Tag Archives: Jane Lubchenko

Retraction of flawed MPA study implicates larger problems in MPA science

A retraction is a Big Deal in science, especially from a prominent journal. What’s strange in this story is how the conflict of interest intersects with the science. The conflict of interest was apparent immediately upon publication, but it wasn’t until major problems in the underlying science were revealed that an investigation was launched, and the paper eventually retracted. But with increased press comes increased scrutiny. The critiques pointed out errors and impossible assumptions that strongly suggested the paper was inadequately peer reviewed. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) later determined that the person responsible for assigning Cabral et al.’s peer reviewers, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, had a conflict of interest. >click to read< 10:36

How a ‘rogue’ environmental group transformed (HIJACKED) American fisheries

One of the nation’s largest environmental groups — bankrolled with $50 million from the heirs to the Walmart fortune — has spent millions of dollars pushing a wholesale change in how the U.S. manages its fisheries, an AL.com investigation reveals. Critics blame the Environmental Defense Fund effort for hurting fishing communities on every coast, from Kake, Alaska, and Gloucester, Mass., to Bayou La Batre, Alabama. The group has pushed a system that turns the right to catch a pound of fish into a private commodity that can be bought and sold like a share of stock on Wall Street. The government then gives these shares to individual commercial fishermen, granting them the right to catch that fish, or lease or sell the right to catch it to another fisherman. EDF gained unprecedented access to the levers of power in 2008 when President Obama appointed the vice-chair of EDF’s board – Jane Lubchenko — as the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which manages the nation’s fish stocks. Once in power, Lubchenko, a respected but little known fisheries professor in Washington State, enacted a national catch share policy that mirrored EDF’s longtime goals. Read this story. Read the story here 09:21

NOAAgate: how ‘ocean acidification’ could turn out to be the biggest con since Trawlgate!

10172769-largeFor years this has been touted by environmentalists as possibly the greatest threat to the planet after “global warming.” According to Jane Lubchenko, the (former) head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it is “climate change’s equally evil twin” because of the disastrous consequences it may have for everything from the navigational systems of spawning salmon to the health of coral reefs. Ocean acidification is said to be caused when excess atmospheric carbon dioxide is absorbed by the sea, reducing its pH levels to make it more acidic. Read the rest here 08:02

“Green Gate – U.S. National Ocean Policy Is A Tool To Lease Tracts of Ocean To Corporations Creating Ocean Real Estate”

193X122PEWLogoWhy should we be looking across the pond to the USA and its fishing and marine activities? Because a huge stone was dropped in that pond years ago and now the ripples are now beginning to hit our shores. Behind the scenes money talks. HFW’s Fish Fight programme was funded largely thanks to a donation from a charity from across the pond – PEW.  The ripples are getting bigger and hitting our shores – now. Read the rest here 09:21