Enforcement

April 12, 2013 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The Maine Marine Patrol issued a summons on Tuesday, April 10 to Dale A. Boyington, 36, of Rockland for illegal possession of 11 pounds of elvers worth $22,100.

The summons was issued by Marine Patrol Sergeant Robert Beal who, while conducting surveillance at the York toll booth with Marine Patrol Officers David Testaverde and Jeffrey Turcotte, observed Boyington travelling north on interstate 95.

Information developed by a Marine Patrol investigation led the two to apprehend Boyington near the Kennebunk exit on I-95 and cite him for possession of elvers without a Maine license.

“This is another example of Marine Patrol Officers doing a remarkable job of investigation,” said Governor Paul R. LePage. “These law enforcement officials work hard, but they also work smart to outwit those who endanger Maine’s precious natural resources by harvesting illegally.”

Boyington was traveling in a U-Haul van loaded with equipment for harvesting and transporting elvers, which in addition to the elvers was confiscated and will be held as evidence. Since the elvers were sold, the money along with the U-Haul and equipment will be held pending outcome of the case.

Boyington is scheduled to appear in Biddeford District Court on June 5.

Illegal possession of elvers in Maine is now classified as a civil crime with a fine of up to $2,000. However, having passed the Maine House and Senate with an emergency provision, LD 632 will criminalize all elver fishery violations. The Governor is expected to sign the bill in the coming days.

The bill requires an elver harvester to provide, upon request of a law enforcement officer or elver dealer, a government-issued identification with the harvester's photograph and birth date. The bill restricts the form of payment for the sale of elvers to a check. It also converts many elver fishing violations that are currently civil violations to Class D crimes, with the potential for jail time, and requires courts to impose the maximum $2000 fine for those Class D crimes.

“This new law will provide a greater deterrent to those who are motivated by the large sums of money that can be made in this fishery,” said Patrick Keliher, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. “When an unlicensed person can make tens of thousands of dollars in one night and only faces a fine that amounts to a fraction of that, the deterrent is not there. This new law will change that.”

PORTLAND, Maine — April 12, 2013 — An eel fishermen’s organization is applauding the Maine Marine Patrol for the arrest of an out-of-state man who was cited for illegal possession of 41 pounds of baby eels.

Fishery officials this week announced that they had seized $61,000 worth of elvers from a New Hampshire man who was planning to sell them to an eel dealer in Newport. Officials said the man is believed to have harvested them illegally in another state before bringing them to Maine.

The Maine Elver Fisherman’s Association says eel poachers are ‘‘just thieves, plain and simple.’’

Read the full story by the Associted Press at The Boston Globe    

PORTLAND, Maine– April 8, 2013 — Maine fishery officials are calling last week’s seizure of $61,000 worth of baby eels, a pickup truck and eel storage equipment the largest illegal eel possession case in the history of the state’s elver fishery.

Phillip Parker, 41, of Candia, N.H., was cited last week for possession of 41 pounds of baby eels, known as elvers, without having a Maine fishing license, officials said Monday.

With fishermen getting $2,000 a pound for their catch, the case underscores the large amounts of money that are changing hands in what has turned into a highly lucrative fishery.

Legislators are now considering emergency legislation that would make illegal elver possession a criminal offense, rather than a civil violation, with mandatory $2,000 fines. Stricter penalties are needed to deter illegal activity, said Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher.

‘‘The incredible amount of money in this fishery warrants a more stringent penalty because fines often don’t amount to 1 pound of elvers,’’ he said.

For 10 weeks each spring, fishermen line Maine’s coastal rivers and catch tiny eels — translucent, alien-looking creatures that are 2 to 4 inches long — as they swim upriver. Most of the catch is shipped to eel farms in Asia, where they are grown to market size before being sold to restaurants and retailers.

Illegal fishing wasn’t a problem when fishermen weren’t making so much. A decade ago, eel prices tumbled to under $30 a pound, making them barely worth catching. In 2001, the total catch was valued at a meager $40,000.

