Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Eric Schwaab named new NMFS chief

The Obama administration today named Eric Schwaab, a Maryland public official, as the new head of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Schwaab takes over for Jim Balsiger of Juneau, who long held the position on an acting basis. Balsiger is returning to run NMFS in Alaska, source of more than half the nation's commercial fish landings.

Not trying to brag, but Deckboss reported back in December that Schwaab looked like the guy for the top NMFS job.

Anyway, here's the official announcement on Schwaab's appointment:

Feb. 10, 2010

Announcing the New Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries

Message from NOAA Administrator, Dr. Jane Lubchenco

It gives me great pleasure to announce Eric Schwaab as the new assistant administrator for fisheries, starting February 16. We are excited to have someone with Eric’s experience and proven leadership to bring a fresh perspective to the management of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. Eric will lead NOAA’s efforts to rebuild our fisheries and the jobs and livelihoods that depend on them. His immediate priorities include improving outreach and relationships with recreational and commercial fishermen, better aligning federal and regional fisheries priorities, restoring confidence in fisheries law enforcement, and promoting management approaches that will achieve both sustainable fisheries and vibrant coastal communities.

Eric brings more than 25 years of experience in local, state and federal natural resource management. He has spent the majority of his career at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, where he began as a natural resources police law enforcement officer in 1983. He eventually served as director of the Maryland Forest Service; director of the Maryland Forest, Wildlife and Heritage Service; and director of the Maryland Fisheries Service. In 2003, Eric left the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to serve as resource director for the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies until 2007. He then returned to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources as the deputy secretary. Eric has also served as a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee.

Eric is a creative and proven manager, consensus builder and leader. He has developed and implemented solutions to address challenges in regional habitat restoration, including Chesapeake Bay restoration issues, fish and wildlife conservation, public lands management, natural resources law enforcement, public agency administration, strategic planning and leadership development.

I am excited to welcome Eric to the NOAA family. He will work with NOAA leadership, the fisheries service, his fellow assistant administrators and our many constituents to further our efforts to protect and manage the nation’s fisheries, our other trust resources including marine mammals and sea turtles, and the ecosystems upon which they depend. Welcome Eric!

I would also like to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to Dr. Jim Balsiger, the acting assistant administrator, for his superb and sustained leadership. Jim has led the fisheries service for over two years in this capacity, far from his home in Alaska, and done so with distinction. He was especially instrumental in engaging the fishery management councils in the process of developing the draft catch shares policy. Dr. Balsiger will soon return to his position as NOAA Fisheries’ regional administrator for Alaska, but before doing so will assist Eric with his transition into the fisheries service and NOAA. I’d also like to thank the entire team at NOAA Fisheries who have done an excellent job during this period.

Dr. Jane Lubchenco
Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just remember Eric, All Trawling and/or dragging is very very destructive to fish and crustacean nurseries, and habitat...There are alot of industry representives, endorsed by BIG Money and corporate interest..some of them even on the Federal and State boards...to convince you to think otherwise...All we ask, as small, and individual owner/operators, is to give us fair representation so that we may continue to have the equal opportunities that these past corporate affluent, have maintained thru out their control of the industry over the past three decades....Us young, and aspiring fishermen/women should have every equal opportunity as the elders did in creating a viable career, as they did....After all, it was a public resource when they entered the fisheries, it should remain the same...Big Business has wrecked small town america, and it is continuing in our sector as well....Please make your decisions with a clear and unbiased conscience....We young guys are on the threshhold of career success or corporate takeover....I will NOT be a sharecropper...

Anonymous said...

If you won't be a sharecropper, why'd you vote for Ted Stevens for so many years?

King County Prosecutor Warren G. Magnuson, filed to run for Zioncheck's seat on August 1, 1936

Zioncheck died after plummeting to the sidewalk from a window of his office on the fifth floor of the Arctic Building, at 3rd Avenue and Cherry Street in downtown Seattle, on August 7, 1936.
He struck the pavement directly in front of a car occupied by his wife, Rubye Louise Nix. A note was found; it read (ungrammatically, perhaps from being hastily written),
"My only hope in life was to improve the condition of an unfair economic system that held no promise to those that all the wealth of even a decent chance to survive let alone live."

