March 26, 2018 — The federal omnibus spending bill that U.S.President Donald Trump signed into law Friday, 23 March, included a provision lifting a fee New England groundfish fishermen paid for at-sea monitors to accompany them on excursions.
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) said the spending package now prevents the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from placing the cost of at-sea monitors on fishermen in the Northeast. The charge was as much as USD 700 (EUR 564) per day on fishing trips.
“New Hampshire fishermen face enough daunting challenges – the last thing they need right now is to be further burdened with a costly regulatory fee,” Shaheen said in a press release. “We should be focused on making it easier, not harder for our commercial fishing industry to compete in today’s market, which is why I fought to include relief for at-sea monitoring costs this year. I’ll continue to prioritize our fishermen and work to ensure the industry’s long-term sustainability.”
At-sea monitors collect data on board commercial fishing vessels by interviewing boat captains, observation, and photographing their catches. The monitors weigh both the fish kept and discarded as well as monitor interactions with protected species.
The new law ends a lengthy battle taken on by fishermen in the region who fought to keep the government from shifting the cost onto them. They filed the suit in December 2015, nine months after NOAA announced it would start charging them for the monitors.
Read the full story at Seafood Source