The National Marine Fisheries Service Tuesday released a study from an independent researcher citing a wide range of flaws and weaknesses in the functioning of New England's regulatory and science systems.
The targeted elements include the New England regional office of NMFS, based in Gloucester's Blackburn Industrial Park, the New England Fishery Management Council, based in Newburyport, and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole.
Especially pointed were criticisms of the science center, whose director, Nancy Thompson, resigned last week, announcing in an e-mail that she was leaving "to pursue new challenges at NOAA."
"There is a void in leadership, lack of clear direction on management priorities and philosophy, and poor collaboration with external partners," said Preston Pate, the author of the report. Pate is the former chairman of the Atlantic States Fisheries Commission.
Pate also found that "staff morale is declining," and there is distrust from external stakeholders — including "distrust in the science" and "the research funding process."
Thompson was not at her office in Woods Hole Tuesday, according to a spokeswoman, and did not respond to an e-mail seeking comments.
Among the other findings by Pate was that the New England Fishery Management Council staff "may have a tendency to overstep their authority by guiding policy instead of supporting an objective view."
He also found the body, which functions somewhat like a legislature to the executive, was process bound, its governance "too complicated."
The overstepping of authority echoes in less harsh language the repeated accusations of New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang, who has insisted that the inspector general for the Commerce Department would find a regulatory system as "corrupt" as the law enforcement system he documented in a series of reports last year.
The regional council, which is comprised of institutional members and appointees from a system that feeds nominees up to the Secretary of Commerce from governors, is where the controversial catch share regimen for the New England groundfishery was constructed over more than three years.
The council system plays a central role in a federal lawsuit filed by the cities of Gloucester and New Bedford for a cohort of plaintiffs against the way Amendment 16, the new groundfishing regulatory framework, was engineered. The case is before U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel after March arguments in her Boston courtroom..
The Pate report also had criticisms of the Gloucester office of NMFS, which regulates and polices from the Canadian border through the Carolinas.
These include "poor data management" over-bureaucratization and an inadequate and bad reputation with stakeholders.
The Pate report was commissioned by NMFS administrator Eric Schwaab after John Pappalardo, the outgoing chairman of the council, wrote to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke in December 2009 that "our region's bureaucracy is unable to efficiently meet its expanded obligations."
The Pate report was released during the start of the council's three day April meeting this week in Mystic, Conn.
One example of why the fishing industry dislikes and distrusts the science center surfaced last fall, when Thompson seemed to contradict the chief scientist who had e-mailed Kristian Kristensen with good news about presence of skates in a trawl survey.
Kristensen runs Zeus Packing based on Harbor Loop in Gloucester, where the company processes and ships dogfish and skates.
Russell Brown, NOAA's chief scientist at Woods Hole, wrote to Kristensen indicating that "these indices are higher than we have observed in recent years and this likely represents good news for fishery stakeholders, managers and the resource."
Brown described the results as "fully audited," and said they would be released shortly.
But Thompson sent Kristensen an unsolicited e-mail, effectively negating Brown's optimism and also partially contradicting Brown's claim that results had been "fully audited."
"While we are completing the audit for the bottom trawl survey at this time," she wrote to Kristensen, "we do not know what these results mean relative to the status and condition of the stock. So, quite frankly, we do not know what this means as far as news for the fishery."
Kristensen said he considered Thompson's departure to be "good news.
"She's probably cost our business between $5-6 million since then," he said.
Schwaab is coming to Gloucester Friday to discuss the Pate report. Mayor Carolyn Kirk said she had opened the session to the public due to public interest, and said it would be held in the City Hall auditorium at 11:30 a.m.
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