.7 million from the commonwealth. What do you expect me to do?”

By Dave Wedge, Richard Weir and Chris Cassidy

The raids on suspected EBT-scamming businesses and arrests of accused welfare cheats in Boston and across the state yesterday were just the beginning of a law enforcement crackdown that was launched even as Gov. Deval Patrick has defended the scandal-plagued program and lawmakers bicker about reforms.

Unscrupulous merchants and welfare abusers have pilfered millions in tax dollars from just the handful of Bay State stores that were raided by state and local cops as well as federal agents yesterday, police and prosecutors said. One Quincy convenience store is suspected of ringing up $700,000 in fraudulent food stamp sales over the past two years, while a cluster of Chinatown shops is being eyed for as much as $200,000 a month in questionable charges, officials said. Bostonherald.com first reported the raids yesterday. Gov. Deval Patrick has downplayed criticism of the welfare program as “anecdotal” and dismissed the Herald’s extensive reporting of EBT abuse as an effort to make people “angry.” He was en route to a fundraiser for President Obama in Los Angeles yesterday and could not be reached for comment.

Apr 19, 2012 (Al Jazeera - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- NEW ORLEANS, La -- Hundreds of thousands of people living along the US Gulf Coast have hung their economic lives on lawsuits against BP.

Fishermen, in particular, are seeing their way of life threatened with extinction -- both from lack of an adequate legal settlement and collapsing fisheries.

One of these people, Greg Perez, an oyster fisherman in the village of Yscloskey, Louisiana, has seen a 75 per cent decrease in the amount of oysters he has been able to catch.

"Since the spill, business has been bad," he said. "Sales and productivity are down, our state oyster grounds are gone, and we are investing personal money to rebuild oyster reefs, but so far it's not working."

Perez, like so many Gulf Coast commercial fisherman, has been fishing all his life. He said those who fish for crab and shrimp are "in trouble too", and he is suing BP for property damage for destroying his oyster reefs, as well as for his business' loss of income.

People like Perez make it possible for Louisiana to provide 40 per cent of all the seafood caught in the continental US.

But Louisiana's seafood industry, valued at about $2.3bn, is now fighting for its life.

'The shrimp are all dead'

Perez is not alone.

"They said they'd make things right and they never did," said Nicholas Harris, a fourth-generation oyster fisherman in eastern Louisiana. "Business has been s****y, and BP kept low-balling us with how much money they said they'd give us for compensation, so we got our attorneys involved."

Harris, like Perez, is suing the oil giant for property damage and loss of income.

His family has a 4,000-acre private lease for oysters, but it was destroyed when the State of Louisiana diverted fresh water from the Mississippi River in a failed attempt to flush BP's oil from the oyster fishing grounds in his area.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - April 18, 2012  (Saving Seafood)  For the past two years, members of Congress, the Senate, the fishing industry and the press have been asking a question made famous by Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown: "What do you have to do to get fired at NOAA?"  None of them ever got a response. The question has always been rebuffed, with NOAA officials citing the Privacy Act as the reason they cannot comment on personnel matters. Last month, Senator Susan Collins of Maine observed that "NOAA officials' use of the Privacy Act as a sword to protect its reputation rather than as a shield, as Congress intended, to protect the privacy rights of private citizens is unacceptable."

Although NOAA has not found a way to dismiss scandal-embroiled employees, it has become clear this week that other federal agencies have figured out how to do it.

At 5:45 p.m. this afternoon, CBS News reported that three Secret Service employees have been removed in connection with the scandal involving prostitutes during the summit of the Americas attended by President Obama.  One supervisor was allowed to retire, a second supervisor was "removed for cause", and a third resigned.

