New England Fishing Rulemaking To Be Reviewed

The head of the federal fisheries service has begun a review of how New England fishing rules are made, months after a regional official called the process "antiquated and ineffective."

Eric Schwaab, chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries division, said Wednesday the review would be led by Preston Pate, former director of North Carolina's Division of Marine Fisheries.

Schwaab said the review should be done within a year. Officials hope the lessons from New England can be applied elsewhere.

The rulemaking bureaucracy was criticized last year in a letter to the commerce department by John Pappalardo, chairman of the New England Fishery Management Council. Schwaab said Pappalardo raised a good point about how regulatory, policy-making and scientific burdens have increased, but no one has looked at making the system work better.