Patricia Kurkul, NOAA's Gloucester-based Northeast regional administrator for the last 11 years, has signaled her decision to step down at the end of the year, the Times learned today.
Kurkul announced her plans in an internal email sent last week to the 265 employees of the regional office, ensconced in the $12 million brick complex that overlooks Gloucester Harbor from Blackburn Industrial Park — and from which have come mountains of regulation and enforcement mandates.
"Now, with the first full year of groundfish sector management complete," she wrote to colleagues and friends, "the time is right."
No announcement of Kurkul's planned departure has been made via NOAA communications.
Kurkul has presided over a fishing industry in tumultuous transformation, being converted to catch share management as the resource recovered from centuries of overfishing and grew toward sustainability, even as the size of the fleet was systematically reduced, triggering resistance and protests.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.