A consumer group, Food & Water Watch, on November 5th seconded the Pew Environment Group’s motion that the Obama administration ease its ardor at commodifying public fisheries to achieve ecosystem restoration with investor principles.
And the latest action may have sparked a full-fledged national debate on the privatization of the oceans’ resources.
The impetus for the government’s regulatory policy comes from the Environmental Defense Fund, which is known for its faith in corporate and investor dynamics to fuel the path to its environmental goals.
Under pressure from Jane Lubchenco, a former Environmental Defense Fund vice chairman, now the federal administrator for fisheries, the New England Fishery Management Council last summer agreed to phase in a catch share system for the region’s groundfishery next year. A similar system is being designed for the scallop fishery.
Catch shares exist today in a small minority of U.S. fisheries but Lubchenco is trying to see where they might be fitted in.