The latest enforcement action against the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction — a high visibility shutdown effort stemming from a disputed violation still unresolved in federal court — was apparently coordinated at the highest levels of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
All previous legal steps in the effort to punish the auction — including the filing in February of a massive 59-count NOVA or "notice of violation and assessment" and more than a dozen NOVAs against fishermen for selling alleged illegal fish — were executed locally by special agents and litigators based in Gloucester and New England. And in all cases, NOAA took the actions quietly, aggressively barring immediate public notice, with legal papers delivered by Federal Express.
But NOAA officials carried out Friday’s announcement of a new push for an auction shutdown with an e-mailed press release — and with apparent advance notice given to The Boston Globe even prior to notifying auction owners that they were facing a new closure threat.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.
Read the NOAA Notification to the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction of 10-day Sanction.