According to the House committee report that details what Congress intended for the 2003 appropriation of $100 million for fisheries relief (including $5 million for Hawai`i), no more than five percent was to be used for administrative expenses and “no funds may be used for lobbying activities or representational expenses.”
Of the 24 fishermen and fishing groups scheduled to receive checks from the state, the Hawai`i Longline Association scored the highest and, therefore, is getting the lion’s share of the $2.2 million in direct assistance. If all goes smoothly, the HLA will have received roughly $1.5 million in disaster-relief funds – reimbursement, its president says in the application, for legal costs incurred between 2001 and 2005. Although the congressional language seems to prohibit this, National Marine Fisheries Service grant manager Scott Bloom says that because the money will be going to individual HLA members to use however they want, the disbursement does not fall under “representational expenses.”
As background, the HLA sued NMFS in 2001 because the fisheries service had not allowed HLA to be a consulted party as it prepared a biological opinion on the effects of longlining on turtles. At the time, the Hawai`i longline fishery was handcuffed by a federal injunction that prohibited fishing in turtle-sensitive areas while the NMFS completed an environmental impact statement and biological opinion for longlining. Based on that, NMFS adopted new rules that HLA opposed. Those rules, like the injunction, included closed areas. In 2003, a federal judge found that NMFS had improperly excluded HLA from the process of developing the biological opinion. The bi-op and rules based on it were vacated, and in 2004, the longline fishery reopened under softer rules that did not include closed areas.
In its application to DAR, HLA president (and Western Pacific Fishery Management Council member) Sean Martin stated that the association incurred $1,973,155 in legal costs from 2001 thought late 2005 “to protect its members’ rights to continue to participate in the Hawai`i longline fishery.” Because it had already received a federal settlement of $500,000, the HLA requested reimbursement of legal fees and expenses for the remaining $1,473,155.
“[The expenses] were paid by its members from their gross profits. Such compensation will be used by HLA members, at their individual discretion, for gear replacement, vessel modifications and other costs relating to improving safety and compliance with federal regulations…. The reimbursements will provide widespread benefits in the pelagic fishery sector, affecting some 130 vessels and 600 fishermen,” HLA’s application states.
The application adds that the HLA will distribute the lump sum to its members based on dues they paid from 2001 to 2005.
Taking a page from the HLA, the Leeward Bottomfishing Hui (now reorganized as the NWHI Bottomfishing Hui) submitted an application for litigation costs as well, both past ($22,600) and anticipated future costs (more than $372,000). Earl Miyamoto of the DAR Fisheries Disaster Relief Program said the decision was made to reimburse them only for the $22,600 already spent on litigation. A separate application for $70,000 was awarded — $10,000 for reorganizing as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, and $60,000 for a one-year educational program, including hiring of a public relations officer and development of a web site.
— Teresa Dawson
Volume 17, Number 7 — January 2007
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