This morning, veteran reporter and columnist Steve Urbon of the Standard-Times, a Dow Jones paper in New Bedford, Massachusetts, wrote a column asking questions that have been on the minds of many.  "...[W]hen the scandal in the General Services Administration broke two weeks ago, the GSA administrator fell through a trap door, two senior agency staffers were fired and four GSA managers were suspended. ... But who is taking the fall at NOAA for the scandal in the fisheries law enforcement office? ... Who at the Commerce Department has lost their job over malicious prosecutions, a luxury fishing boat for booze cruises, destruction of evidence, and a slush fund filled with the proceeds of obscenely inflated fines against fishermen? And how is it that civil service rules magically make it next to impossible to fire people at NOAA and not at GSA? Is there a different set of rules at GSA?"

By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian Daily Astorian | 1 comment

Why did the Lady Cecelia fishing vessel sink off the Long Beach, Wash., Peninsula in early March?

The U.S. Coast Guard started a public hearing Monday as part of its effort to unearth the cause of the tragedy off Willapa Bay, which cost four lives.

The hearing, which takes place at Camp Rilea in Building 7021, 33168 Patriot Way in Warrenton, is open to the public. It runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day until Thursday, with possible further testimony Friday. Cameras and recording devices are prohibited.

“The purpose of this hearing is a fact-finding mission,” said Lt. Anthony Hillenbrand, a Coast Guard investigator. “It’s not to guilt. It’s not to find blame.”

He added that this week is only round one, because the Coast Guard is still gathering evidence.

Opening statements

It all started when the emergency positioning indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) on the Lady Cecelia went off the morning of March 10.

It was approximately 17 miles west of Leadbetter Point on the southern Washington Coast. The Coast Guard would eventually scramble units from Port Angeles, Wash., to Sacramento, Calif, in a search-and-rescue mission, but was unsuccessful in finding the vessel or crew members Dave Nichols, 43, of Astoria, Jay Bjaranson, 38, of Warrenton, Luke Jensen, 22, of Ilwaco, Wash., and Christopher Langel, 25, of Kaukauna, Wis.

“There’s been a lot of rumor and innuendo ... and we welcome the opportunity to focus on the facts of this unfortunate situation,” said Bert Markovich, an attorney with the Schwabe, Williamson and Wyatt firm representing the vessel’s owners Dale and Tom Kent.

What Markovich referenced was a bevy of theories abounding as to why the vessel went down – anything from a rogue wave and issues with the ship to collision with a bulk carrier.

By CORNELIA DEAN

To hear some people tell it, the increasingly energetic and sophisticated fishing industry has left the world’s oceans a shambles, with species of cod, sharks, tuna and other fish hunted almost to extinction and vast stretches of the ocean floor wrecked by bottom-scraping trawlers.

To hear some other people tell it, many depleted stocks are recovering nicely.

Ray Hilborn, a fisheries scientist at the University of Washington, wades into this disagreement in his new book and comes out with a lucid explication of a highly tangled issue.

Each argument, he concludes, has some truth on its side. “It depends on where you look,” he writes. “You can paint horror story after horror story if you want. You can paint success after success.”

He navigates the path between horror and success through scores of questions and answers, nearly all of which demonstrate how difficult it is to sort this issue out.

Take the most basic question: What is overfishing? There are several answers, the book tells us. There is “yield overfishing,” in which people take so many fish that they leave too few to spawn or catch too many fish before they are grown. Then there is “economic overfishing,” in which economic benefits are less than they could be. If too many boats chase too few fish, for example, the struggle to make a good catch leads to overspending on boats, fuel and so on.

by Stratton Lawrence

A limited impact

Mark Marhefka, owner of Abundant Seafood and founder of the first community supported fishery (CSF) program in Charleston, is among the Lowcountry's most respected fishermen. (CSFs operate in much of the same way as community supported agriculture programs.) He's been fishing the Atlantic waters since 1977, and he's served on advisory panels for the SAFMC since the '90s, including as chairman of the snapper-grouper panel. Meanwhile his wife, Kerry, is a former SAFMC fishery biologist.

Kerry says that she and Mark feel "out-gunned" by the presence of advertising firm Rawle Murdy. So in January, the pair sent a letter to their CSF and restaurant customers, urging them to be wary of the catch-share hype.

