The Department of Agriculture announces there is $1 million in CARES Act funding available to the territory. The Division of Aquatic of Wildlife Resources is currently working with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration regarding the process for Guam fishers to receive the CARES Act funding.

NOAA is developing the guidelines that will provide requirements for how the money will be distributed. Once the guidelines are developed, the money will be given to a fisheries commission that will oversee the dispersal of the money to individual fishers on Guam. The first step in this entire process is to have all Guam fishers register with Department of Agriculture’s Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources. Fishers can find the registration form on doag.guam.gov.

The registration form is also being distributed via WhatsApp through fishers’ chat groups. Hard copies of the forms are also available in the DAWR office. For those with digital access, the agency recommends downloading the free Adobe Acrobat app, or something similar, to fill out the form, sign it digitally, and then email the form to fisheries@doag.guam.gov.

Department of Agriculture Director Chelsa Muna-Brecht urgers fishers to register. “Our goal is to have every Guam fisher benefit from this program. In order to make that happen we need to first establish how many fishers we have, both commercial and sustenance. “

For more information you can call 735-0294.