GOOD NEWS AT NMFS

Over the past four years or so, the National Marine Fisheries Service did not do itself proud.

Between early 2017 and the first three weeks of this year, the agency responsible for conserving and managing the nation’s living marine resources seemed to go out of its way to make the wrong calls, and subordinate the long-term sustainability of fish stocks to the short-term interests of both the commercial and recreational sectors.

In June 2017, NMFS illegally extended the recreational red snapper season for private boats in the Gulf of Mexico, knowing as it did so that such reopening would lead to overfishing.  NMFS took such action after meeting with representatives of the recreational fishing industry who pushed for the reopening, confident that the extended season would close, and all damage would be done, before anyone could bring suit to contest such wrongful action.  Although NMFS was wrong on the latter point, and later entered into a litigation-ending settlement, promising not to take any such action again, that did nothing to repair the harm caused by the agency-sanctioned overfishing.

Scant weeks after making that ill-advised decision, NMFS showed bad judgment again when it overrode the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s finding that New Jersey’s recreational summer flounder regulations, which were deemed inadequate by both the scientists on the ASMFC’s Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Technical Committee and by the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board, were not in compliance with the ASMFC’s summer flounder management plan.  In taking such action, NMFS failed to consult with either the Administrator of its Greater Atlantic Fisheries Regional Office or with biologists at its Northeast Fisheries Science Center as to the adequacy of the New Jersey rules or the wisdom of overruling the ASMFC’s finding.  Instead, the decision appears to have constituted a political favor to former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was an early supporter of the newly-elected president and had petitioned the Secretary of Commerce to overrule the ASMFC’s management plan fully three months before the ASMFC had rejected New Jersey’s proposed regulations.

It wasn’t just bottom fish that suffered from NMFS actions over the past four years.  Various highly migratory species endured their share of abuses as well.

Probably none were addressed as badly as the shortfin mako shark, which has been severely depleted in the North Atlantic.  In 2019, a group of ten nations, recognizing the mako’s peril, introduced a motion at the plenary meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas that would have prohibited the retention of any makos caught in the commercial or recreational fisheries.  Sixteen ICCAT members supported that motion once it had been introduced at the meeting, including such nations as Japan, Taiwan, and China, which are usually on the wrong side of fishery conservation issues.  There were only three members opposed, Curacao, the European Union, and the United States, with the U.S. supporting a measure that would allow the highest level of mako retention.

The same scene repeated itself at a virtual, COVID-shortened meeting on shortfin makos held toward the end of last year.

And a little over one year ago, NMFS decided to eliminate closed areas originally instituted to prevent longline bycatch of bluefin tuna, including closed areas in the Gulf of Mexico that protected the only confirmed spawning ground for the bluefin’s troubled western stock.  The supposed justification for such action was the “need” to make such areas accessible to swordfish longliners, which have been unable to land their full swordfish quotas in recent years, and relatively new regulations that set individual bluefin quotas for vessels participating in the pelagic longline fishery.  But while such catch limits would better assure that longliners wouldn’t exceed their bluefin bycatch allocation, wouldn’t it still be better if they killed fewer bluefin over-all?

Apparently not, if you were among the recent NMFS leadership, who seemed to believe that their most important duty was to monetize the nation’s fishery resources, not to manage and conserve them for the long term.

Such attitude must have been terribly frustrating to NMFS’ career employees, who see political appointees come and go, while they stand steadfastly by their responsibilities to properly manage the ocean’s resources, in support of or, as in recent years, despite the policies put in place by those at the highest level of the administration.

Now, it appears that such career employees might be getting a breath of fresh air, and the sort of good leadership that they deserve.  On June 21, NMFS announced that Janet Coit, the former head of Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management, would be taking over the reins of the agency.

Ms. Coit might be the perfect choice for the nation’s top fisheries manager.  Upon being appointed, she struck just the right note, saying

“I am excited to join NOAA Fisheries to work with the agency’s incredibly skilled and dedicated employees to rebuild fisheries where necessary, and protect and conserve endangered and threatened marine resources and their habitats.  It’s clear that NOAA Fisheries is already pivoting to capture and incorporate climate impacts into world-class science capabilities.  That will serve us well as we focus on the management of some of the most iconic and sustainable fisheries in the world.”

Rebuilding.  Conservation.  Climate Change.  Science.  Sustainability.  It’s nice to hear such language, spoken with sincerity, coming out of NMFS once again.

I have never met Ms. Coit, either in person or in some remote meeting, but I’m familiar enough with her work to be impressed.  The reason why can best be summed up by a statement she made in March 2020, when she reviewed a Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council recommendation that the state adopt different size limits for for-hire vessels and private anglers, and also adopt a slot limit larger than the coastwide slot adopted by the ASMFC.  In rejecting that recommendation, Ms. Coit said

“The perspectives of stakeholders and advisors are given due consideration in the decision-making process.  Upon review of the record, it is apparent that the opinions of the RI recreational fishing community are split between the three management options offered at the hearing.  However, given that the striped bass stock is overfished and experiencing overfishing, the factor that emerges as the most important, and upon which my final decision rests, is risk to the resource.  Minimizing such risk is essential to maximizing the efficacy of our management response.  Of the three options, I find the coastwide measure to be the most risk-averse and best suited to quickly and effectively reduce fishing mortality and rebuild the striped bass stock.  Other key factors I considered in making my decision included resource conservation, compliance and enforcement, and equity.  [emphasis added]”

I can’t help but like and support anyone who understands that the right way to manage a resource is to put the needs of that resource first.  They’re a refreshing and needed change from the sort of managers who would knowingly let Gulf anglers kill too many red snapper, or override the ASMFC on fluke just to repay a political debt.

And Ms. Coit can also work across sectors.

Chris Brown, a Rhode Island commercial fisherman who serves as president of the Seafood Harvesters of America, hailed Ms. Coit’s appointment, saying

“I have worked closely with Janet Coit for many years in Rhode Island, and I am thrilled to see her expertise and skillful leadership recognized by this administration.  Janet will be a thoughtful and steady NMFS [Assistant Administrator], carefully listening to stakeholders while keeping sound science, not politics, at the heart of the agency.  She won the respect of the commercial fishing industry in Rhode Island and I expect her to do the same as NMFS AA.”

Ms. Coit, who once said that recreational fishery management needs to consider

“science, integrity, joy, and fun,”

is also well-regarded by anglers.

Capt. David Monti, a Rhode Island outdoor columnist and charter boat operator, recently wrote that

“In my world of fishing, she always seemed to make decisions with the best interests of the fish, habitat and the environment in mind, keeping the politics out of the decision making process as much as possible…

“…If she does half the job she did here in Rhode Island our oceans, the fish, climate ready fisheries, shared use of our oceans and all the people of this country are going to be big winners.”

That sounds just right. 

And Ms. Coit sounds just right, as well.