NOAA Intends to Cover At-Sea Monitoring Costs

Realizing the upcoming fishing year will be an exceptionally rough ride for fishermen, officials at NOAA are trying to pick up some of the costs associated with keeping tabs on the catch.

In a written statement, Northeast Fisheries Science Center Director Bill Karp says NOAA is working on a plan to fund at-sea monitoring, a cost that has been passed onto fishermen in the past.

Karp says with the across-the-board sequester, NOAA may have to use funding previously set aside for the development of electronic monitoring systems, delaying that effort.

Karp says he plans to keep fishermen updated on the cost they may have to shell out for, but says it's tough to determine since there's no word yet on how much of an impact the sequester will have on NOAA.