People started getting in trouble with eels even before this year’s season began. Three Maine men in mid-March were charged with illegal elver fishing in New Jersey, which has no elver-fishing season. Officers seized 9 pounds of eels, potentially worth about $20,000.

Read the full story from The Boston Globe

April 8, 2013 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

The Maine Marine Patrol on Wednesday, April 3 issued a summons to Phillip Parker, 41 of Candia, New Hampshire in the largest case of illegal possession of elvers in the history of the fishery. Marine Patrol Sergeant Rene Cloutier along with Officer John Luellen apprehended Mr. Parker in Newport after an investigation revealed that the New Hampshire man intended to sell 41 pounds of elvers without a Maine elver-harvesting license.

“This case underscores the importance of strong laws protecting our natural resources,” said Governor Paul R. LePage. “Maine’s natural resources have great value for our state, and for law-abiding license holders, their families, and the communities they live in.”

Maine law prohibits the possession of elvers without a valid license. Currently Maine and South Carolina are the only two states with an elver fishery.

The fine for illegal possession of elvers in Maine is currently up to $2,000. That is an insufficient deterrent according to Maine Department of Marine Resources officials, given the current $2000 per pound value of elvers in Maine.

A bill before the Maine legislature, LD 632, will criminalize violations of elver fishery laws, including illegal possession. “This bill would allow for the arrest of unlicensed harvesters, and those committing other illegal acts and would make a $2,000 fine mandatory for those convicted,” said Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher. “The incredible amount of money in this fishery warrants a more stringent penalty because fines often don’t amount to one pound of elvers. For some who are illegally harvesting far more than that in a day, it does not deter them from continuing to break the law. A lack of sufficient penalty for violating elver harvesting laws puts the resource at risk.”

Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Warden Mark Merrifield also supported the investigation and interrogation of Parker.

“This is an important case for the Marine Patrol and the Department of Marine Resources,” said Marine Patrol Colonel Joseph Fessenden. “Through good detective work by the Marine Patrol and collaboration with another enforcement agency we were able to quickly and efficiently enforce a law intended to protect one of our most valuable natural resources.”

The Marine Patrol sold the confiscated elvers and will hold the money pending outcome of the case. Parker’s vehicle, a 1996 Chevy 1500 with a U-Haul trailer, and equipment for storing and transporting live elvers were also seized.  Parker is scheduled to appear in Newport District Court on May 29.

Maine’s elver season began on March 22 and runs until May 31. Elvers can be harvested every day of the week except from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday and from noon on Tuesday to noon on Wednesday.

 

 

WAKEFIELD, Mass. — March 7, 2013 — Both the state Division of Marine Fisheries and the Canadian government are concerned that vessels may be fishing in one area and then claiming the catch is from another, federal fishery officials revealed at a New England Fishery Management Council Groundfish Committee meeting Wednesday.

"I think this has the potential to be a significant issue, with a number of important consequences," Tom Dempsey, a member of the groundfish committee, said.

The cheating on the catch could affect an international treaty with Canada and erodes confidence in the integrity of the new fishery management system that portions out fish stock quotas to individual fishermen, he said.

New England fishing grounds are separated into various management areas. Cod, for instance, is divided into Gulf of Maine cod and Georges Bank cod. Another cod area is co-managed under an international agreement by the United States and Canada.

Fishermen must form groups, known as sectors, to manage their combined quota shares so that they don't catch any more fish than they are assigned. They also can sell or lease their portion of that quota to another fisherman under the new management system.

Some experts believe fishermen might be gaming the system, catching a lot of fish during a trip to one area but where they themselves possess little quota. On the same fishing trip, they also fish an area with few fish but where they have a high share in the quota. They then report most of trip's catch as being from the second area. Also, in some cases, there is a significant difference in the price for fishermen to lease quota in one area as compared with another.

