8 March 2012 – So, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco says she was "appalled" to learn of the abuses on her law enforcement agency's luxury boat bought by fines built on the backs of our fishermen?
She may well be. But she and first-year Commerce Secretary John Bryson would also do well to remember the old adage that actions speak much louder than words.
And despite Lubchenco's embarrassing claims of a "top-to-bottom overhaul" of NOAA enforcement personnel and policies, her actions continue to tell quite a different story as long as the likes of former NOAA police chief Dale Jones is sitting in a $150,000-plus NOAA job.
To that end, Congressman John Tierney is right on the mark in calling for a long-overdue congressional investigation of the luxury boat fiasco. And we can only hope that such a probe also opens the door to the kind of full congressional probe — with subpoena power — of NOAA's regulatory and enforcement that's so desperately needed.
Read the complete editorial by The Gloucester Times.