Enforcement

MACHIAS, Maine — If you’re going to poach North Atlantic salmon, it’s probably wise not to boast about it on Facebook.

The Maine Warden Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are jointly investigating a report that an oversize salmon was illegally taken by an ice fisherman on Second Hadley Lake in rural Washington County within the past few weeks.

The fish in question measured more than 25 inches in length, which under state and federal restrictions is too large to keep, said Maine Warden Service Lt. Dan Scott.

Scott said the angler under investigation, whom he declined to identify before charges are filed, was identified through a tip from what he termed “a concerned sportsman.” Scott wouldn’t say if a Facebook posting helped to incriminate the suspect, which is what an independent source told the Bangor Daily News.

Read the complete story from Bangor Daily News

 

 

 

 

 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A former aide to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski who had worked as a commercial fisherman while sitting on the council that regulates fishing off Alaska's coastline was sentenced Tuesday to five months in prison for falsifying his own fishing reports.

U.S. District Court Judge H. Russel Holland said the real crime that Arne Fuglvog, 48, committed was not monetary but to the reputation of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, whose primary responsibility is the management of groundfish in the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands and the Bering Sea.

Fuglvog also was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and provide the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation $100,000 to improve fish habitat in the Gulf of Alaska where he had a commercial fishing operation.

Read the complete story from the Anchorage Daily News.

 

 

 

 

 

LOS ANGELES—Federal prosecutors say a Torrance, Calif.-based seafood corporation has been ordered to pay $1 million in fines and community service donations for falsely labeling frozen catfish fillets as grouper.

U.S. attorney's office spokesman Thom Mrozek says Seafood Solutions Inc. was fined $700,000 on Monday, and ordered to donate $300,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Read the complete story by The AP at The Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

The final report detailing the results of the IG's Follow-up Review of NOAA Fisheries Enforcement Programs and Operations has been released. The Office of the Inspector General carried out their follow-up review to "provide an interim assessment of NOAA's constructive actions, determine the effectiveness of actions already taken, and identify constructive measures NOAA should consider going forward." The report finds that NOAA Fisheries has made some headway in addressing the issues previously raised, yet there are still 13 action items that have yet to be completed and 2 items NOAA has decided not to implement. The findings, in brief, are detailed below.

NOAA made progress in completing many key action plan items. During the past two years, NOAA has completed or implemented a majority of the 47 action items, to include (1) requiring a high-level review of all proposed charges for alleged violations and of all settlements by the General Counsel for NOAA, (2) finalizing a rule to place the burden of justifying a particular civil penalty or sanction on NOAA rather than the respondent in cases before Administrative Law judges, and (3) developing a new penalty policy.

Regional and national priorities for OLE have not been finalized. OLE had deferred finalizing its enforcement priorities until it hired a permanent director, who has been on board since September 4, 2011.

NOAA’s placement of the compliance liaison within OLE raises independence concerns. As part of its action plan, NOAA established a compliance liaison in OLE’s Northeast office. However, the liaison reports directly to the Northeast office’s Special Agent in Charge, which may foster the appearance that the position’s independence may be impaired.

NOAA’s workforce analysis is one year behind schedule. As of December 2011, NOAA had not begun the implementation phase of its workforce analysis, which was scheduled to begin October 2010.

Enforcement case management system data integrity issues have not been resolved. OLE and GCEL have not fully addressed data integrity issues within and between their two case management systems: JustWare and the Law Enforcement Accessible Database System.

OLE and Enforcement Section policies and procedures manuals need to include a consistent method for handling prior violation information. Neither manual provides a method for documenting, storing, or obtaining prior violation information, an important factor when deciding a penalty assessment or sanction.

Enforcement Section participation in Fishery Management Council Meetings has been limited and inconsistent. NOAA had planned to increase communications with the Fishery Management Council by ensuring availability of Enforcement section attorneys at meetings. However, participation has been limited in two regions.

E-hotline and “Complaints and Compliments” web page effectiveness is uncertain. Having different methods of submitting complaints of enforcement improprieties may be confusing for complainants.

Read the Initial Announcement of the IG's Investigation

Read the Revised Scope of the IG's Investigation

Read the Abstract

Read the complete Report

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — Members of the local fishing industry Monday said assaults by fishermen on the federal monitors who observe the catch are extremely rare.

