After a ban on congressional earmarks, many thought the practice of members of Congress setting aside special funds for favored projects may have ended.<\/p>\n
Not so fast.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, expenditures for pet projects not included in the proposed budgets of federal agencies are called \u201ccongressionally designated items.\u201d<\/p>\n
Take the case of one such item proposed for Fiscal Year 2010 by the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye: $3 million to \u201cprovide stop-gap relief for Hawai`i fishermen\u201d targeting bigeye tuna.<\/p>\n
According to a press release issued by the senator\u2019s office, \u201cIf Hawai`i fishermen are no longer allowed to fish for BET [bigeye tuna], it is feared that they will lose their market to foreign fisheries.\u201d (The longline fishery at the time was facing a limit on bigeye tuna catches imposed by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission.) All the funding \u201cwill go directly to temporary relief while policy and enforcement changes are pursued,\u201d the press release states.<\/p>\n
So how has the money been spent?<\/p>\n
To find out, Environment Hawai`i<\/i> filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the National Marine Fisheries Service. Here\u2019s what we learned:<\/p>\n
DKI\u2019s COS<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
On March 1, 2011, about a year after the congressional appropriation, Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, was pressuring Mike Tosatto, the director of NMFS\u2019 Pacific Islands Regional Office, to move quickly in getting the funds to the council. The council receives all its funds in the form of grants from NMFS. To tap into this award, then, the council needed to prepare a grant application acceptable to the agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cheads up \u2013 I got a call today from dki\u2019s cos asking if we sent in the grant stuff,\u201d Simonds wrote. \u201cDKI\u201d refers to the senator; \u201ccos\u201d his chief of staff. \u201cI need to work on whatever it is that you folks are uncomfortable about. I believe you folks are going to get a call tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no record of any call, but on March 17, NMFS staffer Scott Bloom forwarded to Wespac\u2019s Eric Kingma a copy of a letter from Inouye that described how he intended the funds to be used: \u201c\u2026 to provide relief for Hawai`i fishermen whose big eye tuna (BET) quotes are not sufficient to consistently meet market demand, and to provide technical assistance to American Samoa as they develop their own BET fishery.\u201d<\/p>\n
With NMFS taking an administrative fee of 5 percent — $150,000 \u2013 off the top of the award, Wespac was left to figure out how to spend the remaining $2.85 million.<\/p>\n
By early April 2011, it had come up with a plan. Some elements did not pass muster with NMFS headquarters, but after several revisions, in August 2011, NMFS approved the grant application.<\/p>\n
Bottom line:<\/p>\n
Relief for Longliners<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
The \u201ccontractual services\u201d are further explained in the application. Of the nearly $2 million budgeted for this, more than half — $1,022,250 \u2013 is for \u201crelief to Hawai`i longline fishermen from bigeye tuna catch limits.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project will involve the development and implementation of a fuel costs assistance program that will provide relief to Hawai`i longline fishermen that fish for tuna in the [Eastern Pacific Ocean],\u201d the application states. In 2010, as the longline fleet approached its bigeye quota in the Western Pacific, Hawai`i longliners had to fish in the more distant waters of the Eastern Pacific. That, apparently was part of the justification for this \u2013 although since 2011, there has been effectively no cap on the bigeye catch of the fleet in either the Eastern or Western Pacific.<\/p>\n
But the application also states that this project \u201cwill provide fuel cost assistance to Hawai`i longline fishermen that land bigeye tuna in Guam, [Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands], or American Samoa.\u201d<\/p>\n
A consultant is to figure out a formula to allocate the fuel assistance; \u201cthe same or additional consultants will be used to implement and administer the program,\u201d the application says. (Environment Hawai`i <\/i>has not been able to learn whether a consultant has been hired for this portion of the grant.)<\/p>\n
According to the budget laid out in the application, $48,000 is allocated to pay a consultant to design the project, while $202,450 will be paid to the \u201cconsultant organization\u201d to implement the program. \u201cThe remaining $809,800 will be provided as fuel cost relief to Hawai`i fishermen and distributed to qualifying vessels,\u201d the application states. Finally, $5,000 is allocated for \u201ceducation and outreach materials.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Dock for Tri Marine<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Tri Marine is one of the world\u2019s largest tuna processors, boasting annual revenues on the order of half a trillion dollars. The company has recently taken over the old Chicken of the Sea cannery site in American Samoa, where its subsidiary, Samoa Tuna Processors (STP), is proposing to build a new dock and a facility that it will use to export bigeye tuna to fresh-fish markets in Japan and the U.S. mainland. Up to now, the American Samoa facilities had exported canned tuna only, consisting mostly of albacore and skipjack.<\/p>\n
To support this effort, which will allow Hawai`i longliners to offload their catch in the territory, the council will be paying $200,000. \u201cThe STP facility is the first large scale operation in American Samoa that will be conducting fresh fish export for the U.S. and Asian markets,\u201d the grant application states. \u201cThe primary species STP is looking to export is bigeye tuna\u2026. Through a private\/public partnership with the American Samoan Government, STP, and the Council, funds will be used to purchase\u201d construction materials.<\/p>\n
In addition, the grant is to pay $200,000 to contract consultants to design and develop plans for expanded docking space in Saipan. This is needed, the application states, \u201cto attract Hawai`i-based longline vessels to CNMI\u2026 Adequate docking space for longline vessels could attract vessels from Hawai`i to base their fishing operations out of CNMI which in turn, may reduce the number of active fishing vessels out of Hawai`i, potentially reducing bigeye tuna landings in Hawai`i and therefore extending the ability of the fleet to fish in the [Western Pacific] for the entire calendar year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reprogramming?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
According to NMFS\u2019 Honolulu office, which administers the grant, a total of $966,381.16 has been disbursed to the council, as of mid-March. The most recent disbursement was made last November.<\/p>\n
The staffer who oversees grant administration said he had been informed that the council \u201cis investigating alternatives to the fuel subsidy program,\u201d but, \u201cuntil I see an official request for reprogramming, nothing has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before any funds can be released in support of the construction of the dock for Samoa Tuna Processors, an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement must be prepared to satisfy requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Honolulu said that the agency would be preparing NEPA documentation, but that it had not yet been done.<\/p>\n
At the March meeting of the council, Mike Tosatto of NMFS\u2019 Pacific Islands Regional Office said that his agency had notified the Corps that the project would not adversely disturb essential fish habitat, one of the factors the Corps must consider in deciding whether to issue a permit for the dock.<\/p>\n
P.T.<\/b><\/p>\n
Volume 23, Number 10 — April 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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