{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://sablan.house.gov/congressman-blasts-fishery-council-%E2%80%98improper-lobbying%E2%80%99", "Congressman Blasts Fishery Council For Improper Lobbying", "2017-10-05", "2017", "2017-10", "Independent", "House", "MP", "Gregorio Sablan", "S001177", "sablan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Honolulu Civil Beat \u2014\u00a0 WASHINGTON \u2014 The Honolulu-based Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council was harshly criticized on Capitol Hill last week over allegations of anti-environmental lobbying and secretiveness.\n\t\t\tU.S. Rep. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, a Democrat who represents the Northern Marianas Islands, blasted the council known as Wespac\u00a0during a hearing\u00a0before the Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee.\n\t\t\tSablan asked for an investigation of the 16-member council\u2019s activities, which he said include \u201cimproper lobbying,\u201d organizing efforts to undermine environmental protections and unspecified financial conflicts of interest.\n\t\t\tWespac includes government officials, environmentalists and fishing industry advocates.\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tU.S. Rep. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, a critic of the Honolulu-based Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, questions a witness at a recent hearing.(Courtesy of Rep. Gregorio Sablan)\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWespac oversees\u00a0much of the South Pacific, some 1.5 million nautical miles, including the area contained in the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument.\u00a0It is is one of eight such fishing councils nationwide that were established to develop fishery management plans and policies to prevent overfishing and help fish stocks survive and thrive.\n\t\t\tMembers of the congressional committee, including Sablan, were questioning Chris Oliver, the new assistant administrator of fisheries for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, about proposed changes to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.\n\t\t\tThe landmark 1976 law created the councils to oversee fishing in U.S. federal waters. They make decisions governing use of waters that stretch from 3 to 200 miles offshore, in what is known as the Exclusive Economic Zone.\n\t\t\t \u2018Inappropriate Activities Of Wespac\u2019 \n\t\t\tWespac is the largest of the councils, responsible for monitoring about half of U.S.-controlled waters and thousands of individual marine species. By contrast, the Gulf of Mexico council only manages 42 species and the Mid-Atlantic council only 14.\n\t\t\tThe councils operate within NOAA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The chain of command in the agency leads up to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, an appointee of President Donald Trump.\n\t\t\tOliver, who was formerly executive director of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which is based in Anchorage, Alaska, joined the Trump administration in June.\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWespac Chair Edwin Ebisui confers with Executive Director Kitty Simonds during a meeting last year. Simonds did not comment on the criticism from a congressman. (PC:Nathan Eagle/Civil Beat)\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\u201cMr. Oliver, I have long been concerned with inappropriate activities of Wespac,\u201d Sablan said at the Sept. 26 hearing. \u201cIn 2014, I engaged in a series of letters with your predecessors about improper lobbying activities in an effort to remove the green sea turtle from the endangered species list.\u201d\n\t\t\t\u201cMore recently, Wespac has been organizing and leading a national campaign to abolish marine monuments,\u201d Sablan added.\n\t\t\tWespac is also refusing to provide the public and interested stakeholders with full information about its activities and how its council members vote on some issues, Sablan said. He criticized Wespac for not posting audio or transcripts of its meetings, as required by law.\n\t\t\tHe alleged that there are unacknowledged conflicts of interest within Wespac, but did not identify anyone in particular.\n\t\t\tSablan\u2019s allegations were brought to the attention of Wespac spokeswoman Sylvia Spalding and Wespac executive director Kitty Simonds by Civil Beat, but neither chose to respond.\n\t\t\tMost of the other fishing management councils make audio, video or transcripts of their meetings available to the public. They include New England, based in Massachusetts, the Mid-Atlantic, based in Dover, Del., the Caribbean, based in Puerto Rico, the Gulf of Mexico, based in Tampa, Florida, the Pacific, based in Portland, Oregon, and the North Pacific in Alaska. The two that did not appear to offer audio, video or transcripts were the South Atlantic fishing council, based in South Carolina, and Wespac, according to a review of the websites by Civil Beat.\n\t\t\t Concerns Over Marianas Trench \n\t\t\tAt the hearing, Oliver said he was unaware of the issues Sablan was raising, and noted that there are restrictions against council members lobbying. Oliver said they are required by law to recuse themselves from considering issues that they have personal financial interest in.