[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9150 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 9150
To provide that no Federal funds shall be appropriated, awarded, or
granted to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 7, 2022
Mr. Golden (for himself and Ms. Pingree) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide that no Federal funds shall be appropriated, awarded, or
granted to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Red Listing Monterey Bay Aquarium
Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds as follows:
(1) Lobstering has served as an economic engine and family
tradition in Maine and the other New England States for
centuries.
(2) The lobster fishery supports thousands of families who
make their livelihoods from catching, processing, or serving
lobsters, employing people of all ages year-round, with many
harvesters beginning as children and staying in the industry
for their entire working lives.
(3) Maine's lobster fishery alone has an estimated ex-
vessel value of $725,000,000, generating more than
$1,000,000,000 in economic activity and supporting more than
15,500 jobs throughout the supply chain.
(4) The Maine lobster industry has spearheaded
sustainability measures for more than 150 years, ensuring the
health of the lobster stock and the marine environment through
the following:
(A) In 1872, Maine passed the first law banning
taking of egg-bearing female lobster.
(B) In 1874, Maine passed the first laws regulating
the minimum size of lobster that could be harvested.
(C) In 1948, Maine passed a requirement that
fishermen mark female, egg-bearing lobsters with a V-
shaped notch.
(D) In 1997, Maine lobstermen removed all surface
floating rope and, in 2009, replaced an estimated
27,000 miles of floating line with whale-safe sinking
lines.
(E) In 2015, Maine lobstermen adjusted their gear
in certain areas to a newly required minimum number of
traps per buoy, reducing the amount of vertical rope
present in the water by an additional 3,000 miles.
(F) In 2022, lobstermen converted their gear once
again, including more ``weak links'', more ``weak
rope'' and more traps per buoy to further reduce
vertical line in the water column, in addition to
removing nearly 1,000 miles of gear from prime fishing
grounds.
(5) These measures are the reason why there has never been
a serious injury or death of the endangered North Atlantic
right whale attributed to the Maine lobster fishery and there
has not been a known right whale entanglement with Maine
lobster gear since 2004.
(6) According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, the majority of known right whale deaths since
2017 have been attributed to vessel strikes in Canada and of
the 33 right whale mortalities occurring between 2017 and 2020,
24 of those whales were confirmed to be attributed to
entanglements in Canadian fishing gear and vessel strikes in
Canadian waters.
(7) Despite these facts, Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood
Watch program added the American lobster fishery to a ``red
list'' of seafood that consumers should avoid due to the risk
that the fishery poses to right whales.
(8) This red list designation for American lobster by
Seafood Watch is speculative and conjecture, not supported by
the data or the science as they state in their report, ``until
there is more specific information available regarding which
fisheries are responsible for the unattributed entanglements,
Seafood Watch considers that all relevant fisheries that may
overlap with North Atlantic right whales pose risks''.
(9) In their own press release announcing the red listing
for American lobster, Seafood Watch states, ``More than 90% of
entanglements cannot be linked to a specific gear type, and
only 12% of entanglements can be linked to a specific
location.''.
(10) Monterey Bay Aquarium ignores the efforts by the
lobster industry to reduce their risk to right whales for the
past 150 years, admitting in their report that ``effects on
mitigation of whale entanglement have yet to be determined''.
(11) This new, unsubstantiated designation has a real world
impact; with the lobster industry already facing challenges,
the inaccurate designation will hurt the thousands of
hardworking lobstermen, their families, and businesses across
Maine and has already prompted seafood retailers such as Blue
Apron and HelloFresh to pull lobster from their menus.
(12) Monterey Bay's Seafood Watch Program has produced
recommendations that rely on pseudoscientific claims and false
assumptions that ignore scientific principles that should
underpin any legitimate ratings and, by ignoring the facts,
Seafood Watch is not encouraging safe fishing, but rather
damaging the reputation of its certification process by
smearing an entire industry and misleading consumers.
(13) Monterey Bay Aquarium receives millions of Federal
taxpayer dollars for scientific research and to promote ocean
conservation and seafood sustainability, yet the Monterey Bay
Aquarium has irresponsibly ignored scientific facts and the
lobster fishery's history of sustainability.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL FUNDING FOR THE MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM.
No Federal funds shall be appropriated, awarded, or granted to the
Monterey Bay Aquarium.
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