WELCOME TO BILL'S CORNER!

Dear Constituents,

I recently delivered my annual “State of the Agency” address to NOAA Fisheries Service employees in Silver Spring, and to employees throughout the nation via Web cast. As I sat to write this address, I began to think about the legacy we will leave behind at the end of this Administration. Many questions arose, including: Which of our accomplishments and investments will continue to benefit both fishing communities and the environment for years to come? What additional accomplishments are necessary to feel we did the best job possible? What should be our priorities between now and 2009?

These questions led me to refocus my priorities and determine what I wish to achieve during the remainder of my time as the head of NOAA Fisheries Service. In this month’s Bill’s Corner, I’d like to highlight some of the accomplishments that I’m certain will have lasting impacts at NOAA Fisheries Service and outline my new priorities.

Many of our accomplishments are celebrated quietly. We earn a lot of widespread media coverage and public attention for the controversial issues we manage, but seldom do our successes garner the same awareness. Here are several of these accomplishments that I am particularly proud of:

• We made procedural changes that have helped us operate more efficiently and be less prone to litigation. By strengthening the process of carrying out our obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act, we have reduced litigation to a fraction of what it once was;
  
• Recognizing that open and transparent communication is the only way to conduct the government’s business, we established an open door policy early in this Administration and have continued to improve our communication strategies. I regularly give media interviews, meet with a variety of constituent groups, host public roundtables, and encourage employees to contact me directly with questions or concerns;
  
• We developed and implemented a National Bycatch Strategy to help us further reduce bycatch in U.S. fisheries. We are now working on a national bycatch report card to track our successes under this strategy on an annual basis;
  
• We invested in research and development to help the U.S. longline fleet operate more sustainably. Through this three-year project, we developed new fishing methods and gear that considerably reduce leatherback and loggerhead sea turtle interactions with longline gear. This research enabled us to re-open U.S. longline fisheries in the Atlantic and Pacific. We have exported our research findings to other countries, which have invited us to host workshops for their fishermen and policymakers;
  
• We are doing more than ever to protect marine mammals from fishing gear and other human impacts. This month, we’ll unveil the first-ever strategy for reducing marine mammal ship strikes for public comment. Our aerial survey teams have stepped up efforts to spot endangered right whales and steer vessels away from them. In addition, NOAA scientists helped to successfully reunite a killer whale with its pod in the Pacific Northwest. Such a scientific feat had never before been accomplished;
  
• We created a new Office of International Affairs to elevate the importance of our international work and help us be better prepared to meet the global challenges of marine conservation;
  
• We developed stronger-than-ever partnerships with State directors and Councils to foster collaboration and improvements to fisheries management processes throughout the nation;
  
• We developed two important pieces of legislation that were introduced in Congress and are awaiting final passage: the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization bill and the Offshore Aquaculture bill. The changes proposed in the Magnuson-Stevens bill will help us achieve our top goals of ending overfishing, expanding the use of market-based management programs in U.S. fisheries, increasing the role of science in fishery management decisions, and expanding representation on the regional fishery management councils. The aquaculture bill will establish a new industry in the United States to help our country compete internationally with fisheries production and allow us to develop standards for environmentally safe fish farming;
  
• We proposed to help industry develop seafood marketing councils to facilitate the process of educating Americans about the healthful benefits of eating seafood and help the U.S. fishing industry compete in the domestic marketplace;
  
• We hosted the first-ever international conference on seafood and health to pull together all the known research about the connection between seafood and human health. This conference was a major international success, and Norway has offered to host the next one in 2007 to keep the momentum going. During this conference, it became clear that many nations throughout the world are interested in educating their citizenry about why seafood is an important part of the human diet and why we must collectively work to sustain our oceans; and
  
• We were among the first responders after Hurricane Katrina to assess environmental damage, assure that Gulf seafood remained free of contaminants and safe for human consumption, and work to help get fishing communities back in business. The partnerships we forged with the Gulf States and other federal agencies were unprecedented, and we will continue to work on this endeavor as long as necessary.

I’d like to turn now to where I will focus my priorities through 2009. All of these goals will help us achieve full implementation of the President’s Ocean Action Plan:

• Continue improving the status of marine fisheries by eliminating overfishing, reducing bycatch, developing more dedicated access privilege programs, and balancing conservation with sustainable use of ocean resources;
  
• Establish more dedicated access privilege programs so that sustainable fisheries can operate as businesses that give fishermen more decision-making authority for greater safety and profit;
  
• Continue improving open, transparent communications between agency leadership and employees, constituents, the media, and the public;
  
• Develop improved employee training so that everyone fully understands the science, management, and policy-making process, and everyone understands the vital role they play in the process regardless of final outcomes;
  
• Continue assisting with recovery efforts in the Gulf of Mexico and help develop regional preparedness plans for future disasters;
  
• Continue working with Congress to ensure passage of the Magnuson-Stevens and Offshore Aquaculture bills;
  
• Continue to improve our relationships with recreational fishermen by fully implementing the Recreational Fisheries Strategic Plan and through the development of a national program to collect recreational fishing information; and
  
• Continue to work internationally on global challenges of overfishing, overcapacity, and bycatch, and continue to encourage the development and use of new sustainable fishing gear and methods.

As you can see, we’ve come a long way in the past six years, and we have a lot left to accomplish in the next two years. I recently accepted a leadership position as the chairman of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas and as U.S. Commissioner for both ICCAT and the International Whaling Commission because I truly believe that the United States alone cannot preserve ocean resources for the future. Even though the United States controls one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones in the world, our fishery impacts pale in comparison to other countries. Our success will depend on our ability to advance the cause of marine stewardship and sustainable fishing globally.

I’d like to close by saying that we are making a positive difference each and every day for the future of the oceans. Fisheries in the United States are rebuilding. We may not yet be able to take species off the overfished list or add them to the recovered list, but one day we will experience the success resulting from today’s efforts. Fishing has been reduced in almost every fishery, and we see stocks responding. My philosophy has always been and will remain: stay the course with what is working, and adjust when things aren’t working. Thanks to our dedicated employees and the support of our constituents, I think our legacy will be one to look back on with great pride and accomplishment.