A leading fishing industry lawyer due to meet next week with the Inspector General’s investigators probing the alleged heavy-handed tactics of federal fishery enforcement says the Inspector General’s office already has two key reports he’s prepared detailing how the aggressive enforcement and judicial system hovering over the industry is rigged to drive fishermen out of business.
Attorney Steve Ouellette said yesterday that the law enforcement system imposed on the industry — while constantly monitoring fishing vessels and making cheating nearly impossible — also leaves fishermen open to unintentional violations of nearly incomprehensible, layered and often contradictory rules.
And these unintentional violations, the fishing industry and admiralty lawyer said, are prosecuted with zero tolerance and inflexible zeal, bankrupting and impoverishing fishermen driving them out of the industry.