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## National Marine Fisheries Service

**Economics and Social Science**

**NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), also known as "NOAA
Fisheries," requests \$5.2 million (M) in FY '05 for Economics and
Social Science, an increase of \$1.2M from the FY '04 Omnibus level.**

#### FY 2005 Program Changes

**Economics and Social Science Research**

NOAA is requesting a total of \$5.22 million, an increase of \$1.18
million above the FY '04 Omnibus, for its economic and social science
program to Number range CHAPTERconduct economic and socio-cultural
analyses required to support each of NMFS' 47 Fishery Management Plans
(FMPs). A core function of this program is to assess and predict the
human impacts of our stewardship decisions, including

-   Number range CHAPTERassessing the benefits and costs of all proposed
    regulations, including determining the magnitude and distribution of
    impacts on fishery participants, shoreside industry and the fishing
    community;

-   Number range CHAPTERconducting economic impact analyses to determine
    how a regulation will ripple through a local economy affecting
    coastal employment and income; and

-   determining the most cost-effective approach for achieving a
    conservation goal

Number range CHAPTERTo maintain a balanced research program, NOAA
proposes to divide the requested \$1.18M increase between investments in
economic data collection programs and applied economic and
socio-cultural research. A \$0.93M increase will be targeted towards
meeting current and emerging research and assessment needs. This
investment will enable NMFS to estimate net benefits for two

additional FMPs and complete fishing community profiles in two
additional states. In addition, regional economic analyses will include
estimating harvest, bycatch and fishing capacity; assessing the
short-run and long-run effects of marine protected areas; conducting
economic assessments of habitat recovery and restoration Number range
CHAPTERprojects; and developing integrated models for assessing
ecosystem benefits.

The balance of the requested increase in funds (\$0.25M) will be used to
enhance fisheries economic data collection programs. High quality,
long-term, continuous economic data collection programs are needed to
conduct legislatively mandated regulatory analyses as well as to support
critically needed applied economic research on strategic fisheries
issues including improving estimates of harvest, bycatch and fishery
entry/exit decisions, which are critical to understanding and assessing
fishing capacity.

Number range CHAPTERThese tandem investments in data collection and
applied research and analysis will enhance NOAA's economic and social
sciences capabilities, ensuring that decision-makers are able to weigh
the ecological, economic and social impacts of their decisions. A key
feature of the federal regulatory process is that the Agency cannot
simply implement a regulation to achieve a conservation standard but
instead must consider a suite of management alternatives. Economic and
socio-cultural analyses can identify the alternative that minimizes
impacts on stakeholders while still achieving conservation goals, thus
ensuring that living marine resources are managed to the greatest
benefit of the Nation.

Number range CHAPTERNumber range CHAPTER**For More Information:**

**Gary Reisner**

**301-713-2259**