Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Chairman of the Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee, said he intends to vigorously exercise oversight as a subcommittee chairman, and he did not sound enthusiastic about two NOAA funding requests totaling nearly $100 million.
Begich said he's heard constituent concerns about recent regulations related to the charter halibut industry approved by the North Pacific council that resulted in hundreds of permit denials. Begich stressed that the subcommittee role is not to "circumvent or supplant" the council role, but hearings to examine how the program is working after implementation would be appropriate.
"What the committee can do in that first year is oversight with seeing what has been the impact, has it been what people thought, are there things that need to be changed?" he said. "That was my biggest complaint about ocean zoning. There was nothing about economic impacts."
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., also a member of the Oceans subcommittee, has introduced an amendment to the MSA requiring an annual economic impact analysis of all federal fishery management plans. Brown's amendment is related to the bitter fight being waged over New England fishery management after the controversial introduction of catch share allocations among sectors.
Read the complete story from The Alaska Journal of Commerce.