I agree its tough to come away with an over optimistic view here BUT the fact that Dr. Lubchenco asked specifically for an audience with the RFA has to be looked at as POSITIVE until proven otherwise.
Also in doing some research today this Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force is not as scary as the people and groups that can get their ear. Their 38 page Interim Report can be read in full at either NOAA's site or
www.whitehouse.gov. Just do a search for Ocean Policy Task Force report.You can come to your own conclusions after reading the report but it doesnt seem much different than reports from previous task forces such as the 2004 US Commission on Ocean Policy's A OCEAN BLUEPRINT FOR THE 21ST CENTURY (again just search google this report is over 600 pages)
These "task forces" have been around for quite some time but without getting crazy lets just look at the past 10 years. In 2000 The "Commission on Ocean Policy" was created by the past admistration to basically do what todays task force is doing. Once the COP report was done and passed along to the Council on Environmental Quality ( CEQ, still a major council today) the "Committee on Ocean Policy" was instituted to carry on the mandate of the Bush Administration. All of this can be googled searched by looking up these councils. Again very similar mandates with very similar goals IN MY OPINION. Factor in the NOC (National Ocean Council) , OSTB (Office of Science and Technology) OMB (Office of Mangement and Budget) and you can see the levels of Councils and Committees involved. In all of these "task forces" the NOAA was listed as the Nations Top Oceanic council whose reports and reccomendations get full attention.
Given that, I think the difference is that we now have a more sympathetic ear in the current administration to the "extreme" environmentalist groups that have a much stronger lobby and enrollment of "activists" than we the recreational fishermen. So we either get LIKE them and fight or we get to complain about how far THEY got with their Agenda and we didnt.
I say best to get an ear with NOAA and do whatever it takes to TRY and get them to listen especially if they have extended an opening.
By the way the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force Report is open to PUBLIC Opinion Comment as well on the web. The public meeting from New Orleans is being web cast LIVE as I write this.
