Tag Archives: federal fishery disaster funds
Commission calls for proposals to spend 2012 Salmon Federal Fishery Disaster funds
The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission
is asking for proposals on how to spend $2.2 million in federal disaster funds geared towards salmon research in Cook Inlet and the Yukon-Kuskokwim region. The funding opportunities will be welcome in wake of state budget cuts that claimed the Chinook Salmon Research Initiative. Randy Fisher, the commission’s executive director, said the total amount will be split between six different areas of study, with each study receiving between $20,000 and $400,000. Because the disasters were declared for Cook Inlet and the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region in 2012, the research projects will focus in the same areas. Read the rest here 14:57
State DMR rejects the so-called “Gloucester Plan” for more inclusive fishery aid plan
The full grant of $6.9 million contained in the third phase, or Bin 3, of federal funding being funneled through the state is the final installment of the roughly $21 million in federal fishery disaster funds designated for Massachusetts from the $75 million appropriated by Congress in January 2014. The final plan excludes permit banks from receiving the . Gronendyke said the state will use about $200,000 of the $6.9 million “to partner with industry in developing a viable industry-funded buyback program” with the bulk of the remaining $6.7 being distributed to the fishermen in direct aid. Read the rest here 07:41
Editorial: Get federal fisheries aid to those who need it
The talk of scuttling or at least pushing back any buyback program surfaced through a meeting held a week ago today among NOAA representatives, New England state fishery directors, and a number of stakeholders within the fishing industry, whose input rightfully seems to be playing a role once again in a key decision. Those include the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, which is on board with the potential change. Read the rest here 09:35
Next round of federal fishery disaster funds to start going out in early March
The approximately $8.3 million in the second round of federal fishery disaster aid should begin going out to eligible Massachusetts beneficiaries around the first week of March, the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs said today. The funds, the second installment of the fishery disaster assistance designated for Massachusetts fishermen, crew members, shore-side businesses and recreational fishing stakeholders, brings the state’s total to about $14.8 million to date from the $75 million Congress allocated more than a year ago. Read the rest here 17:15
New Hampshire’s beleaguered commercial fishing industry – $2M in federal funds
New Hampshire’s 400-year-old commercial fishing fleet, made up of small boats, has worked under increasing federal regulations and restrictions since the Magnuson-Stevens Act was passed in 1976. It limits the catch and species of fish that can be caught, as well as when and where fisherman can fish. A 2010 amendment to the act introduced the “catch share” limit system for groundfish that hit small independent boat fishermen, like those in New Hampshire, the hardest. Read more here 08:52
