June 23, 2015 — The following is an excerpt from an editorial published in the Gloucester Daily Times:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has in recent weeks been casting about for a pool of money to tap for its controversial onboard fishing vessel monitoring program. Efforts to make fishermen pay directly for the program – yet another unfunded federal mandate – have so far fallen short.

Not to be deterred, however, NOAA administrators have come up with an even more disturbing idea – take the money from the emergency funds the government set aside for fishermen.

On Friday, NOAA Regional Administrator John K. Bullard said the $2.5 million needed to pay for at-sea monitoring for the rest of this fishing season could come from yet-to-be-delivered federal fishery disaster aid.

“The states sill have about $10 million in the ‘third bin,'” Bullard said. “(Monitoring) would be an eligible use of those funds.” 

We’re sorry, Mr. Bullard. That money is already spoken for.

The so-called “third bin” of the roughly $33 million allocated to the five coast New England states and New York last year is set aside for a permit buyback and boat buyout program that would allow fishermen to leave the industry without facing total financial ruin.

That plan has been delayed by squabbling over how to develop a system that would fairly split the money among the states. The extended bureaucratic wrangling has raised the possibility the $10 million could be spent elsewhere, and it prompted NOAA’s leaders to suggest they get a cut.

Read the full editorial at the Gloucester Daily Times