NEW BEDFORD — Members of the local fishing industry Monday said assaults by fishermen on the federal monitors who observe the catch are extremely rare.
The industry members' observation comes in the wake of the Friday assault conviction of Captain Richard Wetherell, 61, from Jamestown, R.I.
Wetherell, who was a captain of the Jessica and Susan out of New Bedford, is now looking at a possible jail sentence after he pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to assaulting and intimidating two monitors assigned to his boat to collect fishing data in July 2010. He is scheduled for sentencing in April.
While commercial fishermen are frequently unhappy with the federal government's role in overseeing their industry, clashes between crew members and the fishery monitors do not happen very often, according to industry members The Standard-Times spoke with.
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