The disclosure that federal fishing police misspent millions of dollars reaped from fines has worsened relations between the government and New England fishermen as regulators orchestrate the most fundamental overhaul of fishing rules in the region’s history.
A recent audit found that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 172-member law enforcement office has 202 vehicles and 22 boats, including a $300,000 undercover vessel the manufacturer’s website describes as luxurious. Questionable overseas travel and vague expense submissions were also found during the Commerce Department inspector general’s review of an estimated $96 million account funded by fishermen caught breaking the law. It was the second critical report this year about the NOAA enforcement and legal offices.
Fishermen have long been mistrustful of federal officials who have enacted a web of complex rules to conserve fish in the last two decades. Yet the two groups have maintained an uneasy, but workable, relationship in recent years to conduct gear research, count fish, and go after those who steal from the sea. New rules that divide the total fish catch among groups of fishermen already had many suspicious that it could put them out of work; the recent revelations, some say, are destroying what little good will existed to see that program succeed.
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