One of the three deputy law enforcement directors in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is the choice of National Marine Fisheries Service Administrator Eric Schwaab to be the next director of federal fisheries law enforcement, multiple informed sources said Wednesday.
Sources in and outside NMFS and its parent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration identified the heir apparent to Dale J. Jones Jr. as Lt. Col. Bruce Buckson, who reports to the director, Col. Jim Brown.
NOAA spokeswoman Monica Allen said the agency was "not able to confirm" the sources' information.
Director Brown with Buckson and his two fellow deputies supervise a fish and wildlife police force of more than 700 officers, three times the number of federal fisheries law enforcement agents.
The Times' sources identifying Buckson as Schwaab's choice to take the position said Buckson did not have the college education to qualify for the job as originally posted.
Calls to Buckson were unreturned.
The sources said Buckson has not yet been cleared for the job through NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, Schwaab's immediate superior, due in part to complications arising from Buckson's lack of a four year college education and political considerations.
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