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Courtesy of NAA:

At the request of the National Aquaculture Association (NAA), the Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, is hosting a teleconference to discuss the United States Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Migratory Bird Conflict Management Proposal for the Double-Crested Cormorant on Wednesday July 8, 2020 from 4 – 5: 00 p.m.

Teleconference participation details will be provided upon receipt of RSVP. RSVPs should be sent to Prianka.Sharma@sba.gov. The purpose of the teleconference will be to gather specific small entity input and presentations on the proposed rule. The proposed rule can be accessed here.

Agency staff from FWS have been invited to attend this roundtable; however, their participation has not yet been confirmed.

Parties interested in making oral presentations during the teleconference should indicate this in their RSVP. Small entities include small businesses and small governmental jurisdictions with a population of 50,000 or less. The SBA defines small entities for finfish or shellfish farming or fish hatcheries as being those farms with average annual receipts of $1 million or less.

The NAA requested SBA Office of Advocacy action when it became apparent the FWS does not intend to re-establish an Aquaculture Depredation Order. The agency’s proposed double-crested cormorant management rule consists of two actions: 1) create a state and tribal permit to manage double-crested cormorant populations during summer nesting and 2) increase the allocation of birds that can be killed nationally to 123,157.

The NAA supports creating the state/tribal permit and a national increase. We also strongly support re-establishing the original Aquaculture Depredation Order (1998 to 2016) that successfully managed double-crested cormorant predation on farm-raised fish through collaborative efforts with the US Department of Wildlife Services, FWS and the fish farming community.

Farmers or aquaculture associations interested in presenting during the teleconference should email Prianka Sharma, Assistant Chief Counsel, SBA Office of Advocacy, Prianka.Sharma@sba.gov and copy Paul Zajicek, Executive Director, National Aquaculture Association, naa@thenaa.net.

Participants should present information describing fish and/or economic losses, costs and efforts non-lethally and lethally manage double-crested cormorants, and inadequacies associated with the FWS individual permit.

For additional information or to answer questions, please contact the NAA Office at naa@thenaa.net or by calling 850-216-2400.