WELCOME TO BILL'S CORNER!

Dear Constituents,

I've spent a lot of time on the road lately, participating in three important events in the past few weeks I'd like to share with you.

During the last week in July, the agency's Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee met in Seattle to discuss a number of important items. Among them were several new communications tools we're developing to help us better communicate with you, such as our draft national outreach strategy and our “Fish Watch” initiative, a new Web-based education tool to simplify how we communicate our progress in rebuilding and managing U.S. marine fisheries. When launched, this new online resource will help consumers understand the true population status of the most popular seafood, including visuals depicting population trends and projections. This tool will help consumers sort out fact from fiction as they search for reliable information on sustainable seafood choices. You'll hear more from me in the coming months about both of these initiatives as we get closer to launching them.

The committee also discussed a new initiative called “Vision 20/20” that will provide us with a roadmap for the future of managing America 's ocean resources. It's important that we manage our fisheries today with an eye toward the future. Our goal is to have well-managed, sustainable fisheries well before the year 2020, and there are many issues to consider as we move in that direction. Vision 20/20 will address issues such as domestic and international seafood markets and the role of aquaculture in future global seafood production, among others. The outcome of this project will help us project the state of domestic fisheries and the availability, sustainability and security of domestically available seafood products in the future, which is information we need to guide our decisions today. The public will be key partners in this initiative, so I look forward to working with constituents as we move forward. We'll provide more concrete information when we get closer to launching phase I of the project.

On August 6 I judged the third annual “Great American Seafood Cookoff” in New Orleans . This was by far the biggest and best cook-off yet. The pavilion was decorated to resemble a Louisiana bayou, complete with alligators and whooping cranes. The cook-off is hosted each year by the Louisiana Restaurant Association. It was good to visit the city again. As part of the weekend activities, the chefs and sponsors were escorted on a tour of the city. It was a very sobering experience for all of us to witness first hand the devastation that still exists today, one year after the hurricane. One bright point in recovery efforts is that NOAA's seafood sampling program continues to show that the Gulf is producing safe seafood, free of high-level toxins and bacteria.

The cook-off provided us with an opportunity to educate Americans about the healthful benefits of eating seafood. A record 20 chefs representing 20 states competed in the cook-off this year, and the competition was stiff. Each chef's creation was top-notch, making the judges' job very difficult. Ultimately, we crowned Justin Timineri of Florida as this year's top chef. Timineri prepared one of the tastiest seafood meals I've ever had. It was a Caribbean-inspired dish made with Florida red snapper, passion fruit & coconut cream, citrus fennel salad, garnished with jumbo shrimp and topped with spicy mango jam. This dish epitomized the purpose of the cook-off – to publicize how seafood is a nutritious and delicious food choice. I encourage everyone to visit the cook-off Web site and download all 20 competing recipes.

While at the cook-off, I met with representatives of the nation's seafood industry and talked about many issues they face throughout the United States , including a troubling situation with our Chinook salmon industry in Oregon and California . We had to reduce fishing opportunities by 71 percent this year due to projections of low salmon returns to the Klamath to spawn this fall. In late July I traveled to the region to meet with the fishermen and hear about their plight. It was clear that they needed help to get through this difficult time, and so the Administration expedited the process of gathering and analyzing economic data from the fishery so that we could make the case for an early disaster declaration.

On August 10, I accompanied Deputy Secretary David Sampson to the region to declare a fishery disaster due to a fishery failure. This decision came after a lot of hard work and collaboration between the states, the government, and local fishing communities to gather the necessary economic evidence to support a disaster declaration. For more information about the disaster and what it means for fishermen and the salmon resource, I encourage you to read the Commerce Department's press release which is linked below. The press release further defines this declaration, outlines funding opportunities for fishermen, and includes information about longer-term goals to rehabilitate Pacific coast salmon stocks, which have declined in recent years due to drought, disease, and habitat degradation.

As we wind down the remaining days of summer, I'd like to once again thank all our constituents for your participation in fisheries management and for your support of our efforts to sustain America 's fishing communities as our fisheries rebuild. As we announced back in June, 74 percent of the nation's fisheries are sustainable, and as the others rebuild, much of our seafood today comes from sustainable aquaculture. So download those cook-off recipes and enjoy a nutritious seafood meal tonight! I am including a link below to a recent food article in the Washington Post from Sally Squires' “lean plate” club. Sally does a great job in this piece sorting out many of the common misconceptions about seafood and health, and she makes a great case for why we all should be eating more fish.

References

Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee

Great American Seafood Cookoff

Government Statement Declaring Gulf Seafood Safe for Human Consumption

Department of Commerce Klamath Salmon Fishery Disaster Press Release

Washington Post Article About Seafood and Health