NOAA announced that it plans to redirect roughly $1 million in federal funding for its groundfish dockside monitoring program to help sectors defray some of their costs.
In the groundfish fishery, individual vessels can form groups called sectors and each sector is allocated a share of the year’s allowable catch. Individual sectors then manage their respective harvests as a group, according to an annual plan.
By providing funds directly to sectors, managers and members can determine how best to use the money to develop their respective operations. Sectors may use funds for approved operating costs such as sector manager salaries, office space rental and communications costs.
Effective September 19 until the end of the 2011 fishing year and for the entire 2012 fishing year, there will be no centralized NOAA funded dockside monitoring program. Any sector that chooses to continue dockside monitoring, after September 19, may do so on a voluntary basis at their own cost.
To ensure a smooth transition for sectors and dockside monitoring providers, NOAA will provide funding for a 50 percent coverage rate for sector vessels through September 18.
While NOAA has decided not to centrally fund dockside monitoring for sectors during the 2011 and 2012 fishing years, as it did in 2010, the requirement for the fishing industry (both common pool and sectors) to pay for dockside monitoring beginning in 2013 technically remains in place. The New England Fishery Management Council can recommend that this requirement be eliminated or further modified. The Council is a multi-stakeholder body that develops fishery management plans in the Northeast.
Read this article from NOAA News.