"There is no biological advantage to this system over one of open access — the total quota remains the same," Kerry says. "This is simply an economic tool used to allocate who catches how much of the pie."

Citing the fresh GSA scandal, resulting in the resignation of the GSA Administrator, the firing of two senior agency staffers, and the suspension of four GSA managers, Senator Brown is asking President Obama for similar accountability at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which was recently found to have engaged in widespread abuse of its Asset Forfeiture Fund, the results of US Commerce Inspector General Todd Zinnser's investigation.

The NOAA Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) Scandal makes the General Services Administration's junket to Las Vegas look like the old "Ted Mack's Amateur Hour." While GSA blew less than a million dollars for fun, OLE raped the AFF of $50 million dollars, with no oversight or accountability.

The $50 million represents half of the $100 million the fund had built up over a five year period.

This is the letter from Senator Brown to the President. Relevant video's are at the bottom of the page.

April 13, 2012

President 8arack Obama

The White House

Washington, DC

Mr. President:

The recent scandal at the General Services Administration (GSA), which spent scarce taxpayer dollars on

luxurious conferences, has offended American taxpayers on both sides of the aisle. The GSA Inspector

General exposed this waste and breach of the public trust through a careful investigation. Most

importantly, his reports resulted in swift accountability for those involved, including the resignation of

the GSA Administrator, the firing of two senior agency staffers, and the suspension of four GSA

managers.

While the sufficiency of these measures remains to be seen, it is clear that at least there were some

consequences for mismanagement of taxpayer funds by GSA leadership and managers.

I remain deeply disturbed that leadership at the Department of Commerce has failed to provide any

meaningful accountability for serious financial and enforcement misconduct at the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration.

The misconduct at NOAA is even more serious than that at GSA, as the NOAA scandals involve wasteful

spending that was financed through abusive treatment of both our fishermen and American taxpayer.

The Commerce Department Inspector General has documented that NOAA employees engaged in acts

that we believe constitute deliberate breaches of the public trust and arguably the laws of our nation.

Despite these multiple reports, no one at NOAA has been held accountable.

At the heart of the NOAA scandals is the corruption of the agency's Asset Forfeiture Fund. As chronicled

by the Commerce Department's Inspector General, senior NOAA staff failed to maintain adequate

controls over the millions of dollars that passed through this fund.

For example, NOAA employees manipulated and evaded purchasing controls so they could obtain a

$300,000 luxury fishing boat that was used to conduct weekend getaways, alcohol·fueled parties, and

other joy rides. Senior NOAA fisheries leadership authorized the purchase of this party boat despite the

written warnings of a NOAA procurement attorney. Incredibly, NOAA employees chose to mislead the

Inspector General when questioned about the use of the boat by family and friends.

But NOAA employees were not content with spending fishermen's fine money on a party boat. They also

used those fines to take trips to exotic locations like Kuala Lumpur and Norway. These conferences

were attended by the government contractors who set the fines that financed the NOAA employees'

travel. Some of these trips included the very judges who approved those fines. These contractors have

refused to answer questions about whether their own travel was paid for out of the fines they set.

Even more shameful than this wasteful spending is how NOAA paid for it. Fishermen faced

administrative proceedings where the prosecution and judges were paid from the fines they extracted.

Retired federal Judge Charles B. Swartwood III, working as a Special Master for the Commerce

Department, determined that NOAA was motivated by money in certain enforcement activity. In one

such case, NOAA's unjust demands and pressure tactics forced a Massachusetts fisherman to lose his

livelihood and a home that was in his family for 350 years. Special Master Swartwood found, and

former Commerce Secretary Gary Locke agreed, that NOAA had acted inappropriately in the case.

The third and most disdainful part of the NOAA corruption story is the cover·up that ensued after

fishermen and NOAA whistleblowers got the attention of the Inspector General. Dale Jones, former

Chief of NOAA Law Enforcement, shredded 75·80% of the files in his office during an active IG

investigation into his office's conduct.

