# Foreign Fishing Observer

**Agency:** Commerce  
**Account:** Foreign Fishing Observer Fund  
**Source document:** National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration · p. 347  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/budget/commerce/foreign-fishing-observer  

> **Trust:** parsed from the agency Congressional Justification. Approximate, **not summable**, verify at the cited page.


## Commerce discretionary budget authority (OMB PBDB — authoritative)

FY2027 $7.00B, FY2026 $11.90B. This is the agency total, not a sum of the parsed lines.


## What this funds

For FY 2027, NMFS requests a total of $0 for this fund. The goals of this fund are to provide 100 percent observer coverage aboard foreign vessels fishing within the U.S. EEZ; increase compliance with fishery regulations and requirements; support balanced conservation and management measures to achieve and maintain the optimum use of living marine resources; collect data to determine foreign compliance with fishery regulations and the status of fish stocks within the U.S. EEZ; and administer the base and supplemental observer programs in a cost-effective manner. The Foreign Fishing Observer Fund is financed through fees collected from owners and operators of foreign fishing vessels fishing within the U.S. EEZ (such fishing requires a permit issued under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act). The fund is used by NOAA to pay salaries, administrative costs, data editing and entry, and other costs incurred in placing ' Monitor foreign fishing for compliance with U.S. fishing regulations The observer program is conducted primarily through contracts with the private sector. This includes longline vessels fishing in the Atlantic billfish and shark fishery and other foreign vessels fishing in the EEZ. NOAA places these observers aboard foreign fishing vessels to monitor compliance with U.S. fishery laws and to collect fishery management data. Amounts available in the fund can be disbursed only to the extent and in amounts provided in appropriation acts. In FY 1985, Congress approved the establishment of a supplemental observer program. The program provided that foreign vessels without federally funded observers are required to obtain the services of private contractors certified by the Secretary of Commerce.


**Where it sits:** Civilian / Non-Defense › Commerce › National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration › Foreign Fishing Observer Fund › Foreign Fishing Observer


*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. government. Civilian line dollars are parsed from agency Congressional Justifications and are approximate.*