NOAA Fisheries quietly issued several fishery disaster determinations in July, opening the door for federal funding to be allocated for those fisheries.
U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-California) welcomed the determinations for fisheries in his state, which include California’s red sea urchin fishery and the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s Klamath River fall Chinook salmon fishery.
“This funding is a critical lifeline for the people whose livelihoods have been devastated by fishery disasters,” Huffman said. “We have resources available to help people weather these hardships, and the Department of Commerce has a responsibility to move this assistance quickly and into the hands of the people who need it most.”
Approved disaster determinations issued on 28 July include:
- The 2023, 2021, 2020, and 2019 Makah Tribe Fraser River sockeye salmon fisheries;
- the 2020 and 2021 Makah Tribe ocean treaty troll fisheries;
- the 2023/2024 California red sea urchin fishery;
- the 2023/2024 Hoopa Valley Tribe Klamath River fall Chinook salmon fishery; and
- the Florida shrimp, bullynet lobster, diving lobster, and pelagic longline finfish fisheries affected by Hurricane Ian in 2022.
The determinations all come years after they were first requested. State officials and federal lawmakers have long bemoaned the slow-moving fishery disaster determination process – even after a determination is made, it can still take years before funding is allocated and made available to the commercial fishers and businesses harmed. In June 2026, NOAA Fisheries announced USD 124 million (EUR 109 million) in aid for fisheries disasters that took place between 2019 and 2022.
In his statement welcoming the determinations, Huffman said he would continue pushing to speed up the fisheries disaster determination process for getting money into the hands of the people impacted.
“This determination is an important step for getting that funding out the door for our California and Tribal communities, and I’m glad I could help move this process forward,” Huffman said. “But I’m not interested in stopping at a determination. When people in our communities are hurting, we need to cut through the red tape and get results. I’ll keep using every congressional tool at my disposal to make sure this assistance gets delivered.”
In announcing the agency’s priorities in carrying out U.S. Donald Trump’s executive order on Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness, NOAA Fisheries said it planned to “conduct a comprehensive review of the Magnuson-Stevens Act disaster determination and funding process and explore pathways to expand access to existing government market and disaster support mechanisms.”
