Practically the entire budget of the National Marine Fisheries Service as well as the eight regional fishery management councils amounts to a federal subsidy for the commercial fishing industry. By law, however, NMFS must ensure that fishermen do not inflict irreparable harm to federally protected species, such as sea turtles, marine mammals, and sea birds. To do this, NMFS must rely on the reports of interactions between fishing gear and protected species made either by paid, independent observers or by the fishermen themselves. In the Republican-controlled Congress, NMFS is fighting for its very life. The fishermen naturally opposed the plan, with the support of the industry-dominated Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.
Few fishermen are wealthy.
Still, it is time that the fishing industry began to pay the real costs of managing the resources it exploits. Once every April 15, and again at the point of sale. If there is some way of distributing the costs of the observer program so that not only the fishermen, but the auction houses, fish wholesalers, and chandlers pay a share, NMFS should try to find it. The task force's work remains unfinished, but the Department of Land and Natural Resources' Division of Aquatic Resources was hopeful that it would have a plan available to go out for public review by the end of October. Watch newspapers for notices of public informational meetings on the state bottomfish management plan.