Former NOAA official pushed regs that benefit his company
The head of a company that receives millions of dollars from the federal government to provide at-sea watchdogs has a long history of advocating for the strict regulations that now benefit his company. Andrew Rosenberg wears many hats. He heads up the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He is an unpaid affiliate professor of natural resources and the environment at the University of New Hampshire. He is a biologist with expertise in fisheries, once serving as the Northeast regional administrator for the . And he is the president of MRAG Americas, a consulting company that earns most of its gross revenue from NMFS. Read the rest here 18:04
But in an email, Parkes said there was no conflict. NOAA “examined this in detail,” he said. And although it’s not required, MRAG keeps management of the contracts separate. One management team runs the observer and at-sea monitor programs, while another runs the Moore grant study.
yet another example of the foxes watching the hen house. What a scam.
Andy Rosenberg was a member of the “Working Group” which “researched” and authored the “Oceans of Abundance” paper. The paper advocated “catch shares” or ITQs (with the proviso of full observer coverage). Professor Rosenberg was also part of the Joint Oceans Commission which preceded this paper. This Joint Oceans Commission was (and is) a “joint effort” of the US Oceans Commission and The Pew Oceans Commission. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Ocean_Commission_Initiative)
The “Oceans of Abundance” paper was issued as a primer for the incoming Obama administration and promotes the catch shares
management scheme as an answer to the “fisheries crisis”.
http://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/oceans-of-abundance.pdf
It is written by such fisheries research luminaries as Costello, Lubchenco, Steven Gaines, Andy Rosenberg, and Ellen Pikitch, to name a few. Many of the talking points in this lobbying paper use references from Myers and Worm and Pauly—of working down the food chain and nothing-left-but-jellyfish fame.
The paper (or leaflet is perhaps a better term) when referring to the fisheries is laced with words such as decimated, depleted, destroyed, ruined, emptied, food source in jeopardy etc. The end
notes and the names in the “Working Group” read like a Who’s Who in Ersatz Fisheries Research.
The paper starts out with a display of the “conveners” and funders of this “study” and the hyperbolic text goes downhill from there.
Here the EDF et al lobbyists literally write the fisheries policy for the
new Obama administration. “Oceans of Abundance: Action Agenda for America’s Vital Fishing Future”. Aka the campaign for the selling of catch shares.