The law enforcement office of the federal fisheries service undertook an aggressive, preemptive media campaign last month to inform the public of its decision to penalize the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction with a 10-day closure for a disputed violation of a 6-year-old probation agreement.
"The press release on this matter was designed to ensure that all relevant factual information was made available to the public," wrote NOAA enforcement attorney Mitch MacDonald, in a judicially demanded affidavit on the purpose of the campaign.
But yesterday — a day after a federal judge issued a restraining order on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and sharply chastised the service for attempting to impose punishment before the case was resolved in federal court — the NOAA media machine went silent.
There was no followup press release to correct the misinformation in the first one, and no one anywhere to offer an explanation for the agency’s handing of the auction case — even though although NOAA director Jane Lubchenco was in Boston for a speech.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.