Honolulu doesn’t even make the list of the nation’s top 10 ports when it comes to the volume of fish landed, but the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council leads the way when it comes to dollars hauled in.
According to an August 2007 press release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Honolulu was not among the top ten commercial fishery landing ports. In terms of the value of fish landed, it came in at fourth ($54.6 million worth of seafood) – far behind New Bedford, Massachusetts, the leader with $281.2 million worth of seafood landed.
But when it comes to the value of landed grants, the council takes a back seat to none. A review of information posted at NOAA’s grantsonline website shows that among the eight regional fishery management councils, the Western Pacific council races ahead of the competition. The chart below shows the basic five-year cooperative agreements, covering most day-to-day costs, in the second column. The “received to-date” column indicates the total amounts received on the cooperative agreements as of the most recent postings on the website. The next-to-last column on the right shows additional grants received as a result of congressional earmarking. The final column shows total receipts from NOAA since January 1, 2005, for each of the councils.
The NOAA grants are not the whole story, of course. Often funds intended to support fisheries in a given region are directed to agencies other than the councils, such as university-affiliated programs and research.
In addition, in the 2008 budget, Congress inserted earmarks that will directly aid the fishing industry in certain areas. As reported elsewhere in this issue, the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument budget was boosted by nearly $7 million to buy out bottomfishers and lobster fishers. Another earmark directs nearly $13.4 million to the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries to help fishers who have been economically harmed by regulations in the groundfish fishery. (The full 2008 appropriations bill and committee report, including a list of earmarks, are available online at the Library of Congress website: [url=http://www.thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app08.html.)]www.thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app08.html.)[/url]
— Patricia Tummons
Volume 18, Number 12 June 2008
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