July 16, 2012 — NOAA laid another egg this month just as former New Bedford Mayor John Bullard is about to take one of the nation's top fisheries jobs. NOAA put out a notification that the longfin squid fishery would be shut down immediately. Trouble was, hardly anyone saw the announcement. So many boats came in over the weekend, picked up food, fuel and ice, and went back out again only to learn that all that expense had been wasted
The fun began late in the afternoon Friday, July 6, when NOAA put out a notification that the longfin squid annual limit on the East Coast from New Jersey to Massachusetts had been reached. The fishery would be shut down immediately.
Trouble was, hardly anyone saw the announcement. The port directors who were sent the message didn't tell the boats, and it never made it to the Boatrax tracking and message system or email until the following week. So many boats came in over the weekend, picked up food, fuel and ice, and went back out again only to learn that all that expense had been wasted, not to mention catching no squid.
The loss: $10,000 to $50,000 per boat.
"I think I know what I'm getting in for," Bullard said last week. "I talked to a friend who used to work at NOAA and he said 'Are you crazy? Think pinata.'"
Bullard will start on Aug. 6, Hiroshima Day as it happens, as northeast regional administrator for the NOAA Fisheries Service. He said he expects it to be difficult, and he expects some decisions to be unpopular.
"But it's an important job with a huge impact, and I'm at a stage in life when getting everyone to love me is unimportant," he said.
Bullard will oversee fisheries management from North Carolina to the Canadian border at an awful time for the relationship between the fishing industry and the government.
He was not delighted to hear the news about the squid shutdown, since it's one more thing on top of all the other things he will have to face: messed-up science, heavy political pressure from environmental groups financed by the oil industry, a pending lawsuit over catch shares and sector management.
"There are lots of issues and imperfect communication is a theme that runs through it," Bullard said.
The politician in him is telling him to get out and meet the people he's regulating, just the way the new UMass Dartmouth chancellor is touring the campus to meet everyone.
"This is a little bigger, Cape Hatteras to Canada, but the principle is the same. I want to spend an awful lot of the first few months meeting people on their turf.
"I'm getting a picture in my own mind about what would success look like. What do I think the biggest issues facing them are? Is there a shared vision for a successful fishery?"
The latter, he said, will vary by region so he's going to have to stay aware of that, he said.
Bullard is shopping around for an apartment near his new office — or, better yet, lion's den — in Gloucester and he says he's got no buyer's remorse.
In fact, he is encouraged by the fact that he got so much support from the various interests in the fishery.
A Rhode Island fisherman friend was the first to bring it up, he said. Then came the Environmental Defense Fund and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank. "EDF started calling me up. Barney Frank called me. If these two can agree on anything it's a miracle. But they were both very encouraging to me to wade into this."