“New England waters have seen increasingly serious red tide outbreaks closing down shellfish beds and devastating fishermen and coastal communities throughout the region,” Delahunt said. “Unfortunately there is no federal program in place to quickly respond to these outbreaks and help our fishermen weather these economic hardships.”
Delahunt provided testimony to the House Science and Technology’s Energy and Environment Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), and called for the House to support a robust response to red tide outbreaks, saying the current approach is inadequately structured and results in needless delays in funding, monitoring and other response efforts. He cited the need for the House to support a similar proposal in the Senate, S. 952, authored by Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, called the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2009. This proposal calls for a national strategy to address these red tide outbreaks through increased research, regional action plans, and boost NOAA’s authority and resources to respond to severe Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB).
Delahunt said a revitalized HAB Event Response Program would alleviate the need, which occurred this past summer, to find emergency funding for ships and research personnel to determine the extent and potential duration of a bloom. A rapid, more comprehensive response is needed and would greatly benefit our fishermen and coastal communities.
In his testimony before the House panel, Delahunt also stated that in 2005 “in Massachusetts alone, the red tide impacted over 2,000 commercial shellfishermen and over 250 shellfish aquaculture grants, resulting in economic damages exceeding $35 million dollars. Again in 2008, Massachusetts waters suffered another massive and unanticipated red tide bloom, forcing an infusion of federal commercial fishery disaster aid to prevent the collapse of the local industry. This summer, Maine waters were affected and the economic losses to this region were estimated in the millions of dollars. The health of New England’s waters is vital to the economic prosperity of our coastal communities, and as such I support the investment in planning and research that may alleviate some of these economic and environmental hardships in the future.”
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