Groundfish Permit Holders in NJ, VA and NC to Receive Direct Aid Payment

NOAA Fisheries announces that we will be providing direct assistance payments to qualifying limited access multispecies permit holders in New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina.

These direct assistance payments are to provide some relief to vessel owners most affected by the 2013 quota cuts in the Northeast groundfish fishery.

As a result of this decision, 17 limited access multispecies permit holders will receive approximately $32,500 for each eligible permit, the same amount provided to fishermen in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and Connecticut.  We will be working with these three states and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission on the steps necessary to disburse the payments. 

Very soon, we will be sending out letters to the qualifying vessels, and also to any limited access multispecies permit holders located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina that did not qualify.

In late May, we announced that the state fishery directors from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, in partnership with NOAA Fisheries, reached consensus on a framework to distribute $32.8 million in Federal fishery disaster funds to the Northeast groundfish fishery.  The framework divides available monies equally among three bins (roughly $11 million in each): one-third to be used for direct assistance, one-third to be split among the states for state-specific plans, and one-third to be used in developing a federally funded buyout or industry-funded buyback. 

For more information and updates on the Groundfish Fishery Disaster Spend Plan, visit our website at:  https://www.greateratlantic.fisheries.noaa.gov/mediacenter/ongoing/muldisasterfundupdate.html