February 3, 2015 — The latest step in NOAA’s dismissal of any accountability regarding its regulations — or questions regarding its science models and stock assessment tactics, which are really at the crux of the matter —is particularly galling (ah, there’s another appropriate word) given that industry stakeholders had gone to the council meeting with a plan in hand.
Maggie Raymond of the Associated Fisheries of Maine said she was “flabbergasted” last week when NOAA regional Administrator John Bullard essentially dismissed any requests to scale back or otherwise revise the emergency interim measures that have brought new area closures and further tightened the noose around the commercial fishing industry.
She also said it’s “shocking” that NOAA Fisheries is apparently not willing to work with the industry in resolving the critical issues at hand.
It shouldn’t be.
There are many words to describe the NOAA stand that Bullard articulated last week at a meeting of the New England Fisheries Management Council; “Angry,” “disgusted” and “frustrated” are among those that immediately come to mind.
But “flabbergasted” and “shocked” are not. That’s because, in standing firm on NOAA’s emergency steps that have driven another stake into the Gloucester fleet, particularly, Bullard has sadly followed the same path as former NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco, who failed to act accountably toward the industry or to lawmakers who challenged her policies. And those are the policies that first drove the industry into a state of “economic disaster” in 2012.
Read the full editorial from the Gloucester Daily Times