Enforcement

Captain Bill Blount, Nantucket’s lone commercial dragger, of the fishing vessel, Ruthie B, is part of a growing fleet of commercial fishermen in the region who are fed up with the seemingly cryptic fining procedures employed by the National Marine Fisheries Services. This issue came to light this summer at Caroline Geishecker’s Chatham Coffee Company where this businesswoman overheard similar "ridiculous" stories from local fishermen about the enforcement actions of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

"They changed the area in a fishing area, but did it very poorly," said Blount. "I just noticed it, but they never sent any notification out. I was in the corner of the new boundary and then I towed out. I was honest with them (the U.S. Coast Guard patrolling the area that caught him) and did everything up front, [but] there was no way they could have caught me if I decided to lie."

For his honesty, the Coast Guard, after threatening to take him to Gloucester, Mass., impound his boat and revoke his permits, escorted Blount and the Ruthie B. to New Bedford. In New Bedford, the Coast Guard confiscated his catch and made an example of Blount in front of the commercial fishermen in port at the time.

"Besides all the humiliation, I talked to everybody I knew and nobody knew about the boundary change," said Blount. "I just remember looking at a map and saying, ‘hey, that’s the boundary I remember.’"

After initially fining Blount the full $130,000, the NMFS lowered his fine to $10,000.

Read the complete story at The Nantucket Independent.

Imagine you’re out selling coffee and muffins every day and out of the blue you get a letter in the mail saying last September you sold a blueberry muffin without an authorization letter and will be fined $50,000.

Far-fetched and extreme maybe, but Caroline Geishecker, who owns Chatham Coffee Company, said as a businesswoman she was appalled at some of the “ridiculous” stories local fishermen were telling her about the enforcement actions of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“It’s a really, really bad scene,” she said.

Read the complete story at Wicked Local.

Outer Banks watermen have joined their peers from New England and New York in voicing complaints about what they say are excessive fines and overzealous enforcement practices by federal fisheries agents.

About 20 watermen gave interviews over two days with a team of government investigators, said Sean McKeon, president of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, a commercial fishing lobbying group.

"It’s an opportunity for us to get on the record with the proper agencies the abuses that the industry has been subject to for many, many years," he said. "When they overreach, when people are treated like common criminals – which we believe they are – something needs to be done."

Read the complete story at The Virginian-Pilot.

"On the Outer Banks," said Susan West, a reporter who writes for the Outer Banks Sentinel, "yes, I think the feelings are nearly universal."

She said the attitude of law enforcement, which is part of a regional regime based in Gloucester, is to treat the fishermen as if they are outlaws or serfs, subject to the whims of the lords and masters and entrapped over and over again by irreconcilable regulations that bring them fines and penalties out of proportion to the severity of the crimes.

"Intimidation" is a constant quality of the federal-fisherman relationship, said Sean McKeon, president of the North Carolina Fisheries Association. He said the NOAA officers often behave like fictional "Smokeys" who enjoy using the authority of the badge.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

July 21 – Federal inspectors conducting a review of fisheries law enforcement could turn their attention to North Carolina.

"We will go wherever information relevant to the review takes us," said Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Scott Berenberg at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Berenberg heads an investigation into allegations that the law enforcement branch of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service routinely uses "excessive penalties and retaliatory actions" in enforcing federal fishing laws.

Read the complete story at The Outer Banks Sentinel.

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.

The Newburyport Daily News has called for "a major housecleaning at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."

The paper observes that "for years, there have been complaints" thatNOAA has "become heavy-handed, unreasonable and vindictive" and now"the news coming from sworn affidavits in U.S. District Court last weekconfirms that these complaints are not just allegations…"

The paper’s editorial says "it is clear that NOAA is populated byagents with an agenda that goes well beyond … the even-handedenforcement of the law. Not only has the agency sought to imposepunishment before its allegations are adjudicated, it sought tomanipulate public opinion about the industry by manipulating themedia…. A federal judge went so far as to call it tantamount to’Gestapo justice’."

Read "Fishery agency’s ‘Gestapo justice’ needs to end" at the Newburyport Daily News.

U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock delivered some key messages from his bench in a Boston federal courtroom Monday. But, in granting an injunction to the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction against its National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration enforcers, and in delivering some harsh words to NOAA’s federal prosecutors, Judge Woodlock may have inadvertently turned the spotlight on another issue that’s never been clearer:

It’s time for a major house cleaning within the enforcement arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

For years, there have been complaints that the agency enforcing commercial fishing regulations has become heavy-handed, unreasonable and vindictive in its sanctions against the fishing industry in Gloucester and elsewhere. It is now clearer than ever that NOAA is populated by agents with an agenda that goes well beyond their mission. Not only has the agency sought to impose punishment before its allegations are adjudicated, it sought to manipulate public opinion about the industry by manipulating the media. And those are moves that cannot be tolerated.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

A federal judge in Boston has granted a request by the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction to suspend a 10-day closure of the auction ordered by federal fisheries regulators.

US District Judge Douglas Woodlock granted the exchange’s request for a temporary injunction on Monday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent the auction, the main clearinghouse for fish brought into Gloucester, a letter in June ordering the closure for falsifying records involving illegally landed cod.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

The Coast Guard will conduct a two-week test and evaluation of a new aircraft-mounted search radar July 21-30, 2009, affecting commercial fisherman with the Vessel Monitoring System.

Commercial fishing boats equipped with VMS in the radar testing areas may experience VMS polling signals as often as every 10 minutes.  This increase in signal activity is for testing purposes only, and is not associated with targeted fisheries enforcement. Fishing vessels will not be charged for the increased VMS polling rate.

Coast Guard aircraft participating in the testing and evaluation are the HC-130 Hercules and HC-144 Ocean Sentry.  These aircraft support typical air missions such as search and rescue, law enforcement, maritime domain awareness, living marine resources, International Ice Patrol, and marine environmental protection.

Read the complete story at Military.com