May, 11 2009, 05:00pm EDT
Federal Dollars Prematurely Slated for Offshore Fish Farming
Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter
WASHINGTON
"President Obama's FY 2010 budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) contains a glaring flaw that would prematurely allocate federal dollars to help fund controversial and unpopular fish farming plans that have not yet been federally authorized.The NOAA budget narrative requests a $2 million dollar increase for marine aquaculture, for a total of about $6.1 million for such programs. As there is no comprehensive federal program that allows marine aquaculture in U.S. waters, requesting increased funds to help review and issue permits is completely inappropriate and an irresponsible use of precious dollars.
"According to the proposal, NOAA needs the funding for 'time-sensitive research projects.' Examples provided of such projects in the budget narrative include the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council plan to allow development of ocean fish farms in the Gulf of Mexico - a plan the Council approved in January 2009, despite overwhelming public opposition.
"The Gulf Council's decision is not yet a done deal. The Council is an advisory body that can only make regulatory recommendations to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) under NOAA - it cannot 'authorize' any federal agency to act, as incorrectly stated in the budget narrative. The plan has yet to reach NMFS or NOAA for review and will be open to public comment once it is officially published in the Federal Register. This program should not be approved, nor provided funding in the federal budget, given the public opposition. It is very likely that it will cost much more than the dollars requested for marine aquaculture in NOAA's budget to offset the ecological and economic damage such a program could cause in the Gulf region and beyond.
"Fish farming, also known as offshore aquaculture, is the commercial mass production of fish in floating net pens or cages in federal waters. Major concerns with the Gulf Council's plan include: no guarantees that there will be public benefits from exclusive use of common resources for private profit, no specific limits on pollution discharge, no protections for depleted fish or species of concern, no details on where the fish farms can be located or what the facilities will look like, and a lack of meaningful analysis on potential impacts to recreational and commercial fishing and economies of coastal communities that rely on Gulf marine resources.
"President Obama has asked federal agencies to curb spending on unnecessary projects, and NOAA should not be an exception. Federal money given to a potentially environmentally destructive and economically devastating program like ocean fish farming would be misspent. Instead, Congress and the Obama administration should be visionary and support research for more innovative aquaculture technologies, like land-based, re-circulating systems, to explore more sustainable options to meet our domestic seafood needs."
To view NOAA's budget estimates, please visit: https://www.osec.doc.gov/bmi/budget/10CJ/NOAA%20FY%202010%20Congressiona...
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
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'This Needs to Stop': UN Envoy Condemns Israeli Military's Advance on Syria
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"What we are seeing is a violation of the disengagement agreement from 1974, so we will obviously, with our colleagues in New York, follow this extremely closely in the hours and days ahead," Geir Pedersen said at a media briefing in Geneva.
Hours earlier, Pedersen told Zeteo's Mehdi Hasan that "this needs to stop," referring to Israel's further encroachment on the occupied and illegally annexed Golan Heights.
"This is a very serious issue," Pedersen said, rejecting Netanyahu's assertion that the 1974 agreement is null. "Let's not start playing with an extremely important part of the peace structure that has been in place."
"The message to Israel is that this needs to stop, What we are seeing in the Golan is a violation of the 1974 agreement. This is a very serious issue."
The UN's Syria Special Envoy tells me on 'Mehdi Unfiltered' that Israel's unlawful actions in Syria need to stop. pic.twitter.com/G7jSWJ8oP0
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Watch StateSpox justify Israel’s invasion of Syria based on hypotheticals.@shauntandon: Israel has gone across the Golan Heights, the UN said it’s a violation, does the US agree
Miller: Every country would be worried about a possible vacuum that could be filled by terrorist… pic.twitter.com/AA7lNhfSt1
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According to a statement from Murphy's office:
Under the law, boards of education and governing boards of public libraries are barred from excluding books because of the origin, background, or views of the material or of its authors. Further, boards of education and governing boards of public libraries are prevented from censoring library material based on a disagreement with a viewpoint, idea, or concept, or solely because an individual finds certain content offensive, unless they are restricting access to developmentally inappropriate material for certain age groups.
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New Jersey Association of School Librarians President Karen Grant said that "the Freedom to Read Act recognizes the professionalism, honor, work ethics, and performance of school and public library staff" and "promotes libraries as trusted sources of information and recognizes the many roles that libraries play in students' lives."
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As Mother Jones reporter Isabela Dias detailed Monday:
Critics of ending birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants argue it would not only constitute bad policy, but also a betrayal of American values and, as one scholar put it to me, a "prelude" to mass deportation.
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