The Environmental Defense Fund's president Fred Krupp has declined an invitation by a Senate subcommittee to testify in Boston Monday about the catch share fishery management system that EDF has helped push to the level of national policy — with an angry backlash from the fishing industry and Congress.
EDF gathered tens of millions of dollars in grant funding to promote catch shares and campaigned relentlessly on behalf of the fisheries management regimen which involves transforming common wild resources into tradeable, allocated shares.
It hit the jackpot when President Obama named Jane Lubchenco, then EDF's vice chairwoman, to run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and, after not mentioning catch shares at her confirmation hearing, declared it to be her top priority, nudging the New England Fishery Management Council to approve that format for the groundfishery based in Gloucester and New Bedford.
Also testifying is attorney Stephen Ouellette, who documented the range of abuses by NOAA enforcement in a letter to Congress 10 years ago that was largely ignored, until recognized by Zinser in one of his reports that documented how federal fisheries law enforcers and attorneys had settled scores and debilitated the fleet, especially those boats based in Gloucester.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.