Contact: Carol Hamilton FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(202) 482-4883 8/3/95
Matt Stout
(202) 482-6090
Gordon Helm
(301) 713-2370
The Commerce Department is awarding $15 million in relief assistance to commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico who have sustained heavy uninsured losses due to ecosystem changes resulting from major flooding.
Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown will use his legislative authority to provide relief funds to businesses dependent on Gulf fisheries that have suffered severe economic losses. The funds, issued through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Sustainable Development, are designated for programs that address both fishery resource and human factors.
"The Clinton administration has consistently demonstrated its commitment to the sustainable development of commercial fisheries," Brown said. "Today's disaster assistance package also demonstrates our understanding that healthy stocks are a source of livelihood and a way of life in fishing communities around the country, and around the world. The threat to these fisheries is a threat to these communities."
"We have already taken serious management actions in the Gulf to address the concerns both of the fishing families and about the resource, but we must do more," said NOAA Administrator D. James Baker. "By working with local and state officials as well as the congressional delegation, I am hopeful we can design a program to effectively address these concerns."
The problems facing the fisheries in the Gulf stem from the Mississippi floods over the past few years that resulted in large deposits of debris in the Gulf of Mexico, creating underwater obstructions that negatively impact commercial fishing operations. In addition, large amounts of fresh water runoff from the flooded Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers into Gulf waters changed the nature of the ecosystem and created a "dead zone."
The dead zone refers to the extensive and severe areas of low oxygen (hypoxic) conditions in which finfish, shrimp, and many other forms of marine life cannot survive. Current research estimates that the dead zone now covers approximately 18,200 square km in the Gulf, the largest such zone measured in the past ten years.
Studies found extensive areas where scientists were unable to document any living organisms. The effect of persisting, extensive areas of low oxygen on bottom dwelling fishery resources are obvious since little more than bacteria may survive there.
Over the next few weeks, NOAA's Office of Sustainable Development will work to bring together national, state and local officials to discuss the best possible solution to the problems facing the Gulf fisheries.
The $15 million for the Gulf states is part of a larger $53 million disaster assistance program initiated by Secretary Brown in response to the national crisis in fisheries in the Northeast, Northwest and Gulf states.
"We intend to work very closely with all interested parties in the Gulf states to ensure that appropriate remedies are found," said Brown.
Under section 308(d) of the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act, commercial fishermen who have suffered uninsured losses will be eligible for financial assistance under programs to be developed in cooperation with their state government agencies.