Can I change the default fill value used by numpy.ma?

I know that I can use numpy.ma.set_fill_value() to change the fill value of a masked array in-place. But I would like to change the default fill value so that new masked arrays will automatically use my preferred fill value. For example, for floats, I would like the output of numpy.ma.default_fill_value(1.) to be a value that I choose, instead of 1e20. Can this be done?