Aid to fishermen gets tangled in bureaucracy

WASHINGTON – West Coast salmon fishermen waiting for as much as $80 million in disaster relief from a sharply curtailed fishing season are caught in a dispute between a regional fisheries office and the national headquarters.

A disaster recommendation from a regional office of the National Marine Fisheries Service, which helps clear the way for the fishermen to receive aid, was overruled by officials at the agency’s headquarters near the U.S. capital.

A final decision is not expected until February, well past the end of the fishing season, said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., who is furious over the delay.

Thompson, who represents California’s north coast, used an expletive as he accused officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of “lying” about the disaster declaration, which has been pending for nearly two months.

“I’ve got fishermen who are going to lose their boats, and bureaucrats who have never missed a paycheck are completely ignoring a real-life disaster,” Thompson said.

A spokesman for NOAA Fisheries acknowledged that a “decision memo” recommending a disaster declaration was sent last month by the agency’s Southwest regional office in California. But the memo was sent back “because it was outside their scope,” NOAA spokesman Jeff Donald said Thursday.

Regional officials “are not the ones who make the decision, and they were asked to correct” the May 19 memo, Donald said. “It’s not the Southwest region’s decision to make. It’s the secretary’s,” he said, referring to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. Donald denied Thompson’s claim that a decision has been put off until February, saying the agency is “trying to work through the process and trying to figure out exactly what’s going on.”

Thompson and other West Coast lawmakers have criticized Gutierrez for inaction, saying West Coast fishermen are losing millions of dollars while federal bureaucrats procrastinate.

In late April, the Bush administration sharply reduced the commercial salmon fishing season in a 700-mile stretch of Oregon and Northern California coastal waters, an effort to protect struggling returns of chinook salmon in the Klamath River. Since then, officials have said they are studying the issue, despite requests for help by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

“The Department of Commerce hasn’t moved fast enough to declare a fisheries failure,” said Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. “The bottom line is, we have fishermen without a fishing season, and our fishing communities need help.”

Smith and other West Coast senators worked to include a salmon disaster provision in a major fisheries bill approved this week. The bill, which reauthorizes the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, makes salmon fishermen in California and Oregon eligible for disaster assistance. Smith has estimated economic losses in Oregon alone at more than $20 million, and Thompson said total losses could exceed $80 million.