This is the same senior NOAA official who oversaw much of the corrupt collection and reckless spending

of Asset Forfeiture Fund money. In an apparent attempt to cover up the original cover·up, another

senior NOAA law enforcement employee changed his story several times when questioned about this

"shredding party" at NOAA headquarters.

Administrator Lubchenco has been even less forthcoming - she kept an IG report on the NOAA party

boat secret until I requested it. Although she now claims to have tipped off the IG about the boat, the

IG's report gives credit to an internal whistle blower, not Administrator Lubchenco.

In the case of NOAA, not a single person has been fired or seriously disciplined for the serious

misconduct that occurred there. Mr. Jones is still employed by NOAA and is being paid roughly the same

salary as before his misconduct came to light. NOAA recently considered him for a promotion before

many of us protested. The attorneys who demanded the oppressive fines to finance their office's

operations, the finance staff who mismanaged millions of dollars in forfeiture funds, the NOAA police

officers who took family on joyrides on the agency's party boat, and the managers that organized the

shredding of documents during an IG investigation have yet to face serious discipline. The lack of

disciplinary action directly ignores the recommendations of the IG and the United States Attorney for

the District of Maryland.

NOAA's current leadership keeps saying that the problems are in the past. But these scandals came to

light under Administrator Lubchenco's watch. Instead of cleaning house and restoring the agency's

reputation with the fishing community, she has protected the wrongdoers. She has gone beyond all

legal requirements in her protection of those who should be facing serious discipline. Given the

opportunity to bring the agency back to health, she has chosen to keep bad actors in positions of power.

For these reasons, I strongly urge you to immediately fire Administrator Lubchenco and those who have

been implicated in these scandals. Additionally, I urge you to instruct the Attorney General to begin an

outside review of the NOAA scandals. I believe that independent reviews by the Department of Justice's

Public Integrity Section and Office of Civil Rights are warranted at this point.

 Thank you for your attention to this very important issue.

 Sincerly,

Scott Brown

United States Senator

http://www.savingseafood.org/images/documents/congress/senbrown_noaa_letter_presidentobama.pdf

Sen. Brown Exposes Report On NOAA's Illicit Party Boat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIdzt53FKtY

Jane Lubchenco - Use Of NMFS Seizure Funds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wbQbncUdM4

John Tierney Confronts Dale Jones of N.M.F.S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9ljOUct1vY&feature=relmfu

Dennis Kucinich Confronts N.M.F.S. Dale Jones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzrDyzynPQI&feature=relmfu

N.M.F.S. Is Un-American! Fisherman Testifies To Congress http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_v8s0fQWj4&feature=relmfu

Fishermen's Lawyer Exposes High N.M.F.S. Fines To Congress http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Btrd0Rlfyg&feature=related

ANNA PRIOR

It's your fault our prices are rising."

Americans are crazy about their fish -- maybe a little too crazy. U.S. seafood consumption has been rising steadily since 1960, and a recent study published in Conservation Biology reports that up to 33 percent of global fish stocks have been overharvested. With some wild populations being fished to the point of diminishing returns, governments worldwide have instituted catch limits for species ranging from Atlantic cod in New England to blue king crab in the North Pacific. And because tighter limits mean higher prices, say insiders, the $8.3 billion seafood restaurant industry is having a tough time hitting a price point that sells but still makes a profit. Stephen LaHaie, senior vice president of Lettuce Entertain You's Shaw's Crab House, says the wholesale price of wild red king Alaskan crab is up 60 percent this year. And at the end of the day, says LaHaie, "how much can you charge for king crab?"

BARNEGAT LIGHT — To the untrained eye, the big rust-colored steel triangles don’t look all that different from dredges that have been harvesting American sea scallops for a half-century.

In fact the new turtle deflector dredge, or TDD, totally reworks the layout of the traditional New Bedford scallop dredge to eliminate accidental capture of sea turtles – promising to finally resolve a years-long debate over how to best protect those threatened and endangered species.

