NOAA CHIELF TO BE FIRED!

[Capt_John]

Dale J. Jones, the embattled head of law enforcement at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is expected to be sacked today by NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, according to multiple unofficial sources.

Jones' 11-year tenure at NOAA was made tenuous in January when the Inspector General for the Department of Commerce filed a 28-page report on a national study showing misadministration of the office.

Lubchenco delayed deciding on Jones' fate until a followup investigation into the alleged shredding of documents was complete and submitted. It is believed that the report on those charges was delivered to Lubchenco by the IG's office in recent days.

Replacing Jones, according to the sources, will be Alan Risenhoover, who has been heading NOAA's Office of Sustainable Fisheries.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry and Congressmen John Tierney and Barney Frank, who had urged Lubchenco to fire Jones, reacted positively to the transition.

"Now we start over with Alan Risenhoover who has long been an advocate for our fishermen," Kerry said in a prepared statement this afternoon. "I again request a delay in active prosecutions on NOAA enforcement actions which may be tainted by the problems within the NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement. "

Tierney said, "Today's action by NOAA to appoint a new acting director for OLE is a step in the right direction."

He intends to seek the "public release of a new IG report on the unacceptable behavior and work practices of Mr. Jones. This is imperative and only fair to those in the fishing community who have been unjustly targeted for so long.

"While this not a cause for celebration, it is clearly an improvement," said Frank.

We will update this story here at gloucestertimes.com as more information becomes available. To have text messages regarding this or other Breaking News and Sport stories sent to your mobile phone, just sign up for the Times' free text-alert service on the gloucestertimes.com home page.

For full coverage of this story, look to tomorrow's print and online editions of the Gloucester Daily Times and gloucestertimes.com.

Richard Gaines can be reached at (978) 283-7000, x3464, rgaines@gloucestertimes.com

[gottaflylee]

Well we'll see. When I first saw this I thought it was Jane Lubchenco that we were getting rid of.
After reading this I wonder how much Jane Lubchenco is hiding from us. She has to go!!!

[scattered_grass]

but do you really believe the replacement is going to be an "advocate for our fishermen" when he is backed by the likes of Barney Frank and John Kerry?

I mean really

[Big Fish Billy]

I wouldn't want Barney Frank in back of me......

[Capt_John]

Barney Frank was one of the few congressmen that was there to support us at "United We Fish" Rally. He seemed to have a huge following from the fishermen there.

[Avenger]

Yeah, with politics you can never tell. Even New York's stains on the political landscape, Chuck Schumer and Andrew Cuomo have advocated for fishermen.

Nobody is so perfect that they can be wrong 100% of the time.