NOAA must quit its pussyfooting approach to culpability if a productive working relationship is ever going to be established with the Northeast fishing industry.
The relationship between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Massachusetts fishing fleet is damaged so badly one wonders just how drastic a remedy is needed to make it healthy.
Besides excessive and apparently malicious enforcement, NOAA has attempted to regulate the industry on scientific data that can most charitably be described as incomplete. In some cases, data on fish stocks were collected using improper or poorly calibrated equipment. In another case, new data collected by the UMass Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology were rejected by the secretary of the Commerce Department — NOAA's boss — in response to a request by Gov. Deval Patrick to raise catch limits.
Another trespass emerged in the report of the inspector general who investigated NOAA's enforcement practices. He was mystified that Dale Jones, NOAA's chief of law enforcement, saw no problem with holding a "shredding party" during the investigation.
Jones' incredulity that anyone would find inappropriate the destruction of 140 files during an internal investigation is exactly what makes the chance of a good working relationship between NOAA and fishermen so challenging.
No one who aims to cultivate any kind of relationship can pretend that trespass after trespass can be ignored. Some of the congressional pressure brought to bear has produced a response — a report on whether funds received in fines could be accounted for — that appears to be little more than lip service. But any response to the order to change its judges would be better than what has been done: nothing.
Read the complete editorial from The Standard-Times.