NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement has released the following:
The document detailing NOAA's national and division enforcement priorities for FY 2012 has been posted to the Office of Law Enforcement website. This document represents input from many interested people across the country, including commercial and recreational fishermen, fishery management councils, state enforcement partners, and nongovernmental organizations.
Creating enforcement priorities collaboratively was a first for NOAA. The process started with NOAA’s National Enforcement Summit in August 2010, when more than 60 people from around the country came together to discuss how they could improve our enforcement program. After the summit, NOAA's Special Agents in Charge and their partners in the NOAA Office of General Counsel’s Enforcement Section reached out to fishery management councils, interstate commissions, and others to solicit even more input.
All of these recommendations were used to draft the 2012 enforcement priorities, which we published in November 2011 for 60 days of public comment. We also held seven calls during that time to outline the draft priorities, answer questions and receive input. When the comment period ended in early January 2012, NOAA's national directors and Special Agents in Charge reviewed the comments and incorporated them into this document. The comments also are available online.
NOAA plans to seek input into enforcement priorities annually. They will announce the launch of the FY2013 effort later this year.
Read the national and division enforcement priorities document for FY 2012
Go to the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement page on enforcement priorities