MORRO BAY, Calif- Negotiations between PG&E and commercial fishers regarding PG&E's seismic studies is stalling. "The only thing that we have agreed to with PG&E, and the only agreeing they have done, is they have agreed to pay for a mediator to sit down and help us possibly work out an MOU," said Mark Tognazzini, who is on the negotiation team for commercial fishers.
He says PG&E has yet to give a timeline for the third party mediator, but time is running out. PG&E's seismic studies are set for November once it gets all the necessary permits. In the meantime PG&E said it has made an offer of 1.2 million dollars to commercial fishermen to make up for lost catches while the studies are being done.
"PG&E has presented them with an offer of compensation that exceeds the value of their gross catch going back to the 2006 season," says Blair Jones, a spokesperson for PG&E.
PG&E will use fish catch data from the Department of Fish and Game. PG&E took a four month average since 2006 between the months of September through December. During that time, the average value was just over 800-thousand and the highest valued year was just over 1.1 million dollars.
Commercial fishers disagree with the area measured for the catch values. "We think the impact will be more far reaching than that, we think it is an unfair number," said Tognazzini.
