Fisheries Chief OK With Cut in Funding

Five months after a presidential commission recommended spending billions more to protect the nation’s oceans, the White House has proposed a budget that would reduce funding for fisheries and eliminate the Pacific Islands regional office in Hawaii.

The proposed $727-million National Marine Fisheries Service budget slices nearly $100 million off the current year’s spending -- an 11.6% decline.

And it would cut spending in half on programs that monitor and protect marine mammals, including whales, bottlenose dolphins and porpoises.

But the spending blueprint would also increase money for enforcement and buy a new research boat for the West Coast.

William Hogarth, who heads the Fisheries Service, said he will have to turn to Congress to replace funding for the Pacific Islands office, because shutting it down “is not an option.”

But overall, he said, “I’m very happy with our budget. You can always use more. But if you look at the economic conditions in this country, we got a fair shake.”

The proposed budget would allow the agency to hire two more observers to monitor fishing vessels and their interaction with “bycatch” -- unwanted animals that get caught up in fishing gear. It also provides additional money for vessel-tracking systems, which are used to help monitor where commercial boats are fishing.

Hogarth said he was particularly pleased to get an additional research vessel because the agency’s existing ships are having mechanical problems and lack the technology necessary for deep-water studies.

This is the fourth new vessel ordered by the agency in recent years. The first is just being delivered to the Alaska region.

Environmental groups said the funding cuts fly in the face of two major reports last year that called for greater protections for the oceans, including the creation of a $4-billion government trust fund to pay for improved research, fisheries management and pollution controls.