Turning away from the only two candidates to be interviewed, the Obama administration has apparently decided to reopen the search for the nation’s top fisheries administrator.
The unexpected delay comes as the government moves aggressively to remake the nation’s fisheries, converting the commonly held resource of wild fish stocks into a tradeable commodity under a regulatory format based on fishermen’s "catch shares."
Nearly three months after interviewing Brian Rothschild, an academic from Massachusetts, and Arne Foglvog, a former fisherman, fishery official and political appointee from Alaska, Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "continues to actively recruit candidates," her communications director Justin Kenney told the Times yesterday.