NOAA puts allies from Pew on council

Appointments made by the Obama administration are shifting the balance of power on New England and Mid-Atlantic fishery management councils more and more toward environmental interests tied to Jane Lubchenco, the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief who is building a coalition for implementing her "catch share" regulatory system.

A similar shift was realized on the Pacific council, but the impetus there was state, not national, politics, according to a source close to the council, which, like others, legislates for and advises NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.

But the alpha objective of Lubchenco and her minions in the Environmental Defense Fund and the Pew Environment Group is to convert the nation's fisheries from commonly held resources into negotiable commodities — catch shares.

On the New England council, four members have been re-appointed, but one — Maine lobster dealer and fishing industry veteran Dana Rice — was replaced by Glen Libby, chairman of the Mid-Coast Fishermen's Association, an organization in Port Clyde, Maine, chosen for subsidies by the Pew Environment Group.

At the June meeting of the New England Council, which endorsed catch shares, the conversion of the fishery from a commonly owned public resource into a private commodity, Libby was an active advocate of the landmark transformation promoted by Lubchenco.

Rice, meanwhile, has conducted a rear-guard defense of the open-access fishery. As far back as 2002, he was alert to the coming of "individual transferable quotas," a close relative to catch shares.

In an interview in a publication of the Island Institute, Rice, who had hoped for reappointment, said he feared that quotas' introduction would set up a dynamic in which the "big guy buys up the quotas and the little guy gets pushed out of the fishery."

The shift orchestrated in the Mid-Atlantic Council was more pronounced, with three fishing industry incumbents replaced by environmental activists. The industry reaction was also pronounced.

"The recreational sector finds this trend extremely disturbing," the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press wrote of the appointments, which were announced in late June just as the New England Council ended its landmark meeting that featured a vote to convert the fishery to catch shares.

James Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, was quoted as saying, "The Pew Charitable Trust now runs NOAA." The Pew Environment Group is a subdivision of the Pew Charitable Trust, a Philadelphia-based 501(3)c charitable corporation endowed with more than $4 billion from the descendants of the Sun Oil Co.

Lubchenco rose through the academic scientific ranks in channels of Pew funding. She is also a member of the board of the Environmental Defense Fund, which has pioneered the merger of environmental and corporate interests and encourages market and investor involvement in environmental issues.

"After 32 years of recreational representation on the council, now there won't be any," the Asbury Park Press quoted Bruce Freeman as saying.

A candidate for a seat that was given to Christopher Zeman, an attorney associated with a number of environmental campaigns, Freeman recently retired from the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Ed Goldman, a New Jersey resident, fisheries biologist and life-long fisherman; Virginian Jeffrey Deem, a longtime fishing advocate who had been chosen by his peers on the council to chair the By-Catch and Limited Access Privilege Program Committee; and Laurie Nolan, from a Montauk, N.Y., tilefish producer, were all replaced by Lubchenco.

Appointed to the council along with Zeman were Peter L. deFur, a consultant from Virginia and former senior scientists with the Environmental Defense Fund, and Manhattan celebrity chef and environmental activist Steven Schaefer. Schaefer has worked with SeaWeb and the Blue Ocean Institute, organizations in the Pew galaxy.

They join John McMurray, a consultant to the EDF, who remains on the council.

Altogether, 30 appointments — many reappointments — were announced June 25.

The titular appointing authority for the councils, created by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, is the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, but in practice, the appointments are made by the NOAA administrator.

The official press release seems to confirm the pattern. Although the release notes the appointments were those of the Secretary of the Commerce, the person named and quoted is Lubchenco.

Reappointed to the New England council were Rodney Avila, a New Bedford fisherman; Sally McGee of Connecticut, who represents EDF; Dave Prebble, an author and retired fisherman; and Jim Odlin, a fishing fleet owner from Maine.

The addition of Libby to the New England council gives it two members who are active in small fishing associations that are subsidized by Pew. The other is John Pappalardo of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association, which operates two "sectors" or fishing cooperatives with financial aid from Pew.

Without significant discussion in Congress, catch shares have become the defacto national policy, introduced and advanced aggressively by Lubchenco, who was part of an intellectual milleux within EDF and Pew, where the idea of privatizing the fishery was formed and developed.

Among other steps, she hired Monica Medina at more than $100,000 a year from Pew to chair a Catch Share Task Force, and Medina has articulated the nation's policy.

"Transitioning to catch shares is a priority for NOAA," said Medina on the NOAA Web site. "This task force will engage stakeholders to help ensure that the regional fishery councils and NOAA implement catch shares wherever appropriate."

Lubchenco and her subordinates and appointees support the rapid transition of the different regional fisheries to catch shares on the belief that the privatization would reduce bycatch and increase ownership responsibility to the conservation programs.

But the model and past history suggests that the business transition will yield a radical consolidation of the fishing fleets, and a loss of indigenous ownership.

Many in New England fear this development. Responding, Lubchenco has proclaimed that there are ways to prevent speculation and external capitalization.

In all, the Magnuson Act subdivided the federal waters into eight exclusive economic zones and created eight regional councils made up of part-time members from various elements in the fishery to legislate and advise the executive authority, NOAA.

Meanwhile, fishing industry members question whether the Mid-Atlantic council is properly constituted without a recreational fishing representative. The region, from New York through the Carolinas, is heavier with recreational fishing than New England.

Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com

Fishing Industry Stories

Search Results

Discussion

Site Map

Contact Us