May 17, 2012 – After three-plus years with Jane Lubchenco at the helm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, its National Marine Fisheries Service and its Northeast regional office in Gloucester, the organizations are in flux — if not transition, transformation or relocation.
In NMFS's regulatory side, the top eight officials are all in "acting" positions.
With many of the fisheries it manages, including Gulf of Maine cod, which is in crisis and essential to the Gloucetser fleet's wellbeing, the continued existence of NMFS's regional office in Gloucester has been put in doubt by the U.S. Senate, while the catch share commodification program introduced to restore the stocks has been repudiated by the U.S. House.
The catch share approach, which leads to capital consolidation and job loss, has been held by Gov. Deval Patrick to be responsible for a social and economic fisheries failure.
Yet, despite ample notice that the Northeast regional administrator was stepping down last December, no full-fledged successor to Pat Kurkul has yet been appointed. In the interim, Daniel Morris has been serving as the acting regional administrator, setting off chain reaction of acting officials — an acting deputy and acting assistant regional administrator, as well as an acting director of the science center.
The state of NOAA's leadership has attracted congressional attention.
"I don't think it's anything but obvious to say that not having a NOAA regional administrator makes it that much more difficult for fishermen to have the productive face-to-face interactions they need to be heard by the bureaucracy," U.S. Sen. John Kerry in an email.
The Senate's fiscal 2013 budget for Commerce, Science and Justice — which includes NOAA — defunds the Northeast regional office under plans to relocate it to NMFS headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. In January, President Obama announced a proposal — one that wold also need congressional approval — to shift NOAA from the Commerce Department to the Department of the Interior.
The House budget for the second straight year has a rider barring expansion of catch share commodification, Lubchenco's signature fisheries program, which has been promoted by the Environmental Defense Fund with grant funding by Walmart's Walton Family Foundation.
Read the full article from the Gloucester Times.