Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has joined the chorus of public officials lashing out at the federal government for its lack of transparency in dealing with the commercial fishing industry.
In a letter to acting Commerce Department Secretary Rebecca Blank, Coakley asked for the release of all documents that prompted former Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke to award nearly $650,000 in reparations for 11 legal cases involving Massachusetts fishermen or shoreside processors who suffered from excessive federal penalties.
The reparations came after the Office of Law Enforcement at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration was investigated by Special Master Charles B. Swartwood, tasked by Locke to examine complaints of prosecutorial excesses in the Northeast.
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