Washington, DC – The following statement was issued by Kathy Tsantiris, Associate Director of Government Relations at Ocean Conservancy, in response to the passage of the final fiscal year 2022 (FY22) appropriations bills: 

“Today, Congress passed a full-year budget for FY22 that includes an 8% increase for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The bill will provide NOAA with the certainty that they need to respond to the many issues facing our ocean, Great Lakes and coastal communities and ecosystems that further reliance on continuing resolutions could not accomplish. We would like to congratulate appropriations leadership for their tireless effort to come to an agreement on full-year spending bills, and we would like to thank Chair DeLauro, Chair Leahy, and Commerce, Justice, Science subcommittee chairs Cartwright and Shaheen for their efforts to pass a budget increase for NOAA – as well as other agencies.  

“While the final negotiated package fell short of the budget proposed in the President’s Budget and the House and Senate’s initial proposals, the budget provides NOAA with the tools and resources they need to prepare our coastal communities for the impacts of climate change on our fisheries, build resilience to severe weather events, improve NOAA’s ability to understand the impacts of offshore wind on our coastal ecosystems and more.  

“While grateful for increased  funding for NOAA, we are disappointed to see congressional interference in the report accompanying the FY22 omnibus bill on the management of Gulf of Mexico red snapper. Federal managers must remedy the flaws in the management of the private recreational fishing sector to restore accountability to sustainable catch limits and bring the system back into compliance with the law. The inclusion of this language could add unnecessary and harmful delay to efforts to end overfishing, thereby jeopardizing the rebuilding of this important stock and harming commercial and for-hire fishermen. The Biden administration should act quickly to ensure overfishing of red snapper does not occur. Regional fishery managers, scientists and stakeholders are ready to implement solutions to make new approaches for managing private recreational fishing sustainable and in line with legal requirements.” 

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Ocean Conservancy experts are available for interviews upon request. 

Ocean Conservancy is working to protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges. Together with our partners, we create science-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. For more information, visit http://www.oceanconservancy.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.