Steve Bittenbender works as a freelance journalist based in Louisville, Kentucky. Besides working for SeafoodSource.com as a contributing editor, Steve also works as an editor for Government Security News and as the Kentucky correspondent for the Reuters News Service. He also works as a sports writer for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal and The Associated Press. He has received awards from the Kentucky Press Association and the Louisville Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for his on-going and enterprise reporting work.
Author Archive
A U.S. congressman representing the state of Louisiana has asked the Biden administration to move quicker on disaster determinations for fisheries in his state.
U.S. Rep. Garret Graves (R-Louisiana) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on Tuesday, 1 February, urging her to expedite her review of claims that hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta, and Ida significantly affected fisheries over the past two
… Read More
Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch is proposing to add several fisheries to its “Red List,” a grouping of seafood products consumers should avoid because the ways they’re harvested impact other species or the environment …
Photo courtesy of marla dawn
… Read More
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the American COMPETES Act on Friday, 4 February on a near party-line vote.
The USD 350 billion (EUR 305.6 billion) spending bill tackles supply chain and trade issues included several fishing provisions from other bills – including the expansion of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) to cover all species that enter American ports.
H.R. 4521 passed by a 222-210 vote. One Republican member
… Read More
A report released by Oceana on Tuesday, 1 February, calls on the U.S. to expand the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), saying that the federal legislation designed to prevent fraudulently labeled products and specimens harvested from illegal fishing practices from entering the country includes too many loopholes.
The 36-page report notes a report by the U.S. International Trade Commission found that of the seafood imported into the U.S.
… Read More
Atlantic herring fishermen who lost their case in 2021 against the federal government regarding an at-sea monitoring program filed their opening brief late last week to an appellate court seeking to overturn the decision.
That brief, which was filed to the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals late Friday, 28 January, claims Rhode Island U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Sullivan erred last year when she ruled the Magnuson-Stevens Act allowed the
… Read More
A group of fishing businesses and industry organizations filed a lawsuit Monday, 31 January, against several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Interior and NOAA Fisheries, for approving the Vineyard Wind offshore energy development project in 2021 ...
Image courtesy of Vineyard
… Read More
Citing a combination of record job growth and depressed workforce participation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor announced on Thursday, 27 January, an increase in H-2B visas for the first half of the current fiscal year ...
Photo courtesy of Sundry
… Read More
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced Friday, 21 January, 2022, her office has approved disaster declarations for eight Alaska fisheries.
The rulings means those fisheries are now eligible to federal assistance through NOAA. No funding total was mentioned in the NOAA release, with the amounts to be determined at a later date.
“Helping communities to bounce back from the impacts of fishery disasters is essential, and we are
… Read More
Starting in February, NOAA Fisheries will enact a ban prohibiting port access for all Mexican fishing boats that operate in the Gulf of Mexico.
The federal agency said in a statement that the move, which will become effective Monday, 7 February, comes as the U.S. issued a “negative certification” against its southern neighbor for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in a report to Congress last August. American
… Read More
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a federal lawsuit on Monday, 10 January, saying a permit NOAA Fisheries authorized for sablefish further endangers Pacific humpback whales.
In December 2021, NOAA Fisheries approved the use of pot gear for harvesting sablefish. The pots sit on the ocean floor in a two-mile long string with vertical lines tied to each end of the string, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for
… Read MoreRecent Articles
