New England: Fishermen say new cost will sink industry
Local ground fishermen will be forced by the government to pay for their own compliance monitoring as of March 1, a cost some say will destroy the fishing industry. Fishermen will need to pay for at-sea monitors to observe their compliance with federal regulations starting Tuesday, according to the National Oceanic and Administrative Administration, which regulates the country’s fisheries. Monitors are required to join fishermen on 24 percent of their fishing days, and fishermen will have to pay on 20 percent of their fishing days. Each of those days is expected to cost approximately $700, industry members have estimated. Read the rest here 08:56
“When the official [Sam Rauch] said NOAA was prohibited by a recent court ruling from funding the program…”
I don’t know to what ruling his vague reference was made, but if he was referring to the finding of the U.S. Appeals Court in Oceana v. Locke that the Agency had too much discretion to determine the available funding for SBRM, he’s misrepresenting that ruling.
In NOAA’s own words in a response to an objection (Comment #2) to the Standardized Bycatch Reporting Methodology (SBRM) Omnibus Amendment: “The SBRM Omnibus Amendment does not specifically modify the groundfish sector at-sea monitoring program or its objectives, including the requirement for the groundfish industry to pay for its portion of costs for at-sea monitors if the Federal government does not.”
The important operative term being “IF” the federal government does not… So if this is the “recent court ruling” the NOAA official references, then Sen. Ayotte’s query stands: “…there must be some way to fund the $3.78 million at-sea monitoring program through NOAA’s $5.4 billion budget.”
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/06/30/2015-15619/magnuson-stevens-fishery-conservation-and-management-act-provisions-fisheries-of-the-northeastern