Appointments made by the Obama administration are shifting the balance of power on New England and Mid-Atlantic fishery management councils more and more toward environmental interests tied to Jane Lubchenco, the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief who is building a coalition for implementing her "catch share" regulatory system.
A similar shift was realized on the Pacific council, but the impetus there was state, not national, politics, according to a source close to the council, which, like others, legislates for and advises NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service.
But the alpha objective of Lubchenco and her minions in the Environmental Defense Fund and the Pew Environment Group is to convert the nation’s fisheries from commonly held resources into negotiable commodities — catch shares.