Law

The special investigative master who documented federal law enforcement abuses of commercial fishermen and businesses last year is continuing to review NOAA law enforcement's handling of dozens of cases, lawyers in Gloucester and New Bedford confirmed Tuesday.

Commerce Secretary John Bryson and the judicial master, retired federal magistrate Charles B. Swartwood III, did not respond immediately to questions about the continuing investigation submitted by the Times to Swartwood's employer, JAMS, the judicial, arbitration and mediation services company.

But attorneys Stephen Ouellette of Gloucester and Pamela Lafreniere independently confirmed that each had at least a dozen clients who had been interviewed by Swartwood. It was his initial followup to an Inspector General's 2009 probe that last summer brought about a Cabinet-level apology and reparations paid to New England fishermen and waterfront businesses, including the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction.

"Overzealous enforcement and unjustifiably high fines," was how Lafreniere characterized the problems described by her clients to the special master.

Read the complete story by Richard Gaines in The Gloucester Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUMMIT COUNTY —Conservation advocates are challenging a new fisheries rule that increases the take of rare Atlantic bluefin tuna, a species already under pressure from overfishing and illegal commerce driven in part by Japan’s nearly insatiable demand for sushi-grade tuna.

The Center for Biological Diversity last week filed a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service challenging seeking to halt the dramatic expansion of commercial fishing from Massachusetts to Florida in an effort to prevent bluefin from being fished to extinction.

“Bluefin tuna were once the giants of the sea, but overfishing has depleted the ocean of this remarkable fish. It’s completely backwards to ramp up fishing of bluefin tuna at a time when they’re increasingly rare,” said Catherine Kilduff, a staff attorney at the Center.

The fisheries service says the rule will convert potential dead discards to live landings and expand fishing commercial and recreational fishing opportunities.

Read the complete story from The Summit County Citizen's Voice

 

 

 

 

 

A federal judge has issued a mixed ruling in a suit brought by the environmental nonprofit group Oceana challenging the adequacy of the government's response in the New England groundfishery to requirements written into the Magnuson-Stevens Act in 2006 for annual catch limits and accountability measures.

Washington, D.C., District Judge James E. Boesberg last week dismissed Oceana's claims that Amendment 16 — the regulatory framework that includes the catch share management system blamed by many for the loss of jobs in the fishery over the last 19 months — failed to establish "an adequate system" for monitoring compliance with catch limits and did not take into account the environmental impacts of the management regimen.

The organization's suit was partially based on the argument that NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service did not have a handle on bycatch — fish that are unintentionally scooped up in nets of fishermen who are targeting other species.

At the same time, Boesberg agreed with Oceana's claim that Amendment 16 failed to establish viable "accountability measures" or penalties for overfishing five of the stocks in the 20 in the groundfishery.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times

 

 

 

 

 

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will hear arguments this Wednesday, January 4, in a lawsuit challenging two government agencies for failing to protect sea herring, river herring, and shad from New England’s industrial Atlantic herring fishery. EarthJustice attorneys are representing plaintiffs Michael S. Flaherty, charter boat Captain Alan A. Hastbacka, and the Ocean River Institute in claims that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the New England Fishery Management Council failed to take measures to stem the decline of these forage fish populations. Public interest law firm Earthjustice is representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.  Roger Fleming and Erica Fuller Earthjustice attorneys will argue on behalf of the recreational fishing groups.   

WHEN:
Wednesday, January 4, at 10 a.m. ET

WHERE:
Courtroom 26A – Fourth Floor
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
333 Constitution Avenue N.W.
Washington D.C. 20001

 

 

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON (CN) – A federal judge dismissed claims that the New England Fishery Management Council's fishery-management plan violates overfishing laws by failing to monitor annual catch limits and controlling bycatch.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg dismissed all of the claims filed by the environmental group Oceana, except for the group's challenge to inadequate accountability measures for five particular species.

Oceana sued U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke over the plan, which was set up as one of eight regional fishery-management councils created by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

Read the complete story from Courthouse News Service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Bedford, Gloucester and a host of fishing industry co-plaintiffs have appealed a ruling against them and in favor of the Commerce Department in a federal lawsuit last June.

