NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco, who last week told an international conference the U.S. favors a reduced fishery in Atlantic bluefin tuna, is being accused of "selling out U.S. fishermen" by Sen. Olympia Snowe.
Massachusetts' hub fishing ports, Gloucester and New Bedford, both include a number of bluefin permit holders. And Times columnist Peter Prybot has been reporting this fall on an unsurpassed season of bluefin fishing along Georges Bank, documented by Gloucester fishermen who landed some of the catch.
But the Pew Environment Group and other large-scale environmental groups have held to the belief that the bluefin is on the verge of extinction.
Lubchenco, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, issued her statement on her arrival in Paris to head the U.S. delegation to a pivotal meeting of ICCAT, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Daily Times.