The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should get back to its regular schedule of conducting fisheries research surveys, which have been cancelled since May due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and several colleagues.
Additionally, NOAA should identify and resolve any challenges created by the pandemic that prevented this year’s surveys to ensure surveys are safely conducted in 2021, the lawmakers wrote in a Sept. 30 letter sent to Dr. Neil Jacobs, acting administrator at NOAA. Among the members who joined Sen. Collins in signing the letter were U.S. Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Doug Jones (D-AL).
“In May 2020, NOAA Fisheries started canceling research surveys to protect the health of its crews and personnel at sea on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we understand that the agency has yet to resume its usual operational tempo,” Sen. Collins and her colleagues wrote. “Fishermen and communities across the country rely on these surveys as a basis for their livelihoods.”
While they recognize that the pandemic has created unprecedented challenges, the senators wrote that they “fully expect NOAA Fisheries to successfully execute its research surveys in 2021.”
“Fishery and ecosystem research surveys are essential to support the U.S. blue economy and provide valuable fishery-independent data needed to carry out provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA),” according to their letter, which noted that data collected from NOAA’s research surveys are used to manage commercial and recreational fisheries that contributed 1.74 million jobs, over $240 billion in sales, and $111 billion in gross domestic product to the U.S. economy in 2017.
“The economic output of U.S. fisheries is maximized by setting accurate quotas and catch limits, which depend on the long-term, fishery-independent datasets collected by NOAA’s research surveys,” they wrote.
Sen. Collins and her colleagues acknowledged NOAA’s initial response and actions to compensate for lost survey data, but wrote that the methods used are not sufficient replacements for the typical large-scale, long-term research surveys required to sustainably manage fisheries under the MSA. The senators requested a clear, written plan for FY 2021 surveys before Dec. 15.