 

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

 

February 27, 2013 — Last May, a month after a special judicial master’s second report on misdeeds by NOAA enforcement lawyers had been delivered to the secretary of commerce, NOAA General Counsel Lois Schiffer led her national staff of 145 lawyers on a three day training program in Philadelphia at a cost of $288,500, according to documents released to the Times under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

The conference featured a self-understanding exercise led by vocational placement company to determine what roles in a fictional medieval kingdom the lawyers imagined themselves playing — “bishop,” “benevolent ruler,” “shepherd,” “black knight,” “scientist,” “discoverer,” “merchant,” “prime minister,” “engineer-builder,” “dreamer-minstrel,” “white knight” and “doctor.”

The so-called “Kingdomality” training was invented and provided to NOAA’s legal staff by Career Management International from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on the first day of the conference, based on an online questionnaire the NOAA lawyers completed before meeting in Philadelphia, according to the partial response to the Times’ FOIA last month.

Costing $2,500, the Kingdomality training describes the value of imagining living in medieval times for self awareness.

“With today’s diverse workforce, the corporate kingdom that acknowledges and nurtures these personality preferences could become an organization as successful as Camelot of old,” the placement company website explains.

At the time of the conference, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was in damage control mode after news reports beginning in the publications Government Executive and Politico reported that another arm of NOAA, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, had advertised for a magician as a motivational speaker for a June conference at NOAA’s general offices in Silver Spring, Md. That ad was posted on the day the Philadelphia conference began — and was withdrawn on its final day.

The three-day cost of approximately $2,000 per participant in it was elevated by the decision to take the conference out of the metropolitan District of Columbia, of which Silver Spring, Md, is a suburb. Sixty of the 145 participants live in the metropolitan D.C. area, according to NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen.

“NOAA reviewed a number of sites, including in and around Washington, D.C., and chose Philadelphia based on cost, convenience, available dates, and accessibility,” said Smullen. “The majority of General Counsel staff live outside of the D.C. region — of the approximately 145 total staff, 85 live outside of the D.C. region, in Alaska, Hawaii, California, Washington State, Massachusetts, and Florida.

The conference was based at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, approximately a 90-minute drive or about 100 miles from D.C. The government paid $0.565 per mile for travel in a private vehicle, and $0.24 per mile for travel in government vehicles, as well as train and air fare and in city travel, totaling $108,000. Site costs including rooms, meals, meeting space and furniture were $174,000. Speakers fees including added another $6,500.

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

View the budget and agenda for the NOAA General Counsel's 2012 training session

Read about "Kingdomality"

Learn about the "Kingdomality" seminars

Take the "Kingdomality" test and discover your medieval personality

 

 

February 11, 2013 (Saving Seafood) — The Gloucester Daily Times published an investigative piece on February 9th which looked into the findings of Special Master Charles Swartwood regarding NOAA enforcement actions against Thomas R. F. Reilly and his partner, Dennis Saluti, of Sea Rich Seafoods.  Judge Swartwood found that NOAA charged excessive penalties "in a manner that unfairly forced settlement, that NOAA exercised its broad and powerful authority to force a settlement and that NOAA personnel were arbitrary and capricious…"

The Special Master found that when NOAA attorneys learned of a planned sale of Sea Rich Seafoods they moved quickly to issue a 113 count Notice of Violation seeking a $4.74 million dollar penalty, and that "as a result of a NOAA press release, the potential sale of the company and the companies' credit line were jeopardized…" He concluded that Mr.Reilly and Mr. Saluti "were coerced into an unfavorable settlement in which they lost the true value of their interest in Sea Rich and Atlantic Gem."

A search of the NOAA employee database shows the attorneys cited by Judge Swartwood as the perpetrators of this prosecution, Charles Juliand and J. Mitch MacDonald, remain employed by NOAA.

February 9, 2013 (Gloucester Times) — The special investigator commissioned by the Department of Commerce has concluded that the same two attorneys in NOAA’s Gloucester office who extracted an excessive settlement from a New Bedford scallop fishing business owner in 2005 did the same thing years earlier to a pair of New Bedford fish processors using coercive methods “with an intention to intimidate.”