\n\t\t\tHe said he believed that the councils were, overall, \u201cvery transparent.\u201d\n\t\t\tSablan scoffed at that.\n\t\t\t\u201cReally, really?\u201d he said to Oliver. \u201cI\u2019m talking about Wespac in particular. It is 4,000 miles away from my district and it is very difficult to find out what they are doing because they don\u2019t put up transcripts of their meetings on their webpage as required by law.\u201d\n\t\t\tWaters off Maug, a volcano in the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument. Sablan said no management plan has been written for the area.(Image couresy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas)\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tOliver said there are legal requirements that call for transparency.\n\t\t\t\u201cSo require Wespac to follow the law,\u201d Sablan said.\n\t\t\tOliver said he would look into it.\n\t\t\tSablan said he had \u201cbeen trying eight years, nine years, 10\u201d to get NOAA to do that, and that his questions had never been fully answered or addressed.\n\t\t\tSablan also asked Oliver to investigate why no management plan had ever been put in place for the Marianas Trench\u00a0marine national monument, which was established by presidential proclamation by President George W. Bush in 2009.\n\t\t\tSablan said the plan was supposed to be completed by 2011. Residents of the Northern Marianas were assured at the time the marine monument was created that it would attract tourism, but that has not been the case, he said.\n\t\t\tMarine monuments are overseen by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The top Trump administration official in the department is Ryan Zinke, secretary of the interior.\n\t\t\tOliver said he believed the Marianas Trench is carrying a \u201cmonument closure designation.\u201d The administration has been reviewing executive orders establishing national monuments, including including the Marianas Trench.\n\t\t\tSablan said he believed that Oliver was mistaken, and suggested it was because he is new to the job.\n\t\t\t\u201cNo, it is not,\u201d he told Oliver. \u201cHow long have you been on this job, Mr. Oliver?\u201d\n\t\t\tOliver said he had occupied his job for almost three months.\n\t\t\t\u201cI appreciate that you have been on the job such a short time, but could I please get answers to those questions,\u201d Sablan responded.\n\t\t\tOliver apologized and promised to investigate.\n\t\t\t\u201cI\u2019ll get to it,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sorry that I don\u2019t have answers on the top of my head.\u201d\n\t\t\tThe hearing last week was not the only recent time Sablan has aired criticism of Wespac. At a hearing in March before the same subcommittee, he said that Wespac was placing priority on fishing industry interests instead of environmental concerns.\n\t\t\t\u201cWe should not allow fishery management councils, including the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, to have veto power over fishing rules in monuments and sanctuaries designed to preserve all marine species and habitats, not just fish,\u201d he said at the hearing, held on March 15.\n\t\t\t\u201cWespac in particular has fought against every marine preservation effort in memory including regulation to stop the gruesome practice of shark-finning and regulations designed to protect threatened and endangered species, green turtles, marine mammals and seabirds,\u201d he said.\n\t\t\t Reauthorizing The Law \n\t\t\tLast week\u2019s hearing revolved around Republican efforts to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act, H.R. 200, and adjust it to make it easier for fishing management councils to gain what sponsors call \u201cflexibility\u201d to tailor fishery management programs as they think best.\u00a0 Another provision would require councils to provide a webcast or audio broadcast of their meetings.\n\t\t\tA Democratic version of a bill to reform Magnuson-Stevens, meanwhile, authored by the subcommittee\u2019s ranking member, Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, would require fishery councils to record non-procedural votes, improve access to information from council hearings, and improve transparency about council members, including information about conflicts of interest.\n\t\t\tSablan said he supported that provision in particular, as drafted in the Democratic statement.\n\t\t\tSablan is a non-voting delegate to the U.S. Congress because the Northern Marianas is a U.S. territory. He can vote in committee meetings and introduce legislation, but cannot vote on the House floor.\n\t\t\tAs a territory, the Northern Marianas is not represented by a senator, and U.S. citizens there cannot vote for president.\n\t\t\tThe relative powerlessness of U.S. territories, particularly Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, came to the forefront of public attention in recent weeks because of the hurricane devastation they sustained, and the perception of slow federal response to the crises.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://sablan.house.gov/congressman-blasts-fishery-council-%E2%80%98improper-lobbying%E2%80%99"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0664730109274387, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}