http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/us/commerce-dept-declares-northeast-fishery-a-disaster.html?ref=todayspaper
BOSTON — The Commerce Department on Thursday issued a formal disaster declaration for the Northeastern commercial groundfish fishery, paving the way for financial relief for the battered industry and the communities that depend on it. To many here, the declaration underscored the urgency of a groundfish depletion that has become apparent to many scientists and some fishermen who work in New England’s waters.
“Fishermen in the Northeast are facing financial hardships because of the unexpectedly slow rebuilding of fish stocks,” Rebecca Blank, the acting secretary of commerce, said in a statement.
The declaration, which allows Congress to appropriate financial relief for the industry but does not guarantee any funds, comes after an assessment last year by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that found that the population of Gulf of Maine cod — a critical commercial species here — was about 20 percent of its rebuilding target.
Those findings increased the likelihood that federal catch-limits will be cut significantly in 2013 (regulators say cuts for some species could be higher than 70 percent), which some fishermen feel could further cripple an industry already suffering from withering stocks.
“This year has been the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said John Our, who has caught only 500 of the 180,000 pounds of cod he was allotted this year and has shifted his focus to dogfish instead. “It is a disaster, I’ll give them that. I just don’t see any fish being landed.”
Fishery disaster declarations are not novel for the agency — it often makes at least several per year — but are unusual for a fishery that has been actively managed for decades, according to Peter Shelley, senior counsel at the Conservation Law Foundation, which supported this declaration despite opposing previous calls for such an action.
“The problem wasn’t that fishermen were overfishing,” Mr. Shelley said, “but that their limits were set too high — because of a failure to understand how the system has been changing.”
The declaration comes as fishery management takes a prominent role in some of the region’s political campaigns. Senator Scott P. Brown, Republican of Massachusetts, recently released an advertisement featuring fishermen in Gloucester, Mass.; Representative John F. Tierney, a Democrat fighting a tough re-election battle in the state’s coastal Sixth Congressional District, and Representative William Keating, a Democrat who is running in the Ninth Congressional District, which includes Cape Cod, have both pushed federal regulators for the declaration.
The Commerce Department also declared commercial fishery disaster relief for three regions in Alaska where Chinook salmon catches have plummeted — on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, both of which flow into the Bering Sea off Alaska’s west coast, and in the Cook Inlet southwest of Anchorage.
In asking for federal help this summer, Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican, described a ripple effect through an outdoor economy, and the simultaneous challenges for the deeply rural communities where subsistence fishing is an element of culture and survival.
The numbers indicate a sudden, stunning decline in recent years, about which scientists have not settled on an explanation. On the Yukon, for example, 1,488 pounds of salmon were harvested in 2011, down from more than 859,000 pounds in 2006, a state study found.
Over fishing means there are no fish.
The quotas do not make fish.
If there are no fish this year it is because they were caught last year.
The way to have more fish is to catch many fewer.
There is no way to save the present fishing culture.
That way of life must crash.
We can build again in a few generations. The catch must be less than replacement.
Fishing is a form of hunting.
Hunters on land understand conservation.
Hunters on the sea must learn from the land.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175995
The Battle of the Bulge
This year an ocean trip I took, and as I am a Scot
And like to get my money’s worth I never missed a meal.
In spite of Neptune’s nastiness I ate an awful lot,
Yet felt as fit as if we sailed upon an even keel.
But now that I am home again I’m stricken with disgust;
How many pounds of fat I’ve gained I’d rather not divulge:
Well, anyway, I mean to take this tummy down or bust,
So here I’m suet-strafing in the
Battle of the Bulge.
No more will sausage, bacon, eggs provide my breakfast fare;
On lobster I will never lunch, with mounds of mayonnaise.
At tea I’ll Spartanly eschew the chocolate éclair;
Roast duckling and pêche melba shall not consummate my days.
No more nocturnal ice-box raids, midnight spaghetti feeds;
On slabs of pâté de foie gras I vow I won’t indulge:
Let bran and cottage cheese suffice my gastronomic needs,
And lettuce be my ally in the
Battle of the Bulge.
To hell with you, ignoble paunch, abhorrent in my sight!
I gaze at your rotundity, and savage is my frown.
I’ll rub you and I’ll scrub you and I’ll drub you day and night,
But by the gods of symmetry I swear I’ll get you down.
Your smooth and smug convexity, by heck! I will subdue,
And when you tucker in again with joy will I refulge;
No longer of my toes will you obstruct my downward view ...
With might and main I’ll fight to gain the
Battle of the Bulge.
Source: The Best of Robert Service (1953)
The Emerald City Gang
Here is the no on more loans for Greece:
"Germany says further steps needed before banks tap ESM
NICOSIA |
(Reuters) - Handing bank oversight to the European Central Bank is not in itself sufficient to allow the euro zone's rescue fund to directly assist banks, Germany's Finance Minister said, warning he expected no such deal on supervision in 2012.Wolfgang Schaeuble made the comments after talks between EU finance ministers on Saturday exposed deep divisions about a proposed banking union. That may disappoint investors who had been pinning hopes on a pledge by euro zone leaders to agree sweeping new powers for the ECB in 2012.
This in turn had been expected to unlock the possibility of direct aid to banks from the euro zone's rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), for countries such as Spain or Ireland.
