According to Congressman Walter Jones “Catch shares are not wanted in North Carolina. The last thing the federal government should be doing in these economic times is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to expand a program that will put even more Americans out of work.”
The Congressmen released the following statement:
Washington, D.C. – Yesterday U.S. Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-3) filed a request to block funding for expansion of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Catch Share Program into fisheries in which North Carolina fishermen participate. The move comes in response to NOAA’s Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request which included proposals to cut funding for fisheries science and add $36.6 million to expand implementation of catch share programs into fisheries across the nation. Catch share programs grant shares of the total allowable catch in a given fishery to particular fishermen or groups. Congressman Jones asked the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science to include language in its Fiscal Year 2011 appropriations bill to block funding for new catch share programs in any fisheries under the jurisdiction of the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic Fisheries Management Councils. These councils have jurisdiction over the vast majority of the fisheries in federal waters in which North Carolina fishermen participate.
“Fishermen in Eastern North Carolina and many places across the country vehemently oppose catch share programs as nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to get fishermen to leave the business and to destroy fishing communities,” said Congressman Jones.
“The reality is that to the extent that solid science demonstrates that reductions in catch in any given fishery are necessary, there are far better options than catch shares for achieving those reductions. The bottom line is catch shares are not wanted in North Carolina. The last thing the federal government should be doing in these economic times is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to expand a program that will put even more Americans out of work.”