May 21, 2020 — Gov. Kay Ivey has announced that more than $11 million in federal relief money, some of it coronavirus-related, will be directed to fishing- and seafood-related industries.
Details such as who will be eligible for the funds and how the application process will work remain to be ironed out. A statement issued Wednesday by the governor’s office said some of the money will be used to offset coronavirus-related losses, while the lion’s share “will be used to address a range of impacts including those to commercial fishing businesses, charter/for-hire fishing businesses, qualified aquaculture operations, seafood processors, and the fishing ecosystem and environment.”
According to the governor’s office, $3.3 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act will go to “qualifying applicants in the state’s seafood industry who have been affected by the COVID-19 epidemic.”
An additional $8.6 million comes from federal fisheries disaster relief funds being directed to Alabama because of freshwater flooding that harmed Gulf of Mexico fisheries in 2019. According to Wednesday’s announcement, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division to establish eligibility guidelines.