January 16, 2019 — The government shutdown is jeopardizing jobs and tens of billions of dollars in revenue for the heavily regulated commercial fishing industry, a coalition of groups representing fishermen from Cape Cod to Alaska said Tuesday.
The Commerce Department’s fisheries service has furloughed key employees that help to oversee commercial fishing operation and the quotas handed out to fishermen that need to be in place and enforced before they can enter the water.
Without the oversight, fishing data isn’t collected, and the risk of overfishing becomes a problem. That situation prevents fishermen from working and results in lost catches.
Specifically, a plan worked out between the federal government and anglers to fish for highly prized red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico could be in jeopardy due to the shutdown.
Read the full story at the Washington Examiner