July 8, 2012 — Recent personnel changes in the northeast jurisdiction of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration mark a step forward for management of the vital and lucrative fisheries here, but the task is far from finished.
John K. Bullard, who was named the Northeast Regional administrator for the NOAA Fisheries Service last week, said science, policy and enforcement are the key supports of the management of the fishery, and it's been abundantly clear over the years what happens when one or more of those legs is weak.
Science has been a clear stumbling block, with memorable failures surrounding measurements of scallop and groundfish populations undertaken with improper gear. NOAA's moves to put fishermen on board data-gathering vessels and to accept the work of the UMass Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology were important steps toward remedy.
The science and research director at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, William Karp, appointed the week before Bullard, comes to the oldest regional fisheries management center with 25 years of experience at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle and respect among his peers.
But he has recognized already that the complexity of the northeast fisheries will be a challenge. Beyond trying to duplicate the working fisherman's day-to-day struggle of hitting what is literally a moving target — predators and prey responding to the caprices of ocean temperatures and currents, and unpredictable migratory changes — the ocean's chemistry is changing, magnifying the task's complexity.
Bullard's task is to effect policy based on the results of that hard-to-come-by science in a bureaucratic and social environment of equally formidable complexity. He said recently that his goal is to keep fishermen fishing today, and to ensure that future generations of fishermen can as well. He hopes to build bridges between the regulated and the regulators so that fishermen know that the process has been transparent and that they have had their voices heard and understood as policy is developed and implemented.
The third leg — enforcement — presents its own fractured set of challenges. On the one hand, it has to be effective, because there are real violations of policy and law that damage the fishery and harm fishermen. On the other, the quest for compliance needs to be transparent and fair to be credible and effective.
Read the full story in the New Bedford Standard Times