Tag Archives: tribes

New Puget Sound Kelp Conservation and Recovery Plan Released

Posted on by
Reply

A newly released comprehensive Puget Sound Kelp Conservation and Recovery Plan was released in May 2020, with participation from leading experts, organizations, agencies, and tribes. Kelp are a foundation species critical to the health of marine biodiversity, including important commercial fisheries. Devastating losses have occurred on the West Coast since the advent of the Warm Blob, and continuing marine heat waves are taking their toll. Puget Sound is feeling the loss as well, and this newly released plan provides background information and a roadmap to kelp conservation and recovery.

Background information: Extensive bull kelp losses in South and Central Puget Sound, along with localized declines throughout the region, are cause for concern for the health and stability of bull kelp and understory kelp forests in Puget Sound. Kelp forests provide a variety of direct and indirect services for nearshore marine habitats and human coastal populations. Kelp forests of Puget Sound are ecosystem foundations, like coral reefs and tropical rainforests, which supports diverse and productive communities. Like eelgrass, kelp ecosystems provide critical habitat that increases overall biodiversity and are important for many economically valuable threatened salmon species and endangered rockfish.

Initiated in 2016 as part of the Puget Sound rockfish recovery effort, scientists and resource managers used a collaborative approach to review local science and policy relating to kelp forests. Coordinated action is needed to reverse downward trends in kelp populations by addressing both longstanding and emerging stressors. The Puget Sound Kelp Conservation and Recovery Plan provides a research and management framework for coordinated action to better understand kelp population dynamics and drivers of declines while also working to strengthen implementation and enforcement of protective measures. Successfully achieving kelp conservation and recovery will require a collaborative effort between our community of Tribes, managing entities, and stakeholders in Puget Sound.

Read the full Kelp Conservation and Recovery Plan and its Appendices

Washington Tribes Support Initiative 1631

Posted on by
Reply

Washington tribal leaders released a series of videos endorsing initiative 1631. Tribes were integral in crafting the initiative to ensure it works well for rural and resource-dependent communities. They brought their wisdom and their muscle to the table and really improved the final result.

Acidification & Climate: Carbon price-and-invest measure on WA ballot

Posted on by
Reply

On November 6th, Washington state will vote on Initiative 1631, a measure to curtail carbon emissions that drive ocean acidification and climate change

The initiative would put a fee on most fossil fuels purchased in the state and invest the proceeds to help people increase fuel efficiency, build clean energy supplies, and adapt to impacts. The price would start at $15 per metric ton of carbon emitted, which equates to roughly 13 cents per gallon of gas, or 15 cents for diesel. The price would rise at $2 per ton annually until the state is on track to hit its emission-reduction targets.

Fuel for fishing vessels will not be charged this fee. The initiative exempts marine fuels from the new carbon price, along with agricultural and aviation fuels.

However, vessel owners, vehicle owners, and seafood companies would be among groups qualified to apply for funding from the pooled carbon revenues — for example to increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions through equipment retrofits.

Washington tribes and fishing community representatives negotiated successfully for a number of changes in the ballot measure last winter. They secured the provision to invest in fuel-efficiency in vessels and vehicles, along with other changes that allow resource-dependent communities to benefit from investments of carbon revenues. The aim of these investments is to help recipients afford to “become the solution.”

If the measure is approved, Washington would join dozens of nations and states worldwide that have enacted similar policies to price carbon emissions and invest the proceeds to increase energy efficiency and accelerate the transition to a cleaner economy.

Initiative 1631 has been endorsed by the Working Group on Seafood and Energy, an association representing fishermen, shellfish growers and fishery-dependent community leaders on energy and carbon policy.

Working Group members Terry Williams of Tulalip Tribes, Larry Soriano of Alaska Ship Supply, and Scott Coughlin; with GOH Deputy Director Julia Sanders

The Working Group actively opposed a 2016 initiative in Washington to price carbon without investing in solutions, saying that approach would be costly and ineffective.

The group believes that revenues raised to tackle carbon emissions should be used for that purpose. They contend that merely relying on higher fuel prices to do the job is a recipe for failure and causes unnecessary economic harm to businesses and people —like fishermen, among others —who must burn fuel to earn a living.

The senior advisor to the Working Group is Brad Warren, Executive Director of the National Fisheries Conservation Center and its Global Ocean Health program. The program focuses on helping fishery-dependent people confront the root causes and the marine consequences of carbon pollution and other waste streams. It was formed by GOH at the behest of seafood industry leaders who wanted a better understanding of climate change consequences and solutions, and a forum to voice their concerns.

Email Brad directly at brad@globaloceanhealth.org. Visit and like the Working Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seafoodandenergy/.