February 26, 2015 — "If you relish independence, if you want to live by your wits, there's something magical about the ocean," Bullard said on a recent evening in a hotel lobby, his tall frame folded into an upholstered chair.
Bullard now spends more time in Holiday Inns and Radissons than he does on the water. As an NMFS regional administrator, it's his job to frequent nondescript conference rooms, listening to fishermen who are wary of federal data and environmentalists who want tighter fishing regulations.
That debate has escalated in recent months, after NMFS released an unexpected midseason stock assessment on Gulf of Maine cod. The assessment — which showed alarmingly low population numbers — triggered emergency action, with NMFS closing off large swaths of the gulf to cod fishing through mid-May (Greenwire, Nov. 10, 2014).
Bullard angered many fishermen by initially declining to consider industry alternatives to the temporary closures, but he reversed course last week. That concession will not stem the debate, though; after the interim rule expires, fishery managers are expected to all but ban cod harvests.
Once heralded as the key to mending NMFS's strained relationship with Northeast fishermen, Bullard now embodies one of the most unpopular restrictions in years.
"This is what I signed up for. Difficult decisions have to be made," Bullard wrote in an email. "I don't want them to be faceless, anonymous or impersonal. I want everyone to know there is a real human being with a history they are very familiar with who is responsible."