I want to thank all those who've responded in emails to me or letters to the editor about my columns in the Gloucester Daily Times. The last column drew several responses and a letter to the editor from a local gentleman expressing concern about how much money NOAA would take in from a fee for the national saltwater angler registry in 2011.

If all goes as I hope, NOAA will not need to take registration fees because every coastal state will have its own license for its saltwater anglers and those anglers will be exempted from getting a federal registration. NOAA will get information on the anglers from the coastal states to improve scientific surveys on recreational catch and fishing effort.

I'm very encouraged today that most of the nation's coastal states already license saltwater anglers, using these fees to increase access for fishermen and improve fish habitat and fish stocks. I'm hoping that Massachusetts develops a license for saltwater anglers as the state has for its freshwater anglers.

I'm really encouraged that New Hampshire and Connecticut have recently approved licenses. These states have joined the majority of our nation's coastal states and will provide NOAA with information so that we can improve our science-driven management of ocean fish.

On this same theme of improving fisheries, NOAA and its parent agency, the Department of Commerce, has just awarded $154 million to 50 projects in coastal and Great Lakes communities to restore habitat for fish, shellfish and other marine species. In New England, we have projects to remove obsolete dams and restore salt marshes in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

These 50 national projects are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and will create jobs for people with a variety of skills including contractors, engineers, fishermen, biologists and others at a time when we need all the jobs we can get in our communities.

The New England projects are part of an ongoing restoration effort NOAA has spearheaded with various state and local partners for more than a decade. The Gloucester area is the site of several of NOAA's restoration projects over the years, including an ongoing project that has involved commercial soft-shell clammers.

The city of Gloucester has been working with NOAA, state agencies, a nonprofit group and volunteer clammers to restore the natural tidal flow to Mill River, a tributary of the Annisquam River.

This project benefits the people that live near Mill River by significantly reducing the chance of dangerous flooding that has occurred when fresh water was trapped behind an old tidal gate that has outlived its purpose. By opening this tidal gate and restoring saltwater flow to Mill River, we've already seen softshell clams start to return to more than 10 acres of mud flats on the river where they have not been for many decades.

Eric Hutchins, the NOAA fisheries biologist working on the project, says that a larger culvert will be constructed later this year or early next year to allow even more natural flow of the tides into the Mill River. More clams will return naturally to the flats. Several local commercial clammers have helped Eric Hutchins to begin monitoring the restoration over time. We'll use this information to design other restoration projects. Eric Hutchins is looking for more volunteers to assist this fall. If you'd like to volunteer, please contact Eric by e-mail at eric.hutchins@noaa.gov.

A little more than an hour north of Gloucester, you'll find another restoration project that is part of the 50 projects funded under the act. Later this fall, NOAA, the state of New Hampshire and local partners will remove an obsolete dam on the Winnicut River in Greenland, N.H. Once the dam is removed, sea-run fish that spawn in fresh water and migrate down the river to the ocean will be able to reach parts of the river they've been barred from for decades. In particular, this removal will help rainbow smelt, a favorite of fishermen.

As a scientist, I am interested in seeing the long-term cumulative effects of restoration work across watersheds. As we continue to remove obsolete dams and allow rivers to return to their natural flow, we are seeing stronger numbers of returning sea-run fish, such as the boost we saw on the Sebasticook River in Maine, where there were nearly four times as many alewives returning this year as last year. These projects help more than fish and fishermen. They also open up rivers to more canoeing, kayaking and other types of recreation that help local economies. They make these waterways and the communities that line them more resilient in the face of the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, increased rainfall and storms.

NOAA works with many state, local and nonprofit partners to restore habitat in New England and across the country. Over the years we've worked with recreational fishing groups on projects and I'm hopeful that commercial fishing groups will be our partners in more habitat projects in the future. Fishermen know the value of habitat to healthy fish populations. They are some of the wisest stewards of fisheries that we have.

I welcome your comments. Please send them to me at public.concerns.groundfish@noaa.gov.

Dr. Jim Balsiger is acting assistant administrator for NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.