Division of Marine Fisheries - Massachusetts Red Tide Technical Assistance and Disaster Relief Grant

This is a state audit of how Massachusetts used federal grant money meant to help shellfish harvesters hurt by the 2008 red tide closures and to improve future red tide monitoring.

“The goal of this program is to compensate shellfish harvesters for their 2008 losses, while developing the necessary tools to enact more accurate red tide closures, thereby promoting consumer confidence and mitigating economic losses resulting from future red tide outbreaks.”

The audit checked whether the agency tracked the money correctly, paid the right subsidies, and handled administrative costs properly.

“The objectives of our audit were to: (1) assess DMF’s accounting for grant revenues and expenses, (2) determine the appropriateness of the various health care and income subsidies provided to shell fishermen under this grant, and (3) review the administrative costs associated with the grant.”

Red tide can make shellfish unsafe to eat, so closures protect public health, but they can also cause serious financial harm to people who make a living harvesting shellfish.

“The resulting economic effects were substantial and prompted Governor Deval Patrick to request federal disaster relief to aid the shellfish harvesters affected by the closures.”

For ordinary residents, this matters because it connects food safety, local fishing jobs, and whether public disaster-relief money was handled responsibly.

“In order for the Commonwealth to protect the public health of its citizens, the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) must close all shellfish beds when a concentration of saxitoxin, the red tide neurotoxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning, persists.”

The auditor concluded that the grant was administered properly, payments were legitimate, and the state did not identify improper costs.

“Further, we noted that LSIs were properly calculated and distributed, health care subsidies were paid for eligible applicants as agreed, administrative costs were reasonable, grant receipts were properly accounted for and allocated, and there were no questioned costs related to the NOAA grant during our audit period.”

Any grant money left over when the grant ended was supposed to go back to the federal government.

“Any funds remaining from the grant when closed in March 2012 were to revert to the federal government.”

The audit’s significance is that a disaster-relief program involving more than $1.7 million in spending was found to have been properly accounted for and paid according to grant rules.

“Since the award of the NOAA grant for the period May 11, 2009 through February 2, 2012, DMF has expended $1,764,933.85 of the $2 million awarded.”

“Red tide” here means toxic algae that can make shellfish dangerous; “LIS” was the lost-income payment program for eligible shellfish harvesters.

“Phase one is the Lost Income Subsidy (LIS) program, which is modeled after the economic assistance plan developed for the Red Tide Assistance Program of 2006 to provide subsidies to shellfish harvesters affected by the closures.”