A finding by the nation’s former top fishing official that tote tags and tally sheets are legal records and the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction falsified them in 2004 to sell an extra 75 pounds of cod was upheld yesterday.
But Jane Lubchenco, the nation’s newly installed top official for oceans and fisheries, also upheld an administrative judge’s finding that the penalties sought by the National Marine Fisheries Service were excessive.
Lubchenco agreed with the November 2008 finding of Administrative Law Judge Michael Devine that the auction, the dominant platform for the sale of fish in the region’s No. 2 volume port, should be fined $10,000 and forced to close for 20 days "spread out over one year."
NMFS, which in February filed a new and far broader set of charges against the auction, had sought a $120,000 fine and a 90-day closing for the mislabeling in the cod case.
Read the complete story at Gloucester Times.