The region's largest industry group, the Northeast Seafood Coalition is warning against a pending NOAA plan to create a federal fisheries banking system for New England linked to state permit banks with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration revenues.
Such a system โ somewhat analogous to the Federal Reserve System โ would shift influence over policy from the New England Fishery Management Council to the central "banker" โ NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, the coalition's executive director Jackie Odell, said Thursday in a telephone interview.
Odell said she is concerned that the system would allow NOAA to leverage the power of the purse into unfettered influence over the coastal states, perhaps to reshape the industry according to the central banker's values.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.
Read the Northeast Seafood Coalition's comments.