GLOUCESTER, MA (March 24, 2009) โ A day boat-owning commercial fisherman was notified yesterday by the National Marine Fisheries Service that he faces a $49,703 fine for repeatedly selling illegally caught yellowtail flounder through the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction in 2004 and 2005.
Mark Carroll, who owns and fishes the Harvest Moon, is the second commercial fisherman charged by NMFS in recent days. He is unlikely to be the last.
His attorney, Stephen Ouellette, said Carroll declined to comment, but Ouellette described the charges as trumped up from "a simple misunderstanding of complex regulatory requirements."
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