Where the old-style dredges have a flat front with two plates to scoop up scallops, TDD designer Ronald Smolowitz and his team realigned the front end to an angle and eliminated gaps in the frame where turtles could get lodged, creating something like the cow catcher on an Old West steam locomotive.

“The industry had to do it. Solved our problem,” said James Gutowski of the Viking Village scallop boat fleet, which worked for years with Smolowitz to learn about turtles, particularly loggerheads, and how they interact with scallop gear.

“It does a great job of pushing the turtle up and out of harm’s way,” said Gib Brogan of Oceana, an environmental group that for years has pushed to reduce accidental turtle deaths and injuries from fishing gear. “This is a great example of the fishing industry stepping up and doing the right thing for the turtles and for themselves

HEY HEY HEY HEY!! Gonna get us some nook nook in CO-LUM-BI-AY!

Huh. No worries these are Federal Employee's of the highest authority.

Of the absolute highest character.

All The Presidents Men.

GOTTCHA BACK BO!

You can always count on me! Secret Service REPRESENTS!!! HAH -HAH! We are something else, BABYYYY!

Kinda wonder if any of these @!$%#s are married. Hmm. Classified. Wonder if Congress will get any answers. I'm thinking, maybe not.

Congress will inquire, investigate, demanding to get to the bottom of the Secret Service "NOOKYGATE".

There'll be You Tube videos, expert testimony, yelling, finger pointing, but will anyone hear in Donald Trump fashion, "You're Fired?

Doubt it.

You must wonder why I say this. I'll tell you.

For the past three years, I've watched the NMFS avoid firing theChief Law Enforcement officer, exposed by an Inspector General of shredding 80% of his documents while under investigation, corrupt special agents, agency litigators, and the hired judges from the Coast Guard Administrative Law Judges rifle through $50 million dollars of Asset Forfeiture Funds! In five years.

What did they spend it on? Stuff that costs more than Colombian poontang!

Fancy Boats, cars, toys trips to Malaysia for the whole gang, and, AND, including expert prosecution witness's for the special agents and litigators!

I've yet to hear of anyone getting any Malaysian poon, but you know, "What happens in Malaysia, stays in Malaysia!

The Judges? Would you believe witness tampering of the Commerce appointed Special Master to set things straight, and because the ALJ had a black eye, they figured they could, you know, clean up the rough spots.

The only thing Congress gets when pressing Jane Lubchenco is a prune faced look, and, "I'm sorry I can't discuss these issues because of the Privacy Act. WAAAH? Yes, Pilgrim. The Privacy Act. Your Privacy Act, not for government employee Privacy Act.

 Congress will get plenty of redacted docs that will have more black ink than the white paper they're printed on.

I'm thinkin' some Secret Service guys will resign, but fired? I doubt it. Jane will show them how to avoid that!

"Why sure, sweetheart."

"Once upon a time there was a sweet girl, just like you, that dreamed of being swept away by her Prince Charming, into a magical life that could only be dreamed of."

"I like that picture Mommy! She's so Pretty!"

"Yes, she is my Darling, just like you!"

The story goes on, just like the last twenty five times its been read, with the favorite pictures displayed when requested, leading up to the familiar exclaimation, "Mommy, I'm tired"

You close the book, and settle in for a few minutes of together time.

Those big sleepy eyes get heavier, as she hangs on for just a bit more of the bonding moments, and you melt when you look at that perfect, tiny little nose, the lips, and that rag-a- muffin hair.

"I love you, Mommy."

Your little Princess drifts off to sleep, as you close the door, dreaming of Prince Charming, and ice cream, and cake.

 (you, a self satisfied sigh)

You look across the living room at your Prince Charming, Darth Vader, and and say,

"Get yer own supper, @!$%#! I'm gonna cut Ann Romneys tits off on the blog."

By Holly Robichaud

Have you ever watched those television shows on extreme behavior such as “Hoarders” or “Extreme Couponing”?