"We have the declaration of the heads of governments of the euro zone that European banking supervision is a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite," Schaeuble told reporters after the ministers' meeting in Cyprus. "The rules of the ESM remain."
He said any country that is home to troubled banks would still need to apply for an adjustment program through the ESM.
The remarks contrasted with those of French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, who called for quick action and underlined the commitment by euro zone leaders to reach a deal this year.
"There are many questions on all of its aspects: the calendar for implementation, the scope of supervision, the role of the European Central Bank, the mechanism for supervision," Moscovici told reporters.
"These differences do not appear insurmountable at all to me. I am convinced that we will get there before the end of 2012: both because it's our duty and we have the possibility to do so," he said.
France's economic growth has ground to a halt since late last year and its banks have investments in struggling countries such as Greece.
Talks among EU finance ministers laid bare deep divisions not only among euro zone countries but also with many neighboring states, worried that the ECB's power could impinge on their banks.
Schaeuble reiterated his criticism of elements of the proposal, cautioning against expectations that a deal could be reached by the end of the year.
"I don't see that there can be direct recapitalization through the European Stability Mechanism already by January 1," he said.
Germany, which is keen to retain primary oversight for its regional savings and cooperative banks, had questioned whether the ECB should get the authority to supervise all 6,000 banks in the euro zone, arguing that it would overstretch the bank.
Officials in Berlin say it would be better to proceed more slowly with the reforms to ensure a water-tight system.
Sweden underscored the depth of the division. "There is a large number of countries that are very worried," said Finance Minister Anders Borg, saying Poland, the Czech Republic and the Nordic countries shared his concerns.
"There are very few countries outside (the euro) that think this is a balanced solution."
BREAKING LINK
Establishing a common framework for dealing with problem banks would mark a departure from the previously haphazard approach taken by the euro zone's 17 members that has frustrated investors and helped drive up borrowing costs for weaker states.
A banking union foresees three steps: the ECB getting the power to monitor all euro zone banks and others in the wider EU that agree to the oversight; the establishment of a fund to close troubled banks; and a fully fledged scheme to protect citizens' deposits across the euro zone.
Given that day-to-day supervision of banks would remain the task of national regulators, some officials suspect that Berlin's real concern is that a banking union would see it paying the costs of propping up lenders in weak countries.
Joerg Asmussen, a member of the ECB's Executive Board that forms the nucleus of its policymaking, earlier warned that a banking union could not work without a fund paid for by industry to cover the cost of closing banks and a deposit protection scheme.
Experts from think tank Bruegel delivered a similar message to ministers on Friday.
The close ties between governments and the banks they supervised and on whom they also relied to buy their debt, has dragged both ever deeper into crisis.
A banking union would break this link by making the policing of banks supranational and establishing central schemes paid into collectively to cover the costs of closing failed lenders.
For the plan to work, however, it will require countries to surrender a degree of sovereignty over banking supervision, which has long been a national responsibility.
But even those who stay outside the framework can be affected. Hungary, many of whose banks are owned by banks in the euro zone and who would in future be supervised by the ECB, is worried they will lose control of their lenders.
(Additional reporting by Annika Breidthardt and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Jan Strupczewski)"
http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/11/58193
| "Troika postpones decision | |||
| |||
 Greece will find out in late October whether or not they will receive the next instalment of bailout funds, head of eurogroup finance ministers Jean-Claude Juncker announced on Friday. While the troika report was expected in September, it will not be ready until the beginning of October, Juncker told Finance Minister Stournaras during at an informal meeting in Cyprus between the 17 eurozone finance ministers, IMF chief Christine Lagarde, and ECB head Mario Draghi. Until the report is published, the troika will not provide further aid to the country. "All these proposals are on the table. The main thing, as everybody stressed, was that we must wait for the troika's report," Stournaras added. Despite the report being delayed, Stournaras described the general climate at the meeting as ‘positive’, and he affirmed that the country would not leave the eurozone. "Greece will implement the measures that have been agreed," he stressed, adding that Brussels had the means to monitor whether the measures had been implemented. EU and IMF officials at the meeting also noted the significant progress made by Greece in economic reforms and urged Athens to continue negotiations with the troika. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde noted that Greece had "already produced a huge effort" that was starting to yield results but must continue to do so. "There is significant acceptance that major progress has been made. There was agreement that we are converging with the troika - though we have not yet agreed on everything, of course, but we are on a good path. We will make an effort so that everything is finished in the second fortnight of October,” Stournaras said. Asked whether Greece would get the next tranche of loans only after the the parliament signed off on measures, Stournaras said that this was something still under discussion. Greece may get additional time to meet troika demands, if the recession has proved deeper than anticipated, though not additional cash, Dutch finance minister Jan Kees De Jager indicated. Lagarde declined to comment on whether Greece will be able to attain the target of reducing its debt to 120 percent of GDP by 2020, noting that the review of the progress made by the country had begun only a week ago. "The target when it comes to achieving debt sustainability is very high, so there are various ways to adjust: time is one and that needs to be considered as an option," she added. Also on the agenda were a bailout for Spain and a potential new European banking union. (AMNA, Athens News/le, dv)" | |||
I will write on "moral hazard" this evening,
.
No comments:
Post a Comment