@RepHuffman’s opening statement was 🔥🔥🔥 in today’s @NRDems hearing. It’s time for @NOAA to step up to crack down on illegal fishing. That’s the only way we can possibly enforce @POTUS’s new ban on Russian seafood imports. #StopIllegalFishing
.@RepHuffman just repeated “@NOAA has not acted” on illegal fishing so many times he followed w/ “I’m starting to sound like a broken record.” @NOAA must stop allowing seafood into the US produced w conditions that enable forced labor & overexploitation of fisheries. (⅓)
And note that @NOAA was invited to testify at this @NRDems hearing but refused. Eye-opening. 👀 (2/3)
Luckily, @HouseDemocrats & @SenateDems are poised to take action with the #AmericaCOMPETES Act, which would ensure seafood imported into the US is not a product of Russia, forced labor, or illegal, unreported & unregulated fishing. (3/3)
@RepHuffman explained why @POTUS’s well-intentioned ban on Russian seafood won’t be effective. It all boils down to lax import requirements that are enabling illegal fishing and @NOAA’s reluctance to take action.
“If @NOAA required SIMP for all species, we could ban ALL seafood imports from Russia.” THANK YOU @RepHuffman for encouraging policy changes that will address the environmental & humanitarian crisis of IUU fishing. #StopIllegalFishing
Tomorrow at 1 pm EST, the House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife will hold an oversight hearing on President Biden’s Executive Order imposing a ban on the importation of Russian seafood and the limitations of current seafood traceability and transparency requirements in the U.S. with respect to implementing that ban.
This hearing is an important opportunity to highlight the scale of the illegal seafood issue in the U.S. and to press NOAA to implement the policy changes necessary to ensure that Americans can confidently purchase seafood that was not imported from Russia, and that was legally and sustainably caught without forced labor.
The hearing also comes at an opportune moment as Congress is set to begin formal conference between the America COMPETES Act and the US Innovation and Competition Act. Provisions included in the legislation would give the U.S. government more tools to ensure imported seafood is not a product of Russian fisheries, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, or forced labor, and to take action against nations that fail to address IUU fishing and human rights abuses in their fleets.
Please use the toolkit attached to thank Subcommittee Chair Huffman for elevating this issue; raise awareness of this global problem; and to urge NOAA to take action to improve seafood traceability and end illegal fishing.
--Sarah GuyDirector of Strategy and OutreachOcean Defense Initiative(508) 491-7497 | sarah@oceandefenseinitiative.org