While many Massachusetts legislators probably should be featured on a real crime show such as “Dateline,” Elizabeth Warren could star in a series on extreme liberals. How liberal is Lizzy? She is to the left of Gov. Deval Patrick and President Obama.

When Patrick first ran for governor, he worked hard to hide his liberal views by falsely promising to cut our property taxes. By now we all know his pledge had only one purpose — to fool voters into believing he was a moderate who would not reverse the previous Republican governors’ efforts to lower our tax burden

So where’s Lizzy on taxes?

Like Joe Biden who thinks it is your patriotic duty to pay taxes, Lizzy believes taking more out of your wallet is an even better idea.

Unlike Deval and Barack, who concealed their tax agendas until after the election, Lizzy embraces it. She opposes the tax deal the president made in December 2010 that prevented the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts from expiring

There are still a lot of questions and skepticism regarding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's plan to carry out a new cod assessment aimed at setting the limits for a fishing year that is still more than a year away, starting May 1, 2013.

And no one will know the extent of any such assessment until after the beleaguered New England Fishery Management Council meets this week in Mystic, Conn.

But there are only a couple of primary questions emanating from the idea that NOAA might — just might — be willing to step up its cooperative research by having commercial trawlers with experienced fishermen working alongside the NOAA research vessel. They are:

How soon can this project start?

Why is there even any question as to its viability?

And, assuming NOAA does finally open its door to using real, independent fishermen to help collect data, what has taken so long?

Amid all the excessive regulatory enforcement, all the scofflaw steps in pushing through its job-killing catch share management system, and all of NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco's ignoring congressional calls and mandates, the greatest root cause of the rampant distrust across the industry is the total lack of faith in the NOAA science used to put these policies and catch limits in place.

That's remained the case from the infamous 1999-2000 "Trawlgate" fiasco — when a NOAA stock assessment using the wrong nets admittedly missed hundreds of thousands of fish, yet the agency kept the data and its limits in place — to data so skewed it led NOAA leaders to essentially right their wrong, and raise the 2010 pollock catch limit for pollock by a mere 600 percent.

When she first took NOAA's wheel in 2009, Lubchenco vowed to improve what she referred to as a "dysfunctional" relationship between NOAA and New England's and America's fishermen. Yet in these three years, that relationship and NOAA itself have become more dysfunctional than ever.

The idea of having a NOAA research crew working side-by-side with a trawl led by independent fishermen is a very real chance for Lubchenco, NOAA and the New England Council to take a major step toward an assessment that would, at long last, likely carry the credibility the fishermen and fishing communities deserve.

Don't hesitate, folks. Make this happen

Marine spatial planning is one of a handful of concepts — including marine protected areas — developed by NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco and her former colleagues at Environmental Defense Fund and other nonprofits fueled by philanthropic and industrial foundation funding.

EDF — whose 2005 plan for gaining functional control of the oceans was obtained by the Times in 2009 — has begun ramping up its staff assigned to marine spatial planning in New England and the Pacific coasts.

An internal memo by Jake Kritzer, EDF's director of spatial initiatives for the Oceans Program, announcing a job search for a spatial policy analyst to work on "groundfish closed areas" on both coasts, was obtained by the Times this week.

"The focus might evolve to other geographies through time," wrote Kritzer, who also serves on the New England Fishery Management Council's Science and Statistical Committee.

In the 1990s, Lubchenco did pioneering work on marine spatial planning, and began promoting catch shares and marine protected areas. Using disputed scientific theories — including one that predicted that overfishing would leave the ocean to nothing but jellyfish — Lubchenco and colleagues wrote a political policy manifesto for President-elect Obama urging the spread of catch shares across the nation's fisheries, then accepted his offer to join the administration.

In the second half of George W. Bush's presidency, she and an EDF protoge, David Festa, wrote a piece declaring Bush "the Blue President" after he used the Antiquities Act, in conjuction with work by the Pew Environment Group, to create three marine-protected areas around the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas in the western Pacific.

