By Richard Gaines
GLOUCESTER – Aug 19, 2010 – The scandal-ridden federal fisheries law enforcement unit is sending a delegation to the third Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop — a five-day conference beginning Sept. 6 in Maputo, Mozambique, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has told the Times.
But in the aftermath of a damning report on the inappropriate use of a multi-million dollar fund built with penalties paid by fishermen and related businesses, NOAA has cut back on the size and budget for the traveling delegation.
Led by Dale J. Jones, who was then director of law enforcement, NOAA sent 15 of its employees, part of a U.S. delegation of 22, to the 2008 workshop in Trondheim, Norway.
Only seven agents and litigators are traveling to Mozambique, according to a roster released to the Times.
NOAA said it is budgeting $42,000 from its own appropriated funds, not the entangled Asset Forfeiture Fund, for the Africa trip, less than half the cost of sending the larger delegation to the second Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop, also a five-day event, held in Norway.
"NOAA is participating," spokeswoman Monica Allen said in a statement, "to strengthen our international efforts to protect U.S. fishers from the harmful effects of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing."