House Democrats are casting barbed questions about NOAA’s quiet appointment of its first-ever “Fisherman in Residence,” a longtime lobsterman who touts “opposition to offshore wind projects in the Gulf of Maine” as a leading accomplishment.
In their eight-page letter to NOAA’s Commerce Department overseers, Natural Resources ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, press for information concerning Maine resident Dustin Delano and his apparent role as a substitute for the canceled Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee. Commerce Department Secretary Howard Lutnick disbanded the decades-old advisory panel last year.
First established in 1971, the fisheries advisory committee included as many as 21 members. In their letter, Huffman and Dexter press for details about Delano’s status as the federal agency’s sole fisherman in residence.
“We are concerned that this singular position cannot speak for the diverse fishing communities and fishing sectors across our country and are concerned with NOAA’s lack of transparency regarding the appointment of this position and the role,” Huffman and Dexter wrote.
