July 2, 2012 – John K. Bullard, former mayor of New Bedford, has been named the new Northeast Regional Administrator for the NOAA Fisheries Service, an appointment hailed by members of the local fishing industry.
The regional administrator is responsible for overseeing federal fisheries from Canada to Cape Hatteras, N.C., and Bullard is replacing Patricia Kurkul who retired at the end of 2011.
Fishing industry advocates reacted favorably to the news.
"We know John and he knows us," said Pamela Lafreniere, the New Bedford attorney who represented the city in the lawsuit challenging NOAA on its catch-share management system.
"He's a nice man and he knows what we've been through here, so I think there's real hope," Lafreniere said.
Dr. Brian Rothschild of UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology called Bullard "a friend of New Bedford and of Massachusetts and we look forward to working with him."
Rothschild said Bullard is undertaking "a huge job" that "will take political skill as well as technical skill. He's going to have a lot to deal with."
"He's a smart man. He knows the people here, he knows the industry and he's interested," said Reidar Bendiksen who owns Reidar's Manufacturing, a family business in Fairhaven that designs and builds trawl gear for commercial fishermen. "I think this is good news."
Speaking to his vision for the task ahead, Bullard described key elements critical to regulating fisheries.
"Science is the foundation of everything," he said. "You use that to build responsible management plans and that's what I'll be involved in. And then there's enforcement where there's been problems."
The challenge is to combine these into something that serves the industry both today and for future generations, he said.
"That's not easy," Bullard said. "It's not often that you have win-win situations in fishery management."
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times.