Federal criminal charges against Maine fishermen accused of illegally harvesting scallops off New Jersey are the latest in a series of prosecutions — a sharp departure from the government’s usual practice of seeking civil penalties for captains who violate fishing rules.
The cases reflect a drive by the Justice Department to prosecute more environmental crimes — an objective outlined last summer by Ignacia S. Moreno, the assistant attorney general for the department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Paul J. Fishman, U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
The prosecutions also show the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s law enforcement program still has teeth.
Since 2009 the agency has been battered by fishermen’s complaints that it overreached and extracted excessive penalties in enforcement cases — a revolt that started in Gloucester, Mass., when the NOAA sought to shut down a key seafood auction for violations.
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