The industry members' observation comes in the wake of the Friday assault conviction of Captain Richard Wetherell, 61, from Jamestown, R.I.

Wetherell, who was a captain of the Jessica and Susan out of New Bedford, is now looking at a possible jail sentence after he pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to assaulting and intimidating two monitors assigned to his boat to collect fishing data in July 2010. He is scheduled for sentencing in April.

While commercial fishermen are frequently unhappy with the federal government's role in overseeing their industry, clashes between crew members and the fishery monitors do not happen very often, according to industry members The Standard-Times spoke with.

Read the complete story in The Standard-Times

 

 

 

 

 

A Rhode Island man working as a captain of a Massachusetts fishing vessel has pleaded guilty to assaulting two federal monitors posted on his boat to collect fishing data.

Richard Wetherell faces up to six months in prison and a $100,000 fine on each of the two counts. Sentencing was scheduled for April 12.

The 61-year-old Jamestown, R.I., man pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Boston to charges of physical assault, impeding, intimidating or interfering with the duties of two federal at-sea monitors. The workers were monitoring fishing activities and collecting data under the terms of the nation’s fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Prosecutors say Wetherell assaulted the monitors during two separate commercial fishing trips in July 2010. The incidents occurred aboard the FV Jessica & Susan, which is registered in New Bedford, Mass.

Read the complete story from The Boston Globe

 

 

 

 

 

BANGOR, Maine — A Bass Harbor fisherman with a history of criminal convictions is being sent back to federal prison for violating his federal probation again.

Shaun G. Lemoine, who last November was found guilty of a state civil charge of molesting another lobsterman’s fishing gear, on Monday was ordered back to federal prison for seven months, according to federal court documents. He also was ordered to serve another two years of federal probation upon his release.

Lemoine, 32, grew up on Swan’s Island but the past couple of years has been living in the Tremont village of Bass Harbor on Mount Desert Island.

Lemoine has been on federal probation as a result of a 2006 conviction in federal court for trying to obtain firearms while under indictment. He spent a year in federal prison in Fort Dix, N.J., on the original federal firearms violation.

Read the complete story from Bangor Daily News

 

 

 

 

 

Yates served 30 days following a federal jury trial, judgment and sentencing on charges that he destroyed fish in an effort to obstruct an investigation into what the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration claimed were under-sized red grouper on Yates’ boat.

He was convicted on two of three counts in August, four years after a government agent boarded his boat to search for illegal fish. Yates was found guilty of one count of disposing under-sized fish to prevent the government’s seizure, and a second count of destroying fish to obstruct an investigation of under-sized red grouper.

Even now, after serving the sentence, Yates believes his case is not close to over. His attorney filed a notice to appeal Dec. 16, and the appeal is expected to last another two years.

Asked why Yates is appealing, there’s a simple answer, “Because I didn’t do it.”

Read the complete story from The Islander

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — A NOAA spokesman, in an email, told The Standard-Times that former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration law enforcement chief Dale Jones on Friday was stripped of an important new assignment by NOAA Director Jane Lubchenco.

In a terse email, Justin Kenny of NOAA wrote to The Standard-Times, "Dr. Lubchenco decided to transfer the recent responsibilities assigned to Mr. Dale Jones elsewhere within NOAA." He gave no further details but the assignment drew a firestorm of derision from lawmakers.

On Thursday, the Gloucester Times reported that Lubchenco had been unaware of Jones' new assignment and was "reviewing it."

Jones was infamously retained by NOAA after being accused of allowing excessive and vindictive prosecution of fishing violations in the Northeast.

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today.

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — The much-criticized former head of law enforcement for NOAA fisheries, Dale Jones, has been assigned to head a major effort to organize, streamline and standardize data management within the agency, according to an internal email.

Jones gained infamy for shredding most of his office documents during an ongoing investigation by the NOAA inspector general. Jones was also heavily criticized for condoning and even encouraging over-the-top prosecution of violations in the Northeast fishery.

Civil service rules made it difficult to terminate Jones, however, and he was reassigned out of law enforcement to the NOAA Office of Science and Technology as a fisheries program specialist, working on the BP Gulf oil spill.

Connie Barclay, a spokeswoman for NOAA, said Tuesday that Jones has not been promoted or given a pay increase. He makes six figures in his current job, about what he made in law enforcement.

Read the complete story from The Standard-Times