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Making Waves Fall 2020
Commentary by John DePersenaire, RFA Managing Director Fishery Management Plan Specialist
Just What Constitutes Seafood?
T
his idea that the commercial sector owns the word seafood has been bugging me since Secretary of Commerce Ross took aim at the US Seafood deficit back in 2017 and committed to closing that gap. Never once did he look to the recreational sector in this work despite every definition of seafood I can find clearly includes fish and shellfish harvested by recreational anglers. If you missed it, NOAA issued a notice in the federal register seeking recommendations for a comprehensive interagency seafood trade strategy. Both the Executive Order from President Trump in May, and now this more recent announcement, failed to even mention recreational fishing and that annoys me to no end. Commercial fishermen aren’t the only ones that provide seafood or feed the nation. Recreational fishermen are comparable on just about every level; sales, jobs, income, contribution
to GDP, harvest, and on and on, but for some reason, every administration fails to see that recreationally harvested fish are indeed seafood. Clearly, the word seafood carries political weight and I understand the commercial sector probably wants to retain the political advantage of owning the word. But nothing I have found in extensive research and none of the definitions I have seen for seafood exclude fish landed by recreational anglers from the definition. Add to that the fact that I am not thrilled about the approach Secretary Ross seems fixed on for closing the seafood gap. His plan is basically to export more US caught seafood and to ramp up aquaculture, which is a very narrow approach. With all that in mind, I assembled the following comments to submit to the RFI on behalf of the RFA. John DePersenaire
value of US commercial fishermen and what they provide to this council in terms of food production and jobs. RE: RFI Response: Interagency Seafood Trade Task Force RFA aims to maintain working relationships with individual commercial fishermen and commercial fishing orDear Members of the Interagency Seafood Trade Task ganizations in order to work constructively through isForce: sues important to both our sectors. Please accept the following comments on behalf of the RFA also recognizes the intent of Executive Order Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) in regard to the re13921 issued by President Trump on May 7, 2020. RFA quest for information issued by the Interagency Seafood is particularly supportive of the statement in section 1 to Trade Task Force. RFA is a national organization with a “get more Americans back to work and put healthy, safe mission statement to fight for the rights of saltwater anfood on our families table.” The U.S. fisheries are the glers, protect marine and fishing tackle jobs and ensure best managed in the world and RFA believes it is approthe long-term sustainability of our Nation’s marine repriate for the Administration to make investments for sources. RFA recognizes the importance and traditional July 15, 2020
