August 2, 2013 — As numerous Gloucester fishing vessels rest at the dock, with fishermen unable to cut a profit, NOAA announced Thursday a plan not to directly bail out fishermen but to fund projects that the agency expects to eventually rebuild the industry.
The $5 to $10 million in potential funds for the current fiscal year would allow the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out awards that would mostly range between $30,000 and $250,000 for fishing-related projects.
City officials and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren are applauding the funding plan.
“I’m pleased NOAA is making this grant solicitation, which is an excellent chance for our ports to secure funding that will help the fishing industry innovate and modernize for the future,” Warren said in a prepared statement.
The money comes from a tariff on foreign imported fish. When the United States began increasing foreign fish imports around 1954, Congress voted to allot some 30 percent of tariff revenues to assisting the fishing industry, under legislation called the Saltonstall Kennedy Act, for then-senators Leverett Saltonstall and president-to-be John F. Kennedy.
In recent years, even with the United States now importing 92 percent of its seafood from foreign shores, those tariffs dropped straight into NOAA research. But NOAA’s Thursday announcement proposed injecting some of that money back into the harbor to be used in “carrying out projects related to U.S. commercial and recreational fisheries” in hopes of “rebuilding and maintaining sustainable fisheries practices.”
While the announcement lists off many potential projects surrounding aquaculture and harbor research, it also dips into examining the socio-economic impacts of measures like quotas on certain fisheries, and would encourage projects meant to expand the buying markets for local seafood.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times