U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel shut down the challenge to the controversial catch shares and sector management system imposed on the Northeast groundfishery in 2010, known as Amendment 16 of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which governs fishing in federal waters.

The plaintiffs say the law clearly requires a referendum before a quota management system is put in place. They also say the government failed to study and mitigate the consequences of their actions on fishing communities and local economies. Magnuson requires both, the lawsuit charged. But Zobel disagreed that regulators did anything wrong.

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The formal appeals from fishing industry plaintiffs seeking to overturn a federal judge's June ruling upholding the framework for the controversial catch share management system are due and expected Wednesday in the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals.

The hub port cities of Gloucester and New Bedford remain as lead plaintiffs, which also include boat- and shore-based businesses ranging along the East Coast from Maine to North Carolina.

In response to questions by the Times, Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk said Monday she recently considered dropping the city from the coalition appealing U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel's July dismissal of the lawsuit targeting the regulatory framework known as Amendment 16.

Kirk said she was moved to reconsider the city's involvement in the suit by a letter signed by 109 commercial fishermen, including about two dozen whose boats are based in Gloucester, that was emailed last month to members of the congressional delegation and the New England Fishery Management Council.

Read the complete story by Richard Gaines in The Gloucester Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ATLANTIC CITY — A Maine seafood company, one of its owners and four fishermen have been charged in a conspiracy to falsify records and obstruct justice in connection with overharvesting Atlantic sea scallops off the coast of New Jersey, authorities said.

The defendants took thousands of pounds of scallops above the legal limit in an area of the ocean where scallop fishing was limited, according to a federal complaint. They then falsified catch records to conceal the overharvesting, which allegedly occurred in 2007 and 2008, officials said.

The company — wholesaler D.C. Air & Seafood Inc. — and the five men were charged in the complaint filed Friday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark.

Charged in the complaint are: company owner Christopher Byers, 39, of Winter Harbor, Maine; and fishermen George Bamford, 37, and Daniel Mahoney, 48, both of Harrington, Maine; Robert E. Hersey Jr., 41, of Harpswell, Maine; and Michael McKenna, 35, of Steuben, Maine.

Read the complete story from The Star-Ledger

 

 

 

 

 

Oceana has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court of Northern California challenging the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) approval of Amendment 13 to the Coastal Pelagic Species Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for fisheries that take place off California, Oregon and Washington.

Oceana, represented by Earthjustice, charged NMFS with failing to protect key species, such as Pacific sardine and anchovy, which serve as the base of the ocean food web. 

The lawsuit claims NMFS fails to prevent overfishing, fails to account for the species’ ecological role when setting catch limits and fails to adequately analyze the implications of their actions.

In a press release, Oceana reminds that in 2006 Congress reauthorized and amended the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to include new requirements designed to prevent overfishing and foster more precautionary, scientifically sound management of fisheries. NMFS then revised the guidelines that govern how fishery managers set optimum catch levels and other measures to achieve these goals.

Read the complete story from Fish Information & Services

 

 

 

 

 

Freddie Joe Hankins was charged with a criminal complaint in Alaska district court this month in a further ramification of the guilty plea of Arne Fuglvog, for falsifying halibut and sablefish landing records.

Hankins, who owned halibut and sablefish IFQ and fished aboard Fuglvog's vessel the F/V Kamilar, has been charged by federal agents with a series of false catch reports.

Sablefish and Halibut that was designated to be caught in a central Gulf of Alaska fishing area was in fact caught in the West Yakutat area, and falsely listed as having been caught in Central Alaska. Halibut that was designated for area 3 B was in fact caught in area 3 A.

When questioned by NOAA investigators in July of 2009, Hankins reportedly said the IFQ program did not consider historic fishing grounds when an arbitrary line was designated, and further "the fish don't give a damn where the line is."

According to a report from the Alaska Dispatch, the timing of the investigation into Hankins, who was one of Fuglvog's crew members, gives weight to the suspicion that Fuglvog, a former fisheries aide to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, withdrew from consideration for the top job at NMFS because he knew he was under investigation, and not because the hiring process had stalled, as was reported at the time.

The investigation showed Hankins made more than a quarter million dollars through his illegal takes of nearly 70,000 combined pounds of sablefish and halibut.

This story was reproduced with permission from SeafoodNews.com