The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration yesterday announced a suite of detailed reforms with an eye toward "moving toward an effective enforcement program" for federal fisheries, the agency's chief administrator said.
The agency has been chipping away at longtime patterns of dissonant behavior since January, when a 28-page inspector general's report outlining misconduct, lack of leadership and provocative actions against fishermen and fish brokers dropped with a thud into the lap of NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco.
Yesterday, Lubchenco made no mention of Dale Jones, whose 11-year record heading NOAA law enforcement has become a major distraction to Lubchenco and a bar to rapprochement with a fishing community whose complaints have been corroborated through Inspector General Todd Zinser's investigation and preliminary report.
She did, however, announce a commitment to healing scars from wounds and slights to the fishing industry over many years by agents cited by the inspector general for confusing their "criminal" orientation with the technical and reporting violations of fishermen and dealers.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.
Dr. Lubchenco’s report to the Inspector General is available online
The report’s appendices are available online