President-elect Barack Obama’s appointment of Jane Lubchenco, an
Oregon State University marine biologist, to head the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could be a major,
positive step for protecting America’s fisheries. In recent
years, NOAA has, too often, ignored scientists’ advice when it
comes to setting quotas for some of our most vulnerable fish
species, favoring commercial interests over conservation. With a
scientist like Lubchenco in charge, I hope that NOAA will start
to take a more scientific tack in its management. Lubchenco, a
well-regarded researcher and professor, will have her hands
full. America’s fisheries are among the best-managed in the
world, but that’s just because there’s not much competition.
Take the recent ICCAT negotiations in Marrakech, for example,
where the body charged with preserving eastern bluefin tuna
potentially condemned the species to commercial extinction by
setting a quota double scientists’ recommendations. America’s
salmon stocks are still reeling from