NE groundfish and Alaska Chinook fisheries get lions share of $75 million fishery disaster fund SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [SCOM] February 27, 2014 The bulk of a $75 million fishery disaster relief fund will go to the NE groundfish and Alaska Chinook fisheries NFMS announced. Over $50 million of the fund will go to the two fisheries with the rest divided among commercial fisheries in American Samoa following the tsunami of 2009; commercial fisheries in Mississippi following the Mississippi River flood of 2011; the Florida oyster fishery in the Gulf of Mexico due to a drought in 2012; and fisheries in New York and New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The fund is appropriated by Congress as part of the Fiscal Year 2014 federal budget; the breakdown of the allocations are as follows: Source: NOAA ”Our nation’s fisheries are critically important to the lives and livelihoods of many communities,” said Eileen Sobeck, NOAA Fisheries assistant administrator. “NOAA Fisheries will work with affected communities, states and tribes as quickly as possible to ensure that the disaster relief funding gets allocated as quickly as possible.” NOAA said funding recipients will have broad latitude to determine the best use of the funds to meet the unique needs of their local businesses and communities. Funds can be used for activities that, “restore the fishery or prevent a similar failure in the future, and to assist a fishing community affected by such failure.” There are a number of steps that have to take place before the money can be distributed. Funds are allocated out through the federal grant process. NOAA Fisheries will work with the recipients to develop spend plans and ensure that all statutory and grant requirements are addressed. We have determined that matching requirements do not apply to states, Councils and Commissions in this particular situation. NOAA also announced that Massachusetts and other recipient states will not have to provide a 25 percent match to whatever disaster funds they accept. “That’s good news, because it essentially means there is 25 percent more funding for the states,” NOAA Regional Director John K. Bullard said yesterday. Bullard conceded that the funds are still months away from the hands of eligible fishermen and fishing-related businesses. Speaking to the Gloucester Times, he could not offer any specifics on the formula for dividing the nearly $33 million among the six Northeast states, saying he continues to have discussions with the states’ fishery directors, as well as industry stakeholders, to determine the best manner to deliver the funds. “We want to get the money where it needs to go,” Bullard said. “We understand the urgency. But we want to be intelligent about it. “No amount is enough, so we don’t want to waste any of it,” he added. “Certainly, there will be direct assistance to fishermen.” In its statement, NOAA said the states will have “broad latitude to determine the best use of the funds to meet the unique needs of their local businesses and communities.” It said that the funds may be used for activities that “restore the fishery or prevent a similar failure in the future, and to assist a fishing community affected by such failure.” Bullard, however, said there are potential scenarios where some of the funds will not be apportioned to the states for distribution but will flow to recipients through NOAA. “I only mention this as an example, but there have been discussions among industry representatives and the states’ fishery directors that one use for the funds could be a vessel-buyback program,” Bullard. “That would be a program that would be best administered on a regional level.” Michael Ramsingh Seafood News 1-732-240-5330 Email comments to michaelramsingh@seafood
Posted on: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 18:14:37 +0000
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