To this day, some members of Zioncheck's family believe that he was murdered--pushed out the window--and that the note left was not written by him. A researcher studied body positions of people who jumped from high places versus those that were pushed. He concluded that Zioncheck was pushed because of his arms flailing in the air.

The Zioncheck relatives who believe in murder also point to several run-ins that he had with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover; once Zioncheck sent a truckload of manure to Hoover's front steps and had it dumped. The relatives believe Hoover was indirectly responsible.

Another truckload of manure, from Ted Stevens, and what he did to the Norweigan Senator's Act's

ANGRY CRABBERS COMMITTEE said...

WElcome. A=board, ERIC,... TIME TO WALK THE WALK. or walk the plank. ROUGH WATER AHEAD! a$$ duh pitviper. Hang on TIGHT!!! AAARRRGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! HEEE. HEEE.HEEEHHHH.H.E.H.,....... GOOD. SUUURRRFFFIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Who in the hell would ever vote for that P.O.S. Ted Stevens?....I never did!....I had that brought to my attention, when I first started to vote....Too bad the inbreds didn't have the foresight to see the consequences, and visualize the long term effects that have happened...A certain few were to greedy, and cast the rest to the wolves....fubar...

Anonymous said...

Funny you speak of J. Edgar Hoover...I just read a report on the release of government documents and pictures, tying J.Edgar Hoover to George H.W. Bush to JFK's death in Texas, back in 1963...Pictures proving Bush Sr., during his days with the CIA, had been present, the night before, and the day of the assasination. Old man Bush has always denied ever being there...Hmmmm? Now, there are pictures proving his presence, and he fit the profile of the assailant to the "T"...Big Business profiting from defense contracts by snuffing out JFK....Watch out for those associated with Oil and any public resources that can be exploited...

Anonymous said...

Here's the link....www.tomflocco.com...search GHW Bush.....

Anonymous said...

Well any Alaskan knows Wally Hickles footnote, page 18, "Who Own's America" Chapter 1
"A Naked Man"
Volpe, Baker, Hatfield, Morse, MacGregouir, Brock, and lookie here, Rumsfeld, Bush, and Wilkinson?

Who was that Texan, who argued about "WHO" should ride shotgun, November 22, 1963?

That Texas History Lesson, when a Johnson showed up, was somehow connected to another Johnson who showed up.

"Im not a Lincoln, I'm a Ford?"

Anonymous said...

HAHAHaHA.....And ex- Pres Ford signs off on it...and the Warren Commission sweeps it under the rug...gone but not forgotten, as any President's assassination case always remains open....here's our hard earned tax payer's dollars goin' to work for ya....making sure corporate boys always maintain control....and you repubilcunt voters wonder why some of us live off the grid...all you CEO/CFO's will get your due....karma, brotha...

Anonymous said...

whew...talk about hijacking a thread. What were we talking about, again?

Anonymous said...

"Eric is a creative and proven manager, consensus builder and leader."

I hope that's true.

Just look at the past decade or two, of these supposed NOAA leaders?

Explained well, by a Federal District Judge, in another long going NOAA issue?

"breeching is not speeching."

Anonymous said...

Coming soon to Eric's Office near you!

The federal judge overseeing efforts to make the Columbia Basin's federal hydroelectric dams safer for salmon is giving the Obama administration one last chance to come up with something better that won't violate the Endangered Species Act.

U.S. District Judge James Redden in Portland on Wednesday gave NOAA Fisheries Service until Feb. 19 to decide whether to voluntarily take back their proposed improvements to the Bush administration plan, known as a biological opinion.

Dr Balsiger, Bye, Bye!

At least one tribe's not for sale!

"I have heard talk and talk, but nothing is done....You might as well expect rivers to run backwards as any man born free to be contented penned up....I saw clearly that war was upon us when I learned that my young men had been secretly buying ammunition."
Chief Joseph

Anonymous said...

Dr. Balsiger steered the course for two years and ignored the crisis with the Yukon King and other salmon species up along the coast to the edge of the Bering Straits. Corporate Fishermen has dominated the regulators for too long. The little fishermen are being forced to pull their boats up on the bank as the factory trawlers in the Bering Sea continue to destroy their livelihood as well as a centuries old culture and tradition. I hope our new guy jumps right into the mess and start slinging the bullheads over-board for the sake of the salmon!