October 8, 2015 — State Fish & Game Commissioner George Peterson wasn’t able to land his first choice as the new director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries back in July, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t able to find a state position for his preferred candidate.
Peterson, in Gloucester for Thursday’s meeting of the state Marine Fisheries Commission, announced Gov. Charlie Baker has given him the green light to create a new position — special assistant to the commissioner’s office for marine fisheries issues — and place Douglas Christel in that new job.
“He will report directly to me,” Peterson said of Christel, who is set to begin work in his new job during the first week of November. “I believe he will be an asset to this agency [DMF] and this commission.”
Peterson said Christel, a longtime National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries staffer and Peterson’s first choice to succeed Paul Diodati as director of DMF, will serve as a conduit of information from various elements in the state’s marine fishery regulatory and scientific apparatus — as well as their federal counterparts — to enable Peterson, Secretary for the Environment Daniel Sieger and Baker to formulate more informed policy.
“For instance, the governor has raised some questions about the science being used to perform the stock assessments,” Peterson said. “We see this as a way of helping get new information into the system.”
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times