June 11, 2018 — John Connelly, the president of the National Fisheries Institute (NFI), used his opportunity in front of US representative Rob Bishop, chairman of the House’s Natural Resources Committee, to light a fire under the federal government’s top fisheries regulator to better promote its quality work.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) “regulation of seafood sets a global standard for success, but it needs to do a better job of explaining that”, said Connelly, whose group most significantly represents seafood processors, wholesalers and importers, according to a statement.
“…Communicating about its successes raises NOAA’s profile, while a sea of third-party certifiers jockey for recognition in the commercial landscape,” he continued.
“Fisheries managed by NOAA shouldn’t need a third party to come in and certify that they’re doing a good job. We spend more than 800 million taxpayer dollars on fisheries management annually, the least NOAA can do is talk about it.”