Responding to industry red flags, the regional fishery management council has signaled a willingness to rethink the scheduled shift in at-sea monitoring costs from the government to the industry for the 2012 fishing year.
Meanwhile, language directing NOAA to continue fully funding at sea monitoring has been written into a Senate appropriations bill.
"The council motion is 100 percent supported by the Northeast Seafood Coalition," Jackie Odell, executive director of the Gloucester-based coalition, said in an email to the Times. "Unfortunately, it may not be done in time for May 1, 2012 (the start of the 2012 fishing cycle), when industry payment kicks in. This makes what Congress does that much more important.
"The coalition thanks the entire New England delegation, especially Sens. (John) Kerry, (Olympia) Snow and (Susan) Collins," she added, "for working directly with us to make sure language directing their agency to fully fund monitoring in 2012 was included in the Senate fiscal year 2012 bill.
"This is the first critical hurdle in this appropriations process," Odell said, "The current annual catch limits and the financial state of the industry are not at a level to support at sea monitoring in 2012."
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times