Representatives Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), and Walter Jones (R-North Carolina), wrote to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, expressing their concerns over the rising costs of the federally-mandated scallop observer program.
Among the concerns raised by the two Congressmen:
– Despite the provision of federal funding for observers in most U.S. fisheries, scallopers have been entirely excluded from such assistance, and have been forced to support the rising costs almost entirely on their own.
– Observers cost scallop vessels approximately $775 per day.
– Even when federal assistance has been made available to scallopers, such aid has been limited, and unavailable to most scallopers.
Read the letter from Congressmen Barney Frank and Walter Jones.