December 17, 2014 — The following was released by the Gulf Seafood Institute:
Efforts started in January of 2014, when members of the Gulf Seafood Institute (GSI) and the Gulf charter-for-hire community met with congressional leaders from Gulf Coast during a weeklong visit encouraging them to consider properly funding the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) budget to be used for an electronic data collection program for the federally-permitted charter boat fishery in the Gulf of Mexico.
GSI received strong support across party lines on both sides of the Hill for this program. From the outset members of the Gulf Congressional Delegation continued to assure GSI every step of the way that they would make this program a top priority.
“This program has broad support from the charter-for-hire, seafood, conservation, and regulatory communities across all five Gulf States and is ready to roll out immediately once funding is made available,” said Margaret Henderson, executive director of GSI. “It is great to see Congress move forward on this important effort so the Gulf’s charter fleet can start to accurately count catch in 2015.”
The FY 2015 Omnibus Appropriations Act funding covers two priorities: funding the charter-for-hire fleet to purchase the electronic data collection instruments, as well as providing the NMFS with the funding to implement a program to process the information and convert it into landings and estimates data.
Read the full story from the Gulf Seafood Institute