WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Ranking Member on the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard yesterday led a group of 16 U.S. Senators in a letter urging the Chairman and Ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science to increase funding to increase the President’s Fiscal Year 2011 request for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)by $47 million to fully invest in the science that supports the nation’s fisheries.
“Science is the foundation upon which sustainable fisheries must be constructed,” said Senator Snowe. “The level of funding for fisheries science called for in the President’s budget request for fiscal year 2011 is simply insufficient to support the hard-working fishermen who are the backbone of our coastal economy. Yesterday, the last can of sardines rolled off the production line in a century old fish processing plant and today 128 people are out of work because of it. The Stinson cannery did not close because the resource is overfished, but because we do not have enough confidence in our stock assessments to know how much fish we can catch. Continuing to underfund our fisheries science programs will exacerbate this fundamental flaw in the system and cost more employees their jobs.”
The lawmakers said the current budget fails to adequately invest in fundamental fishing programs and, in some cases, reduces funding from the Fiscal Year 2010 levels. Specifically, the group requested the Subcommittee increase funding in the areas of: stock assessments, cooperative research, fisheries statistics, fisheries observers and survey and monitoring projects.
“These increased investments will result in a higher degree of confidence in our stock assessments, which will quickly pay dividends by reducing the amount of time it will take our fisheries to rebuild, and in some cases, allowing higher catch levels in the very near term,” wrote the lawmakers.
The letter specifically calls for an addition of $10 million to the cooperative research budget. Cooperative research is science conducted in conjunction with fishermen. This symbiotic effort allows fishermen to better understand the precise needs of scientists, and allows scientists to take advantage of fishermen’s knowledge in what is widely considered a win-win that leads to better data and an improved relationship among industry members, scientists, and regulators.
“As I discussed with Dr. Lubchenco during our NOAA budget hearing last month, if NOAA is serious about rebuilding the climate of trust between regulators and fishermen, cooperative research funding must be maintained,” added Senator Snowe.
Along with Senator Snowe, the letter was signed by her colleagues Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), John Kerry (D-Mass), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.); Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D- R.I.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), George LeMieux (R-Fla.), Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont).
Signed copy of the letter is attached.