A detailed narrative of how NOAA’s Gloucester-based enforcement and litigation attorneys Charles R. “Chuck” Juliand and James “Mitch” MacDonald improperly manipulated the system of fisheries enforcement law to drive Thomas R. F. Reilly and his partner, Dennis Saluti, in Sea Rich Seafoods and another company to pay a $1 million cash penalty plus the loss of business licenses and fishing permits for what were found to be exaggerated charges is detailed in the 554-page report to the acting commerce secretary by special investigator Charles B. Swartwood III.

In releasing a redacted version of Swartwood’s second set of case studies into allegations of NOAA Fisheries law enforcement excesses, Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank on Dec. 14 made reparations to Reilly and Saluti of $373,500, the amount recommended by Swartwood.

According to the report, the abuse and manipulation of the law in the prosecution of the Sea Rich case occurred in 1997. But Reilly and Saluti’s complaint of proprietorial misconduct came to light only with the decision by then Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, based on Swartwood’s initial report in May 2011, to commission an additional study of industry complaints that NOAA law enforcers harassed and intimidated fishermen and shore-side businesses.

Juliand and MacDonald were also the enforcement attorneys in the prosecution of New Bedford scalloper Larry Yacubian, a case that extended from 2000-2005 and ended only after Yacubian and his wife divested themselves of most of their assets including her ancestral farm to pay a $430,000 fine and legal fees.

The amount of the fine assessed by an administrative law judge was deemed excessive by a U.S. district court judge and by Swartwood, himself a retired federal magistrate.

In releasing the first Swartwood report — with formal Cabinet-level apologies to the 11 businesses put in duress by wrongful actions of NOAA litigators and agents — Locke, now the ambassador to China, made more than $650,000 in reparations including $400,000 to Yacubian. Blank, who has been acting commerce secretary since last June, issued no apology but distributed $564,794 to Reilly and Saluti and 13 other businesses, while also forgiving debts of $161,266.66 owed by two other businesses.

In reviewing the case against Reilly and Saluti, Swartwood wrote that, in seeking a $4.74 million penalty, Juliand and MacDonald intervened with a prospective buyer of their businesses; they also charged Reilly and Saluti a penalty 17 times for a single allegation of “interference” with law enforcement — a charge that Swartwood dismissed as false. Once they learned of the potential sale, they immediately wrote up the huge penalty and contacted the buyer, actions Swartwood concluded involved “an intention to intimidate.”

“As a result of a NOAA press release,” Swartwood wrote, “the potential sale of the company and the companies’ credit line were jeopardized,” while NOAA also threatened to seek an “interim” order that would have shuttered the company and prevented the sale.”

He wrote that under the circumstances, the businessmen “had no options” but to settle the case for $1 million plus permits

Underpinning the actions of NOAA’s agents and litigators was a long history and widespread knowledge that the U.S. Coast Guard administrative law judges would side with NOAA.

In his December report on the case, Swartwood notes that Juliand told an attorney for the businessmen that “he should not be too sure about his assessment of the case and that he believed he could get whatever assessment he sought” from the judges. The report states that Juliand confirmed that in his interviews with Swartwood.

Swartwood’s study of the Yacubian case also contains the statement that a redacted email covering five lines was “credible evidence that money was NOAA’s motivating objective.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Read Judge Swartwood's report on the case of Mr. Reilly and Mr. Saluti

NOAA Employee Database

 

 

February 1, 2013 — The owner of the Gloucester trawler Princess Laura, which faces civil charges for using an illegal “net liner” in its trawl net, said Thursday that the Coast Guard mistook some gillnet that had been picked up while hauling back on a groundfishing trip about 100 nautical miles east of Cape Ann for an illegal liner — or double netting system.

Owner Joe DiMaio said the Coast Guard confiscated about 25,000 pounds of mixed groundfish, which was sold at Gloucester’s Buyers and Seller Exchange — or BASE —auction for “fair market value” on Wednesday, with the proceeds held pending final adjudication of the case. Officials could not verify any monetary value of the catch.

