Saving Seafood

Janet Coit named to lead NOAA Fisheries; Rick Spinrad confirmed as NOAA administrator

June 22, 2021 — Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management head Janet Coit was named to lead the National Marine Fisheries Service, also known as NOAA Fisheries, on Monday, 21 June, a move met with wide approval from a variety of stakeholder groups.

Coit will oversee a governmental agency that employs 4,800 people in five regional offices, six science centers, and more than 20 laboratories in 15 states and U.S. territories. It is responsible for the management and conservation of recreational and commercial fisheries, including some aspects of marine aquaculture.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Biden Taps A Former Top Scientist At NOAA To Lead The Weather And Climate Agency

April 26, 2021 — President Biden is nominating Rick Spinrad to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the government’s premier agency on climate science which oversees the National Weather Service.

Prior to his current role as a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University, Spinrad served as NOAA’s top scientist under President Obama and the U.S. representative to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

The nomination comes at a difficult moment in NOAA’s history. The agency has been without an official, Senate-confirmed leader since former President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, after his two nominees to lead the agency failed to garner enough support to win a full vote before the Senate.

If Spinrad manages to win over the Senate, he will have to contend with a challenge beyond the agency’s already-rigorous scientific mandate: restoring public confidence in a traditionally apolitical agency marred by political scandal.

Read the full story at NPR

Biden taps ocean scientist Rick Spinrad to run NOAA

April 23, 2021 — President Biden has picked Rick Spinrad, an oceanographer with decades of science and policy experience, to run National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the government’s leading agency for weather, climate and ocean science.

The White House announced Spinrad’s selection along with several additional climate and environmental nominees, including Tracy Stone-Manning, a senior adviser for the National Wildlife Federation tapped to lead the Interior Department’s Bureau for Land Management.

Spinrad, a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University, served as chief scientist at NOAA under President Barack Obama and before that led the agency’s research arm and ocean service. He also held ocean leadership positions in the Navy.

Named to lead the agency on Earth Day, Spinrad has been a champion of funding research to advance the understanding of climate change, a top priority of the Biden White House.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Biden nominates Rick Spinrad to head NOAA

April 23, 2021 — U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he has nominated Rick Spinrad, a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University and the former chief scientist for NOAA, for the position of NOAA administrator.

The nomination comes as NOAA is amidst the longest period without a Senate-confirmed administrator since its creation in 1970. Former U.S. President Donald Trump had nominated Barry Myers – the former CEO of AccuWeather – to the position in 2017, but his nomination was never brought to a full vote before Myers ultimately withdrew from consideration.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Biden plans to nominate ocean scientist Rick Spinrad to head NOAA, the country’s premier climate science agency.

April 22, 2021 — President Biden on Thursday announced he would nominate Rick Spinrad, a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University, to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the country’s premier climate science agency.

The announcement potentially marks a new chapter for NOAA, which was at times a source of tension for former President Donald J. Trump, who publicly sparred with the agency’s scientists and was unable to get any of his nominees to lead it confirmed by the Senate. NOAA has been without a Senate-confirmed leader for the longest period since it was created in 1970.

In 2019, Mick Mulvaney, who was Mr. Trump’s acting White House chief of staff at the time, pushed NOAA to disavow statements by its weather forecasters that contradicted what the president had said about the path of Hurricane Dorian. Last year, the administration removed NOAA’s chief scientist from his role and installed people who questioned the science of climate change in senior roles at the agency.

Dr. Spinrad is a former chief scientist at NOAA, where he also led the agency’s research office and the National Ocean Service. The timing of Mr. Biden’s announcement was notable — on Earth Day amid a two-day climate summit in which he committed the United States to cutting emissions by half by the end of the decade.

The selection of Dr. Spinrad drew quick praise from the scientific policy community Thursday evening.

“We commend the Biden administration for continuing to nominate credible and well-qualified candidates who understand the urgency of the climate crisis,” Sally Yozell, the director of the environmental security program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank, said in a statement.

Rear Adm. Jonathan White, the president and chief executive of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, called Dr. Spinrad “an excellent choice for this important role.”

Read the full story at The New York Times