WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) sent letters to the heads of two separate Senate Subcommittees urging them to help stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from conducting unnecessary inspections on Maine’s sea cucumber and sea urchin processors.

“I am deeply troubled by the Service’s recent decision to inspect and collect related fees on the import and export of certain seafood – including sea urchins and sea cucumbers,” Senator King wrote in his letters. “Not only is this activity inappropriate, inefficient, and without proper due cause, it is having significant and debilitating economic impacts on those involved in processing these species in Maine and other states. […] This issue is of significant importance to me and I look forward to working with you to achieve a resolution that enables commerce and ensures the safety and integrity of seafood sold in and out of the country.”

Until recently, the industry was able to export fishery products to Asia free from regulatory burdens because, under current law, fishery products are exempt from FWS import and export inspection requirements so long as they are intended for sale to the public as a human food item and the species is not listed as injurious, threatened or endangered, or protected internationally under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The industry directly employs roughly 650 people in Maine – approximately 150 in processing and another 500 in harvest.

However, FWS has too narrowly interpreted the definition of ‘shellfish and fishery products’ – for which there has been a longstanding inspection exemption – to exclude sea urchins and sea cucumbers. As a result, processors now must pay inspection fees and obtain licenses, the cost of which cuts into their profit margin as well as the price they can pay harvesters. Further, FWS requires 48 hours notice to carry out an inspection, which greatly affects the quality and even feasibility of such perishable products reaching their destination retail market in the desired high quality condition.

Congress intended FWS to guard against the import and export of threatened, endangered, and injurious species – not to inspect otherwise harmless seafood, especially when other federal agencies including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are tasked with inspecting seafood bound for the U.S. from abroad.

In his letter to the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, Senator King specifically asked that the subcommittee include language in the forthcoming appropriations report to ensure FWS is appropriately focused on its important responsibility of preventing the trade of injurious, threatened, and endangered species.

The complete text of the letter to the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies can be read HERE and is below while the letter to the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies can be read HERE:

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June 10, 2015

Dear Chairman Murkowski and Ranking Member Udall:

I write to request your assistance in rectifying an instance of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) exceeding its mandate and encroaching on that of other federal agencies. I am deeply troubled by the Service’s recent decision to inspect and collect related fees on the import and export of certain seafood—including sea urchins and sea cucumbers. Not only is this activity inappropriate, inefficient, and without proper due cause, it is having significant and debilitating economic impacts on those involved in processing these species in Maine and other states. It is my request that your subcommittee include the following language in your forthcoming appropriations report to ensure FWS is appropriately focused on its important task of preventing the trade of injurious, threatened, and endangered species:

The committee is very concerned about the Fish and Wildlife Service’s recent and unexplained decision to change its interpretation of their longstanding shellfish and nonliving fishery products inspection exemption to no longer include non-threatened and non-injurious echinoderm, such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers. This shift has had negative economic effects with no demonstrated benefit or connection to the Service’s mandate. The Committee expects the Service to reevaluate its interpretation of shellfish to encompass aquatic invertebrates marketed and consumed as seafood, as the general inspection of seafood for import or export is not included in the Service’s mandate.

Under 50 CFR Part 14, fishery products are exempt from FWS import and export inspection requirements if they are intended for sale to the public as a human food item and the species is not listed as injurious, threatened or endangered, or protected internationally under CITES. The regulation’s language is the basis for the numerous exemptions that FWS has established from the import and export restrictions, including for lobsters, clams, mussels, scallops, hagfish, and various other species. While sea urchins and sea cucumbers do not have the market share or historical appreciation of these other seafoods, I am aware of no basis for treating them differently.

This issue is of significant importance to me and I look forward to working with you to achieve a resolution that enables commerce and ensures the safety and integrity of seafood sold in and out of the country. I have also made my concerns known directly to FWS as well as the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies.

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