Mississippi
Gulf of Mexico, USA — A landmark effort to help improve reef fish management in the Gulf has nearly reached program capacity, with less than two dozen vessel openings left in the Charter-For-Hire data collection project. Charter captains, the Gulf Council, and stakeholders Gulf-wide have long called for improved data to manage the reef fish […]
In a cover story “Damage Control in the Gulf” on the $20 billion Justice Department settlement of the BP Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that polluted the Gulf of Mexico with millions of barrels of oil, Capitol Hill’s CQ magazine’s writers Mike Magner and Jeremy Dillion give an in-depth analysis of the recent agreement between the company and the Justice Department, as well as how it will affect the Gulf and Gulf seafood.
The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship under the chair of Louisiana Senator David Vitter, recently held hearings on “The Impacts of Federal Fisheries Management on Small Businesses”. In a letter, the Gulf Seafood Institute urged committee members to keep in mind the myriad benefits this landmark legislation has had on Gulf coast fisheries.
Fisherman in the Gulf of Mexico, be they commercial, charter-for-hire or recreational, all agree on one fact: the growing need for more timely and accurate data for fishery management and science. Recognizing the need for more timely data collection, the NOAA has developed an implementation plan to expand the use of both electronic monitoring and electronic reporting.
The Fiscal Year 2016 Omnibus Appropriations Act heading to the White House for a Presidential signature includes $10 million for Gulf of Mexico fisheries data collection, stock assessments and research due to the tireless efforts led by Alabama’s Senator Richard Shelby and Florida’s Representative David Jolly.
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