A nationwide review of how the nation’s fisheries are policed has found that Northeast fishermen were given double the fines of other regions, and it urges reforms to make the penalty process appear “less arbitrary and unfair.”
The report, released Thursday by the Commerce Department’s inspector general, followed persistent complaints by New England fishermen.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, came down hard Thursday on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for what she called “egregious mismanagement” of federal fishing law enforcement in the Northeast.
NOAA is supposed to enforce federal laws designed to conserve and manage the nation’s fisheries. Although the agency is known more for science than law enforcement, it oversees the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Office of Law Enforcement.