§1861a Transition to Sustainable Fisheries

Summary

Lets the Secretary of Commerce decide when a fishery has suffered a disaster and provide money and help to recover. An allowable cause can be a natural event (like a hurricane, flood, harmful algal bloom, tsunami, drought, marine heat wave, disease, or El Niño effect), a human-caused event beyond fishery managers’ control (like an oil spill or spillway opening), or an undetermined cause if experts cannot tell what happened. A fishery resource disaster means an unexpected large drop in fish numbers or another big change that cuts access to the fishery, causes big income loss, or hurts people who depend on the fish for subsistence. Predictable cycles or cuts made for conservation do not count. Governors, tribal governments, or other elected representatives may ask the Secretary to make a disaster determination. Requests must be filed within 1 year after the fishing season ends, or 2 years if the same cause lasted more than one season, or 1 year after a full fishery closure is declared. A complete request must name affected stocks and area, say whether the fishery is federal or state, give any known causes, and show evidence such as a large drop in stock biomass, loss of access or gear, and either a “12-month revenue loss” or a clear negative subsistence impact. The Secretary can help provide data if asked and can start a review on the Secretary’s own. Within 20 days of getting a request the Secretary must acknowledge it, give a regional NOAA contact, explain the process and timeline, and say if more information is needed. The Secretary must finish the scientific and economic review within 120 days after getting a complete request or after the season concludes, and must tell the requester and the state governor or tribal rep of the decision within 14 days after the review ends. The Secretary will decide whether the disaster was caused by natural, human, both, or an unknown cause. To find a disaster, the Secretary looks mainly at 12-month revenue losses: losses over 80 percent may qualify; losses of 35–80 percent get a closer look; losses under 35 percent are not eligible. The Secretary must also consider charter fishing impacts and can judge subsistence harms by severity rather than by the revenue test. A fishery that was being overfished in any of the three years before a determination is not eligible unless the Secretary finds overfishing did not cause the disaster. The law allows money to be made available to affected states, tribes, or commissions, or used by the Secretary in cooperation with them. The rules about requests and determinations apply only to requests made after December 29, 2022. The statute authorizes $377,000,000 to be appropriated for fiscal years 2023 through 2027 to help with such disasters. When funds are available, the Secretary will tell the public and affected communities which positive disaster determinations are not yet funded. The Secretary may take up to 90 extra days to evaluate requests. To get an allocation, an eligible requester must send a spend plan within 120 days after being told funds are available. A spend plan must describe goals, work to be done, and a budget. The Secretary must check the plan and tell the requester within 10 days if it is complete or what is missing. Funds must be paid out to grantees no later than 90 days after the Secretary gets a complete spend plan. The Secretary can give money as grants, direct payments, cooperative agreements, loans, or contracts. Funds must be used to restore the fishery, prevent a similar disaster, or help the fishing community. Priority uses include habitat restoration and research, collecting fishery data, reducing fishing capacity or improving management in commercial fisheries, fixing or building fishery infrastructure, direct help to affected people or businesses, and hatchery or stock enhancement work. People doing many of these projects should, where suitable, be people who worked in the affected commercial, charter, or tribal fishery. The federal share for any activity usually cannot be more than 75 percent of the cost. The Secretary can waive the local share if the recipient truly cannot pay and the public benefit justifies full federal funding. Direct assistance and help for subsistence or tribal fisheries may be fully federally funded. Up to 3 percent of funds may be used by NOAA for administration, and up to 5 percent of the remainder may be used by states, tribes, or commissions for their administration. The Secretary must publish guidance on how to collect and submit data for requests. Allows a voluntary fishing capacity reduction program when the Secretary and the appropriate fishery group agree it is needed to stop overfishing, rebuild stocks, or improve management. The program must fit the fishery management plan, stop removed capacity from being replaced, and be cost-effective. Owners can be paid if they permanently give up their permit and either scrap the vessel, have it permanently disabled for fishing, or donate it for nonfishing uses. Permit holders can also be paid if they permanently surrender permits and give up any claim to future limited-access permits. Participation is voluntary, but the Secretary must enforce the rules for anyone who joins. Vessels removed under the program cannot get a fishery endorsement or be sold to a foreign owner or reflagged. The program can be funded by appropriations, public or private funds, certain other federal funds, or an industry fee system. If an industry fee is needed, the Secretary can hold a referendum after notifying and informing affected permit or vessel owners. The fee cannot exceed 5 percent of the ex-vessel value of fish from that fishery, is collected by the first buyer unless otherwise decided, and lasts only until any debt owed for the program is fully paid. All program funds go into the fishing capacity reduction fund under federal law. The Secretary must make framework rules and specific rules for each program. Harvester proponents must give the Secretary a plan that shows who can join, how the program will work, how costs will be kept down, and how support from harvesters will be gained. The Secretary will make contracts with participants. Programs that do not use fair market assessment run reduction auctions where bids are scored and accepted in ranked order until funds run out. Invitations to bid are binding offers. The Secretary must consult with councils, agencies, states, tribes, fishing communities, industry, conservation groups, and others when making and running these programs. The Secretary was also required, within 12 months after January 12, 2007, to report to Congress naming the 20 U.S. fisheries with the worst excess capacity and recommend ways to reduce it and possible funding sources.