Elected officials in Massachusetts and other states are putting renewed pressure on the Commerce Department to force changes in the way the fishing industry is regulated in the Northeast — in one case taking it all the way to President Barack Obama.
The news that disgraced former NOAA law enforcement chief Dale Jones is still somewhere on the NOAA payroll has infuriated many in and out of the fishing industry.
Three members of Congress — Reps. Barney Frank and John Tierney, D-Mass; and Walter Jones, R-N.C. — sharply criticized NOAA for that action, saying that Jones ought to be gone after prosecutorial misconduct on his part was uncovered by an inspector general investigation.
The three said in a joint press release that they intend to call for congressional hearings into the Jones matter.
New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang, meanwhile, continued his exchange of letters with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, whom the city has sued in federal court over the new sector management system and catch allocations.
Gov. Deval Patrick jumped in with a radio interview at WBSM-AM. Noting that he, too, has written to Locke trying to "pierce the veil of the administration," Patrick stressed the need for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to not only use the latest science, but to perform that science in tandem with industry-affiliated scientists such as those at UMass, who several years ago upended NOAA's scallop policies with research demonstrating that the old assumptions were all wrong.
Finally, Rep. Stephen R. Canessa, D-New Bedford, wrote a two-page letter to Obama, giving him a brief description of the city's fishing history and the problems it now faces, and inviting him for a visit during his vacation stay later this month on Martha's Vineyard.
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