Last month, Gov. Paul LePage appointed Patrick Keliher as the new commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources, nearly six months after the fiery resignation of the previous commissioner, Norman Olsen. Mr. Keliher’s appointment wasn’t surprising; he’s been deputy commissioner since 2007 and acting commissioner since Mr. Olsen’s July 20th departure, and may represent reassuring continuity after his predecessor’s short and rocky tenure.
But why did Olsen leave, and what, if anything, did his resignation signal about Gov. LePage’s marine policies going forward?
Olsen didn’t go quietly. He issued a statement with his resignation blasting the governor for being “more interested in pacifying special interest groups than in responsibly managing Maine’s marine resources for the benefit of the entire state,” an undertaking he would have no part in. LePage, he said, had barred him from meetings with lobster fishermen, then turned on him at their behest. The governor had allegedly ordered him to cease efforts to help the Portland-based groundfishing fleet because “Portland was against him” and he would “not work with that city.” The results of an embarrassing internal audit of the department had led some Department of Marine Resources (DMR) staff to also attack him, Olsen said, and a gubernatorial aid had ordered him to appease unnamed fishing interests who had complained about his approach.
Read the complete opinion piece from the Working Waterfront.