Several National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration programs -- including catch shares, salmon recovery and a climate science website -- were targets of Republican amendments yesterday to reduce spending or redirect funding in the House fiscal 2013 Commerce, Science and Justice appropriations bill, with mixed success.

The CJS bill, which was debated on the House floor late into the evening, includes $5 billion for NOAA.

Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.) proposed prohibiting any funding for new catch-share programs for fisheries along the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. His amendment passed 220-191.

"Catch shares are an effort by a select group to take away individual fishing rights of individual citizens," Southerland said, later clarifying that this group includes commercial fishermen supported by "very wealthy environmentalists."

His amendment was supported by Reps. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.), an outspoken opponent of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, which oversees the programs.

While the amendment would not affect current catch-share programs already in place, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), along with three other Democrats, extolled the benefits of the programs and read letters from the fishing industry that warned the rider would affect small businesses, drive up fuel costs and put fishermen's lives at risk.

"Shame on you," Dicks said to Southerland as he read the letter.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) proposed cutting the agency's Pacific Salmon Recovery Fund by $15 million, from $65 million to $50 million, but the amendment was defeated 239-168.

Broun, after professing his love of salmon -- "I love to eat them, I love to fish for them" -- said that in tight fiscal times, appropriators should not grant a penny more than the Obama administration's $50 million request for the recovery fund.

When Broun likened the fund to an earmark, Dicks jumped to the program's defense.

"I take umbrage at use of the word 'earmark,'" Dicks said. "This is no earmark; this is a national program."

However, Broun was successful in advancing an amendment to reduce funding for the Marine Mammal Commission, which is charged with the protection of marine mammals, by $181,000, or about 6 percent of the independent agency's budget.

Republicans were also successful in cutting funding for NOAA's climate science website, climate.gov. Rep. Andy Harris' (R-Md.) amendment to reduce funding for the site by $542,000 was approved 219-189. The CJS appropriations bill had called for a 56 percent increase in funding for the portal over last year's enacted level to more than $1 million.

Harris said no program should increase that much, given the current fiscal environment, but was especially critical of the website's content, which he said did not sound scientific but rather like something "I would read to my children at night."

The House also diverted $18 million from NOAA to fund law-enforcement regional information-sharing systems. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) offered an amendment to fund the systems by pulling money from NOAA climate services, which passed 209-199.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the chairman of the CJS Appropriations Subcommittee, who opposed the measure, said the diversion would cut funds for the National Weather Service offices that manage satellites and issue weather forecasts.

An amendment offered by Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii) to increase NOAA's 2013 marine debris program from $3 million to $4.6 million in order to maintain the same level of funding as 2012 passed by voice vote.

Debate on the CJS bill resumes today.