Lesli Bales-Sherrrod, spokeswoman for NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement in Silver Spring, Md., said, “the size of the catch sold and the amount of money held in a suspense account pending final adjudication and forfeiture proceedings is not available because this matter is under investigation. As you know, we cannot discuss ongoing investigations,” Bales-Sherrod said.

DiMaio maintained Thursday that the crew aboard his boat was not acting illegally.

“The Princess Laura gets all kinds of gillnet gear in its nets,” DiMaio said in a telephone interview. He referred the Times to the captain of the boat, Robby Robbins, who could not be reached for comment Thursday.

 

Read the full story in the Gloucester Times 

 

 

 

 

BOSTON — January 31, 2013 — The U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA officials have issued a notice of violation for what they called a “significant fisheries infraction” after a Coast Guard crew boarded a Gloucester-based vessel Tuesday some 100 miles east of Cape Ann.

According to the Coast Guard, the F/V Princess Laura, a 90-foot slime eel and groundfishing dragger owned by Gloucester fisherman Joe DiMaio, was issued the violation for allegedly fishing under a Northeast multispecies permit utilizing a net liner — an illegal fishing gear configuration, Coast Giuard officials said.

The report from the Coast Guard indicated that crews from the Gloucester-based cutter Grand Isle noted the violation while conducting a boarding more than 100 nautical miles offshore. After issuing the violation, the Coast Guard escorted the vessel back to port in Gloucester and seized all of the vessel’s catch in collaboration with NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement and office of general counsel.

The catch was sold at what the Coast Guard said was “fair market value” in Gloucester, with the proceeds from that sale to be held in a suspense account pending final adjudication and forfeiture proceedings.

The notice of violation and catch seizure is the second reported by the Coast Guard in the new year, and the Coast Guard Statement noted that crews and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration crews “continue to conduct joint operations targeting vessels fishing illegally throughout the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.”

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

 

WASHINGTON — Jan. 24. 2013 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries Enforcement Director Bruce Buckson:

Today we posted our Draft Division Enforcement Priorities for 2013 online, and I invite you to send us your comments. The document will be available for the next 60 days on our website. You can email us your comments at enforcementpriorities@noaa.gov or mail them to NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement, attention Tracy Dunn, 8484 Georgia Ave., Suite 415, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

As you may remember, the Office of Law Enforcement established the office’s first ever enforcement priorities last year. We took this process very seriously, soliciting input from constituents and partners through many channels, including the National Enforcement Summit, the fishery management councils and the interstate commissions. We have committed to establishing our national enforcement priorities every two years and our Division enforcement priorities each year to meet our mission and guide our planning. The 2012 national priorities can be found here.

Division priorities vary according to region-specific resources, activities, and threats. Because fish stocks, fishing gear, and management programs are not identical across the country, our Divisions must tailor their priorities appropriately. Setting Division priorities helps sustainable fisheries and protected resources by focusing our enforcement work as effectively and efficiently as possible. Our special agents, enforcement officers and support staff cannot do everything or be everywhere at once, so these priorities will help us focus our resources and strategically use our state and federal partnerships to provide the most benefit for marine resources and the American people.
 
While the identified priority areas will be the focus, we will continue to encourage compliance with and enforce all marine statutes and regulations for which we are responsible. Simply not listing a specific stock of fish or area as a priority below does not mean enforcement actions will not be taken—all regulations must be enforced.
 
As we look to the future, we anticipate increasing demand for our services that are vital to our nation: productive fisheries, safe and sustainable seafood, the recovery and conservation of protected resources, and healthy ecosystems. Meeting this mission requires not only state-of-the art science and management programs, but also a fair, effective, and comprehensive compliance and enforcement program.
 
Our partnerships with industry, NGOs and others are critical to our success in supporting NOAA Fisheries’ core mission mandates: maximizing productivity of sustainable fisheries and fishing communities; and protection, recovery and conservation of protected species. Thank you all for what you already do to help us protect our nation’s precious marine resources and their natural habitat.