Lawmakers representing the nation’s fishing communities pressed President Donald Trump’s nominee to oversee oceans and fisheries to prioritize baseline surveys and stock assessments that undergird the nation’s $320 billion dollar seafood economy.
In a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Timothy Petty pledged to kick-start stalled surveys and other research necessary to set fundamental fishing regulations — including annual catch limits, the length of fishing seasons, fishing area closures, and restrictions on activities that could harm the overall health of fish and other marine life.
“Our seafood industry needs two things from the federal government: surveys and timely promulgation of regulations to open fisheries,” Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan told Petty, who awaits confirmation for assistant secretary of Commerce for oceans and atmosphere.
Sullivan has excoriated NOAA about lapses in surveys and stock assessments affecting his state’s seafood economy, and he has button-holed numerous senior officials and nominees — from both Democratic and Republican administrations — to fast-track such efforts so that fishermen can get the required regulatory road maps to harvest seafood.
