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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 5
January 2006
NMFS has $4.5m for fishermen’s VMS setup costs
SILVER SPRING, MD - Big Brother issues aside, one of the most troubling things about vessel monitoring system (VMS) requirements is the price – about $2,000 for the unit itself, plus additional installation and service fees. But now, the federal government may be ready to defray some of that equipment cost.
The fiscal year (FY) 2006 budget for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) includes $9.3 million for the agency’s national VMS monitoring program. Of that, about $4.5 million is specifically designated for paying for VMS units onboard fishing vessels around the country.
In mid-December, the NMFS Office of Law Enforcement (OLE), which manages the VMS program, was developing a set of options for how to distribute the money. The options should be ready for review by NMFS Director Bill Hogarth by the first of the new year.
The federal funding is meant “to help subsidize expansion of the VMS program,” said Mark Spurrier, deputy director for enforcement. “We are trying to make sure we do this in an equitable way.”
While the distribution formula is not nailed down yet, anyone who has already purchased a VMS shouldn’t assume they’ve missed the boat. A VMS funding program conducted in Alaska in 2002 reimbursed fishermen who could produce receipts and other evidence of having purchased and used a VMS unit.
Good investment
NMFS asked for the money because officials are convinced paying for VMS is a good investment. A March 2003 review of NMFS enforcement efforts by the federal Office of the Inspector General (IG) recommended that the agency work closely with the regional fishery management councils to make greater use of VMS to monitor closed areas.
“Dollar for dollar, VMS is more cost effective than traditional methods of surveillance,” the IG’s report stated. “The system can monitor fleet activities 24 hours a day, seven days a week at a fraction of the cost of Coast Guard at-sea air and vessel patrols. Thus, while a VMS program creates new costs and increases OLE’s workload, it enables more effective use of other federal assets.”
Federal funding for the NMFS VMS program – not the part that pays for VMS units but the administrative part that monitors VMS usage in four regions of the country – has increased from $1.3 million in 2001 to about $4.8 million for FY 2006.
The program currently monitors approximately 2,400 vessels nationwide, according to Spurrier, and that number could more than double over the next couple of years.
Fairness to fishermen
The IG’s report also pointed out the unfairness of NMFS paying for VMS units in some parts of the country and not in others.
“NMFS shares costs in some areas and pays them entirely in other areas,” the 2003 report stated.
“In Alaska, for example, fishers can obtain a $2,000 cash rebate for equipment costs, while the VMS proposal pending in the Southeast calls for the government to pay costs over $1,200,” the report went on. “In New England, fishers pay for equipment, installation, and communications.”
New Bedford fisherman Steve Lozinak, who used to fish in Alaska, raised this inequity issue in a letter to Commercial Fisheries News (October 2005) and also contacted US Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) to ask why general category scallop boat owners were having to bear all of the expense of purchasing VMSs to participate in the fishery.
Frank responded to Lozinak’s inquiry by contacting NMFS Director Bill Hogarth and recommending in a Nov. 1 letter that “NMFS determine the availability of this funding before final implementation of the VMS requirement in the general category.”
The scallop general category VMS requirement went into effect Dec. 1.
In mid-December, an aide to Frank said the congressman was still awaiting word from NMFS and clarified that he was seeking funding for fishermen in any fishery in the region required to use VMS.
Hawaii, Alaska
VMS technology for the fishing industry was piloted in Hawaii in 1994 when the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted a requirement that all pelagic longline ships carry the systems as a condition of obtaining a permit to operate, according to the IG’s report.
Because of its pilot program status, NMFS has paid for all equipment, installation, repairs, and data communications for approximately 125 boats “since the program’s inception.”
Several years ago, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council established the first full-fledged VMS requirement.
As Al Burch, executive director of the Alaska Draggers Association, a vessel owner, and a council adviser, remembers events, US Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) persuaded NMFS to find funding within its existing budget to cover VMS equipment and installation costs.
Since NMFS had no easy system for distributing funds directly to fishermen, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) offered to take on that responsibility. The commission applied for a grant under a project titled “Alaska Fisheries Data Collection Initiative” and requested $1.5 million for “hardware capitalization.”
Dave Colpol, senior program manager for PSMFC’s Economic Fisheries Information Network, worked on administering the grant after the VMS program had already started.
“In a nutshell, a vessel had to have a valid federal permit in one of these fisheries (Pacific pollock, Pacific cod, and Atka mackerel),” Colpol said. “They were reimbursed up to $2,000 per boat. They had to provide documentation, such as the original (VMS) receipt, and a form letter from the Coast Guard that the unit had been activated.”
The grant application estimated up to 750 vessels would participate in the program, which operated in 2002. The IG’s 2003 report estimated that a total of 500 vessels received rebates. Colpol added that the rebates were typically around $1,900.
Make NMFS pay
In his job as executive director, Al Burch represents about 40 family-owned 60'-125' Alaskan draggers, “small- to medium-size boats by today’s standards,” he said.
Burch acknowledged that no one likes the idea of the government “looking over your shoulder every minute of the day and night,” but added that VMS has been accepted in his part of the country as an important enforcement tool.
“Honest fishermen shouldn’t have a problem with it,” he said, pointing out that the system not only catches and deters cheaters, but can vindicate a fisherman wrongly accused of violating closed areas or seasons.
At the same time, Burch said he feels strongly that fishermen shouldn’t have to pay for the monitoring.
Lorelei Stevens
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