Senator Collins Urges Colleagues to Support Funding Package that Provides Critical Support for Maine’s Lobster Industry
Click HERE to read Senator Collins’ remarks.
Click HERE to watch Senator Collins’ remarks. Click HERE to download video.
Washington, D.C. — In remarks from the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Susan Collins discussed the urgent need to address challenges facing Maine’s lobster industry. The Senate is expected to vote this week on a funding package that includes provisions authored by Senator Collins to support Maine’s lobster industry and fisheries, as well as the National Sea Grant Program and other aquaculture research efforts. Senator Collins is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“Our lobstermen and women have been such careful stewards of this resource, and that has been true for generations. Lobstering is often a family business passed on from generation to generation. The lobstermen and women of Maine care deeply about our lobster stocks and about ensuring that lobsters are there for generations to come,” said Senator Collins. “Unfortunately, our Canadian counterparts often do not follow those same cooperative conservation measures. This legislation encourages the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to work cooperatively with state, national, and Canadian fishery officials on these important issues.”
The fiscal year (FY) 2020 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) funding bill allocates $73.33 billion, which is $9.15 billion more than last year’s funding level. Provisions championed by Senator Collins to benefit Maine include:
· National Sea Grant Program: The bill includes $75 million for the National Sea Grant Program, which is $7 million more than last year’s funding level. Senator Collins has long worked to provide and protect funding for the National Sea Grant Program and was key in securing funding in the FY 2019 appropriations bill, which distributed funding awards last month to advance our understanding of the American lobster and support a regional lobster extension program. Earlier this year, Senator Collins joined a bipartisan group of Senators in rejecting the Administration’s proposal to eliminate funding for the National Sea Grant Program.
o Lobster Research: Within the funding for Sea Grant, $2 million is included to support Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank American lobster research priorities. This research will focus on overcoming reduced availability of herring for lobster bait and stock resilience in the face of environmental changes, including life history parameters, distribution and abundance, and species interactions, with the purpose of informing future management decisions.
· Right Whales: The bill includes $10 million for right whale related research, an increase of $2 million, and directs National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to work with the Canadian government to reduce risks throughout its range. Such efforts include, but are not limited to, continued collaboration on surveillance, cooperative research on the distribution of the whales and their food sources, and coordinated gear marking efforts across jurisdictions. Furthermore, the bill urges NOAA to prioritize the development of long-term tagging methods for right whales, which would enable scientists to better track the whales’ location and distribution. Additionally, the bill directs NOAA to fully evaluate the feasibility and economic implications of any management actions relating to the North Atlantic right whale and requires the agency to incorporate into its rulemaking recent research on the species’ primary food source (which has been shown to be decreasing in abundance in the eastern Gulf of Maine).
· Gray Zone: The bill encourages NOAA to work with Canadian and state fishery officials to develop a cooperative fisheries management plan for the gray zone. At a Commerce Subcommittee hearing in April, Senator Collins urged senior administration officials to work to find an agreement with Canada on fishing gray zones.
· Marine Aquaculture Program: The bill includes $13 million, an increase of $1 million, for the Marine Aquaculture Program.
Click HERE to learn more about the FY 2020 CJS funding bill.
