NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — December 15, 2012 — Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank Friday ordered the repayment of $543,500 to 14 individuals or businesses that were wrongly prosecuted for fishing violations by NOAA law enforcement.
Almost all of the cases are in the Northeast, said the Commerce Department in its announcement.
The new repayments are in addition to $649,527 ordered returned to 11 complainants in May 2011.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in a statement that he is pleased that the Commerce Department has come clean about its lapses, though much of the damage will never be repaired.
"Special Master Swartwood has done a great service by shedding light on what happened in a very dark chapter in New England. It would've been inexcusable to just sweep it under the carpet," Kerry said. "Secretary Blank's ongoing efforts to provide reparations to fishermen who were abused is very important, as is her determination to make sure that the culture at NOAA has changed and never, ever reverts back to the ugliness of this period."
Others criticized the Commerce Department for taking so long with these appeals, about three years.
Mayor Jon Mitchell, a former federal prosecutor who appeared in front of Swartwood when he was a magistrate, said, "The report is a long time in coming and it appears to confirm some of which we already knew, that the NOAA general counsel's office in Gloucester abused its authority to the detriment of hard-working fishermen here and elsewhere.
"I applaud Swartwood's efforts to shed daylight on a very dark chapter," Mitchell said.
U.S. Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., said "It took far too long, far too long to get this resolution. What this has done is give us examples of what the fishermen were going through."
Tierney didn't accept that this is all there was. Instead he called it "the tip of the iceberg."
He also said he wonders how systematic the abuses were. "I'd like to look to see if there's a pattern, whether it's more widespread."
Tierney said the enforcement officers knew they had the upper hand. "Fishermen tell me they're small-business people and they can't afford to even fight these fines," he said.
He said he has filed legislation to redirect forfeiture money into an account outside of NOAA law enforcement and spend it on better fishery research and other ways to help the industry.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times