It's fine if the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation wants to throw $2.7 million into a study purportedly assessing the long-term impact of the catch share fishery management program.
After all, the Moore Foundation — a nonprofit offspring of the giant Intel Corp. — has been among the biggest pushers of the catch share program, which, according to even NOAA's own data, is steering more fishermen's quota into the hands of large-scale businesses and killing jobs of smaller, independent businesses.
But National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco and others should be well aware in advance that any such "assessment" can't be considered credible due to the many conflicts of interest being fueled to carry it out.
The Moore grant, you see, is backing an assessment to be largely carried out by a company led by former NOAA Northeast director Andrew Rosenberg — whose same company is making millions off the NOAA observer program mandated by Amendment 16. That's the regulatory framework that includes the catch share management system.
Read the complete editorial from The Gloucester Times