June 24, 2016 — The following is excerpted from a story published yesterday by the Gloucester Times:
NOAA Fisheries today said it will reimburse Northeast groundfishermen an estimated 85 percent of the 2016 sea days needed for at-sea monitoring, alleviating if only temporarily the burden of fishermen assuming the costs of the observer program.
In a reversal of its previous stance and statements, NOAA said any groundfish sector trip beginning on or after July 1 may be eligible for the reimbursement of at-sea monitoring costs through a program the federal fisheries regulator is developing with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
The agency also stressed the reimbursement program is temporary and unlikely to last beyond the 2016 fishing season but “preserves the the contract relationships sectors already have in place” with third-party at-sea monitoring providers.
Federal groundfish permit holders absorbed the costs of at-sea monitoring — estimated at an average of $710 per day per vessel — on March 1 after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it had exhausted the funds budgeted for that program.