A Bloomberg/Businessweek article by Brendan Borrell subtitled "How a small town in Massachusetts destroyed a decade of law enforcement" accuses Gloucester and Massachusetts politicians of severely compromising NOAA's enforcement powers in fisheries.
WASHINGTON, DC — While much of the article is accurate, a Saving Seafood analysis found that it overlooks and minimizes many violations and abuses committed by Charles Juliand and the Office of Law Enforcement (OLE), and minimizes the significance of findings by Inspector General Todd Zinser and Special Master Charles Swartwood. It also ignored the widespread abuse of the Asset Forfeiture Fund found by the Inspector General.
NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco and NMFS chief Eric Schwaab considered many of the problems found the problems uncovered by the Inspector General to be significant enough to take significant organizational actions to correct them. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke found the issued uncovered by the Special Master to be warrant an apology and a return of fines.
The story, and the Saving Seafood analysis are available here