Management & Regulation

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 25, 2009) – It’s not at all certain that the fishing industry has a friend, or even a real open mind, in Jane Lubchenco, President Obama’s choice to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But there is certainly every reason for at least cautious optimism, based both on what Lubchenco has and hasn’t done during her first week as the new chief of NOAA and its National Marine Fisheries Service.

Lubchenco, whose appointment to head the agency that oversees commercial fishing was confirmed late last week, has spent her first few days on the job listening to those on all sides of the hotly disputed, one-year Interim Rule for the region’s commercial groundfishing industry.

Read the Goucester Daily Times story in full

 

ROCKLAND, ME (March 2009) – "Never in a million years did I imagine I would leave the fishery at 46 years."

Craig Pendleton of Saco, who began lobstering when he was nine, groundfishing at 17. He sold his groundfshing permit in October 2008.

If an interim rule is passed by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the 70 fishermen who land groundfish in Maine face the possibility of further reductions in the number of days they can spend at sea (counted from the time they leave the dock) and numerous other restrictions. The rule includes a provision that would increase the two for one area, where each day a fisherman uses will be counted as two. For most Maine fishermen this would mean ending up with 20 allowable fishing days.

Read the Working Waterfront story in full

 

NEW BEDFORD, MA (March 25, 2009) – On her second day in office, the new chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration heard from fishermen, fishery managers and environmentalists concerning a controversial fishing rule the agency is expected to release in its final form by April 1.

Jane Lubchenco, an Oregon State University marine biologist, was sworn in to office last Friday, a day after the Senate confirmed her appointment by President Barack Obama. On Monday, Lubchenco hosted two hour-long meetings — one for industry representatives and members of the New England Fishery Management Council and the other for representatives of ocean conservation groups — at the Department of Commerce building in Washington, D.C.

"It was her idea to hear from people directly who made comments about the interim rule," NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Monica Allen said.

Read the Standard-Times story in full

 

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 24, 2009) – I read with interest the article describing the confirmation of Ms. Lubchenco as head of NOAA (The Times, Saturday, March 21). The article was sprinkled with the buzz-word "overfishing" — which my computer does not recognize as a word, by the way.

Is there an understandable acceptable definition of "overfishing"?

Perhaps it is like the beaten-into-submission phrase "global warming"? Global warming has been going on since the end of the recent ice age. In fact, it was global warming that ended the recent ice age. Admittedly, the ice age isn’t over as yet (there’s still a glacier on Greenland and one covering all of Antarctica). But, enough of the recent ice age ice has melted (took thousands and thousands of years — ­due to global warming) to have raised the level of the ocean to where it now covers the so-called "continental shelves" of the world.

Read the letter in full in the Gloucester Daily Times

 

WASHINGTON, DC (March 24, 2009) – [EXCERPT: Lubchenco described the Interim Rule as her personal "No. 1 priority" adding, "We have made no decision yet."]  Jane Lubchenco, the newly confirmed administrator of the nation’s fisheries, promised yesterday to put her personal stamp on the final draft of the fiercely disputed, one-year Interim Rule for New England’s commercial groundfish industry.

"We are going to be moving relatively rapidly," Lubchenco said in a telephone interview with the Times last evening after she held separate hour-long meetings with fishing interests and afterward environmental groups.

A marine biologist who took leadership of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service at the end of last week, Lubchenco described the Interim Rule as her personal "No. 1 priority" adding, "We have made no decision yet."

Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full

 

THE INTERNET (March 22, 2009) – The National Marine Fisheries Service wants to implement the "Interim Rule" which would make all of the waters south of New England, from Long Island to deep into the Georges Bank, a no take zone for a year leading up to the imposition of catch shares. Expect delays.

The NMFS reports into NOAA the new head of which is Jane Lubchenco, a Pew Fellow who worked on the infamous, later discredited, Boris Worms faith based "scientific" report, now refered to as the "Jellyfish Report" which predicted empty seas by 2048, except for jellyfish.

Read the bog commentary in full in The Hull Truth