January 30, 2017 — It was last Halloween when Jon Hare took over as Science and Research Director for NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole. He was aware he was jumping into a cauldron but it hasn’t spooked him yet.
“I knew it was going to be a challenge and that’s why I was interested in it,” the career NOAA scientist said.
Hare does understatement well.
The director’s job description includes managing “the living marine resources of the Northeast Continental Shelf Ecosystem from the Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras,” according to the NOAA website.
If that in itself were not sufficient, these resources include commercial fisheries, and in New England that is synonymous with controversy.
Federal fishery management in general, and the efficacy of NOAA’s survey work on fish stocks in particular, have been heavily criticized by fishermen in the Northeast, almost without cessation for the past 15 years and the NEFSC has been at the sharp end of much of this disaffection.
Since his appointment Hare has launched himself upon these troubled waters with energy and candor, reaching out to industry stakeholders at every opportunity in the belief that there is common ground.