45 was in Maine today and met with commercial fisherman.
Trump opens marine monument to fishermen, promises trade relief
pressherald.com/2020/06/05/trump-opens-marine-monument-to-fishermen-promises-trade-relief/
By Penelope OvertonStaff WriterJune 6, 2020
President Trump announced he was opening a national marine monument off the coast of southern New England to commercial fishing during a visit to Maine on Friday, an administrative rebuke of government regulation that holds big political appeal for the Maine fishing industry but little practical value.
At an hourlong roundtable with Maine fishermen in Bangor, Trump also promised to use retaliatory tariffs to help the Maine lobster industry get better access to foreign export markets and to increase the amount of federal funding to help Maine’s $788-million-a-year fishing industry survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You have never been treated properly, at least not for a long time,” Trump told the group. “Today I am signing a proclamation to reverse that injustice. … We are reopening the Northeast Canyon and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. Is that OK? is that what you want? That’s an easy one.”
Seamounts is the only national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean, created by executive order in September 2016 under the U.S. Antiquities Act in the final weeks of President Barack Obama’s administration. Commercial ground fishing is prohibited inside the 4,900-square-mile area, but crabbing and lobstering was to be permitted through 2023.
Trump’s announcement drew polite applause from the eight-member fishing panel assembled inside an overheated hangar at the Bangor International Airport. The president was on his way to visit Puritan Medical Products, a medical swab manufacturer in Guilford, during his first visit to Maine since taking office in 2018.
Kristan Porter, a Cutler lobsterman who heads up the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said the Seamounts proclamation won’t have much direct impact on the Maine fishing industry, but called it a symbolic victory. The creation of the monument, with its accompanying fishing prohibitions, was done outside of the traditional regulatory process.
“It was a backroom deal,” Porter said of Seamounts. “Those kind of deals never work out well for fishermen. We think our expertise and our knowledge should count for something, and we don’t want to get left out of the process, whether it’s creating a monument or protecting right whales.”
Porter asked Trump to help the Maine lobster industry survive the pending federal regulations underway to protect the endangered right whale from deadly entanglement in the vertical ropes that link a lobsterman’s traps to surface buoys. He worries the government is ignoring the advice of fishermen who claim Maine buoy lines cause no harm to right whales.
“I assume there’s a good solution to that, right?” Trump asked U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Trump then ordered Bernhardt, whose agency does not regulate marine fisheries or marine mammal protection, to find a solution. “I want to protect the whale, too,” Trump added. “As long as we can protect the whale, I’m going to do it.”
Gov. Janet Mills was not impressed with Trump’s proclamation or his promises to “get it done” for Maine fishermen.
“Rolling back a national monument 35 miles southeast of Cape Cod is not going to help the vast majority of Maine fishermen feed their families,” Mills said in a prepared statement. “It will not help them pay their mortgage or rent. It will not support an industry that is struggling under the massive weight of an unprecedented pandemic and misguided federal policies.”
On behalf of Maine fishermen, Mills urged Trump to adopt a better trade policy with the European Union and China, where Canadian lobster exporters currently enjoy a competitive trade advantage, instead of announcing “misguided plans” for retaliatory tariffs that she said have been shown to do more harm than good.
Environmental groups like Conservation Law Foundation contend that Trump’s proclamation is illegal. CLF Maine President Sean Mahoney asserts the Antiquities Act allows a president to create a national monument, but not to change it once it has been created. He said CLF is one of many groups that plans to challenge the legality of the proclamation in court.
Trump opens marine monument to fishermen, promises trade relief
By Penelope OvertonStaff WriterJune 6, 2020
President Trump announced he was opening a national marine monument off the coast of southern New England to commercial fishing during a visit to Maine on Friday, an administrative rebuke of government regulation that holds big political appeal for the Maine fishing industry but little practical value.
At an hourlong roundtable with Maine fishermen in Bangor, Trump also promised to use retaliatory tariffs to help the Maine lobster industry get better access to foreign export markets and to increase the amount of federal funding to help Maine’s $788-million-a-year fishing industry survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You have never been treated properly, at least not for a long time,” Trump told the group. “Today I am signing a proclamation to reverse that injustice. … We are reopening the Northeast Canyon and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. Is that OK? is that what you want? That’s an easy one.”
Seamounts is the only national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean, created by executive order in September 2016 under the U.S. Antiquities Act in the final weeks of President Barack Obama’s administration. Commercial ground fishing is prohibited inside the 4,900-square-mile area, but crabbing and lobstering was to be permitted through 2023.
Trump’s announcement drew polite applause from the eight-member fishing panel assembled inside an overheated hangar at the Bangor International Airport. The president was on his way to visit Puritan Medical Products, a medical swab manufacturer in Guilford, during his first visit to Maine since taking office in 2018.
Kristan Porter, a Cutler lobsterman who heads up the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said the Seamounts proclamation won’t have much direct impact on the Maine fishing industry, but called it a symbolic victory. The creation of the monument, with its accompanying fishing prohibitions, was done outside of the traditional regulatory process.
“It was a backroom deal,” Porter said of Seamounts. “Those kind of deals never work out well for fishermen. We think our expertise and our knowledge should count for something, and we don’t want to get left out of the process, whether it’s creating a monument or protecting right whales.”
Porter asked Trump to help the Maine lobster industry survive the pending federal regulations underway to protect the endangered right whale from deadly entanglement in the vertical ropes that link a lobsterman’s traps to surface buoys. He worries the government is ignoring the advice of fishermen who claim Maine buoy lines cause no harm to right whales.
“I assume there’s a good solution to that, right?” Trump asked U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Trump then ordered Bernhardt, whose agency does not regulate marine fisheries or marine mammal protection, to find a solution. “I want to protect the whale, too,” Trump added. “As long as we can protect the whale, I’m going to do it.”
Gov. Janet Mills was not impressed with Trump’s proclamation or his promises to “get it done” for Maine fishermen.
“Rolling back a national monument 35 miles southeast of Cape Cod is not going to help the vast majority of Maine fishermen feed their families,” Mills said in a prepared statement. “It will not help them pay their mortgage or rent. It will not support an industry that is struggling under the massive weight of an unprecedented pandemic and misguided federal policies.”
On behalf of Maine fishermen, Mills urged Trump to adopt a better trade policy with the European Union and China, where Canadian lobster exporters currently enjoy a competitive trade advantage, instead of announcing “misguided plans” for retaliatory tariffs that she said have been shown to do more harm than good.
Environmental groups like Conservation Law Foundation contend that Trump’s proclamation is illegal. CLF Maine President Sean Mahoney asserts the Antiquities Act allows a president to create a national monument, but not to change it once it has been created. He said CLF is one of many groups that plans to challenge the legality of the proclamation in court.
