Fighting For Maine Jobs

WASHINGTON – Last night, the House Appropriations Committee added language that would help remove burdensome federal regulations on Sea Urchins and Sea Cucumbers to the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies 2016 Appropriations bill. Without this language, this industry in Maine was facing extinction.

“I applaud the House Appropriations committee for adding this job-saving language to the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies 2016 Appropriations bill,” said Congressman Bruce Poliquin. “Our sea urchin and sea cucumber industry employs more than 650 hard-working Mainers and is one of the best in the world. Washington should be working to help strengthen and grow our coastal jobs and economy – not add more federal red tape.”

At issue is the Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FSW) requiring Sea Urchin and Sea Cucumber processors to obtain a federal import/export license, submit to inspections after providing 48 hours of notice to FWS, and pay fees that can cost hundreds of dollars per shipment. These highly perishable products have a shelf life of just seven days, during which the creatures need to arrive at a processing facility from port, be processed, shipped and arrive at their ultimate destination, which is typically Asia.

Prior to 2014, the fishing industry was able to export Sea Urchins and Sea Cucumbers to Asia without any mandatory federal regulations because they were treated the same way as other shellfish and non-living fishery products.  

In his letter to the Appropriations Committee, Congressman Bruce Poliquin wrote, “Thus, while the regulation renders lobsters, clams, mussels, scallops and other staples of Maine’s seafood industry completely outside the reach of the FWS import/export licensing, fee, and inspection requirements, the FWS’s interpretation does not exempt sea urchins and sea cucumbers.”

The FSW has been unable to answer why such a sudden change in policy and has even gone so far as to seek to collect payments and penalties retroactive to 2011, which could cost thousands of dollars and put the entire Maine Sea Urchin and Sea Cucumber industry out business – killing jobs. The language included in the appropriations bill at the urging of Congressman Poliquin will include Sea Urchins and Sea Cucumbers in the definition of shellfish.

Below is the letter from Congressman Bruce Poliquin.

June 9, 2015

Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee
House Appropriations Committee
B-308 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Committee Members,

I write to urge you to include minor yet critical language in the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies 2016 Appropriations bill.  This language has been proposed by my colleague from Maine, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree.  Please consider this letter my full support for the language.

The Maine Sea Urchin and Sea Cucumber industry employs more than 650 hardworking Mainers and is a vital component to Maine’s coastal economy.  Once these sea urchins and sea cucumbers have been harvested and landed, they are purchased by processors, who prepare them for human consumption.  While a growing number of the end products are consumed domestically, the vast majority are shipped to Asian markets, primarily Japan.  These highly perishable products have a shelf life of just seven days, during which time the creatures need to arrive at the processing facility from port, be processed, shipped to and arrive at their ultimate destination (typically Asia).  This high turnaround time leaves virtually no time for delays that result from overly burdensome mandatory federal inspections. Until 2014, the industry was able to export processed product to Asia free from any federal regulatory burdens, aside from the standard customs process.

In 2014, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) field office in New York began to require some processors to comply with the provisions of 14 C.F.R. Part 14.91. Compliance requires the processors to submit to certain requirements including obtaining a federal import/export license, submitting to inspections after providing a minimum of 48 hours’ notice to the FWS, and paying fees that can total hundreds of dollars per shipment.  Additionally, the FWS has requested past records from some processors and indicated that it is seeking to collect payments and penalties retroactive to 2011, which would total thousands of dollars and potentially put many processors, and in turn harvesters, out of business.

A longstanding exemption from these regulatory burdens exists for "[s]hellfish and nonliving fishery products that... are imported or exported for purposes of human or animal consumption...." "Shellfish" is defined as "an aquatic invertebrate animal having a shell, including, but not limited to, (a) an oyster, clam, or other mollusk; and (b) a lobster or other crustacean...." Unfortunately, while sea urchins are aquatic invertebrate animals that have a hard spherical “test” that the scientific community generally refers to as a shell, the FWS has decided to exclude them from the regulation’s broad "shellfish" exemption.  Similarly, although the scientific community generally considers both sea urchins and sea cucumbers to be “nonliving fishery products” and both species are processed and exported solely for human consumption, the FWS does not treat them as falling within the “nonliving fishery product” exemption.

Thus, while the regulation renders lobsters, clams, mussels, scallops, and other staples of Maine's seafood industry completely outside the reach of the FWS import/export licensing, fee, and inspection requirements, the FWS’s interpretation does not exempt sea urchins and sea cucumbers. This proposed language would fix this and restore the pre-2014 practices by removing the unnecessary and burdensome federal regulation from two innocuous species of sea life, whose inclusion in the inspection regime has no basis in science, who are not listed as endangered or injurious species, who pose no threat from an ecological or consumer perspective, and whose domestic harvesting is thoroughly regulated at the state level.  The language is simple and specific: “50 CFR Part 14 does not apply to the enchinoderms commonly known as sea urchins and sea cucumbers.”

I urge you to include this language in the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. Thank you for your hard work and consideration of my request.