Residents of the westernmost U.S. territories complained to the Times that the government was acting with colonial arrogance treating residents like subject peoples. And two San Francisco lawyers, James P. Walsh and Gwen Fanger, writing in an American Bar Association newsletter, argued that Bush had misused the law and acted in a manner of dubious constitutionality.

By D. Allan Kerr

KITTERY, Maine — Joy MacMillan was 6 years old the night she awoke to loud voices and crying in her house. She recalls getting out of bed to see what the ruckus was and being plied with cereal as a distraction from the commotion around her.

Gradually, the enormity of what had occurred dawned her — her father, Chief Petty Officer Walter J. Noonis, was dead, along with 128 other men lost aboard the nuclear submarine USS Thresher.

During Saturday's memorial service to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the Thresher's loss, MacMillan told a crowd of more than 300 fellow Thresher family members, submarine veterans and active U.S. military representatives that she used to imagine her beloved "Daddy Jack" was still alive. In her imagination, Noonis had merely been knocked unconscious and lost his memory, but MacMillan was convinced that someday they would be reunited.

"I used to dream that he would come back," she said.

The ceremony in R.W. Traip Academy's gymnasium honored the Navy sailors and civilian employees who died when Thresher imploded April 10, 1963. Speakers such as Vice Admiral Kevin M. McCoy, a former Portsmouth Naval Shipyard commander who now leads the Naval Sea Systems Command, and Capt. L. Bryant Fuller III, the shipyard's current commanding officer, assured surviving family members their loved ones did not die in vain.

It is believed the sinking of Thresher stemmed from a piping failure that caused the vessel to lose power and sink toward the ocean floor. It was crushed by enormous water pressure, instantly killing the sailors and civilians on board.

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is pushing a new bill that he said would make it easier to collect back taxes from federal workers and members of Congress.

The Massachusetts Republican said that a recent report by the Internal Revenue Service showed that in 2010, 98,000 federal employees owed a combined $1 billion in back taxes.

Brown said members and employees of the U.S. Senate alone owed over $2 million
The bill would require members and employees of Congress and federal employees who file financial disclosures forms to report any delinquent tax liability to the appropriate ethics office and come up with a plan to pay off the taxes.

Those who fail to arrange a payment plan with the IRS within a year could have those back taxes taken directly out of their wages

By Richard Gaines

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced an effort to expand cooperative fishing research in New England, including — possibly in the near future — the use of a commercial trawler working in tandem with the new government research vessel Bigelow to help determine if the trawl catch jibes with the industry's.

Alan Risenhoover, NOAA's acting assistant administrator for fisheries, described various initiatives for cross-checking and improving stock assessments during a national teleconference to announce the interim or transitional total allowable catch of Gulf of Maine cod for the 2012 fishing cycle beginning May 1.

"We are designing experiments for commercial trawlers and it may involve parallel towing," he said.

Industry has been suspicious of government trawl surveys since "Trawlgate," the discovery early in the previous decade that the trawling by the Albatross was being done with poor technique and misuse of the technology, leading to excessively dire findings.

Risenhoover said that, in addition to cooperative research experiments to improve assessments, the government will attempt to decide whether cod is two distinct stocks, Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, or one super stock whose population moves between the two.

EDITORIAL | Editorial

The latest round of the tired “mommy wars’’ — a purely political tiff between a Democratic pundit and Ann Romney — is, thankfully, fizzling out. But not before too much time, breath, and digital space were wasted, once again, on old fights and knee-jerk judgmentalism. It began with an inelegant moment on CNN, when a Democratic talking head (identified as a “strategist’’) named Hilary Rosen suggested that, because Romney had been a stay-at-home mom, she wasn’t a good adviser to her husband on women’s economic issues. It descended into a Twitter war over whether women who stay home with their kids are truly “working.’’ The short answer is “yes,’’ and the longer answer is that that’s hardly the issue at hand: Financial pressures affect most women, whether they work outside the home or not. Political campaigns have better things to do than pit women against each other. Too many women, unfortunately, do a good enough job of that themselves.