What if a local police department were to not only charge you with speeding, but set its own scale of fines, have a chief or other officer serve as a judge — and then keep all of the money from the fines within its own department? That would inherently be viewed as unfair — yet NMFS and the Coast Guard are able to carry out this precise system of supposed "justice."
The news that seven more fishing boats have been socked with fines and penalties by the National Marine Fisheries Services should not have come as any surprise.
Despite federal officials’ hearing fishermen’s complaints about NMFS and the Coast Guard’s enforcement tactics — and state legislators’ push to get a handle on NMFS’ law-enforcement stance and the use of state environmental police as some sort of marine "deputies" — it’s painfully clear the agency itself remains bent on continuing its over-the-top crusade against the industry and, in particular, the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction.