Showing support for fishermen

As the Department of Commerce Inspector General's office investigates the enforcement practices of federal fishing regulators — and as fishermen out of Gloucester and throughout New England brace for a sea change in the industry's regulatory system — city and local legislative leaders are organizing a community show of support for local fishermen and the industry.

State Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, D-Gloucester, state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester and Mayor Carolyn Kirk are planning to host a community candlelight vigil and march in support of the fishing community Wednesday beginning at 7 p.m.

The vigil is slated to begin at City Hall, with a march to the Fishermen's Memorial's Man at the Wheel on Stacy Boulevard. The event is being organized as a community statement against "unfair fishery enforcement practices," according to a joint statement issued by Ferrante, Tarr and Kirk.

"The event is in protest of the overreaching and heavy handed practices of the Office of NOAA General Counsel and Enforcement Division of the National Marine Fisheries Service," the prepared statement read. "In recent months, the state Legislature and Attorney General Martha Coakley have questioned and criticized these practices. In response, the (state's) federal delegation requested an Inspector General's investigation of allegations made by the fishing industry, which was granted last month."

The march will apparently come with Inspector General's Office investigators in the area. While officials from the IG's office have not indicated a time frame for their stay, a team of five from the D.C. office were slated to begin private interviews with fishermen and others connected with the industry — including Rockport fisherman Bill Lee and attorney Steve Ouellette, who represents a number of fishermen and has represented the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction in the past.

Ferrante — who served as legal counsel with the Northeast Seafood Coalition prior to her being elected to the state representative seat last fall — said she views the vigil and march as a community statement.

"This vigil is an opportunity for the entire community to come together to support their neighbors in asking for an end to the overzealous, heavy-handed actions of NOAA and NMFS enforcement," she said. "Throughout the district, many, not just those directly involved in the fishing industry, have expressed their anger and disappointment with this governmental agency. I welcome all to attend."

Tarr said he also views the march as a chance for the community to "send a clear message."

"We expect our hard-working fishing families to be treated fairly and with the respect they deserve," said Tarr. "Together, we can support a group of people that have dedicated their lives to an industry that feeds our nation and stem abuses in the system of fisheries enforcement."

Kirk noted that the NOAA enforcement charges aimed at shutting down the Seafood Display Auction and the latest regulatory changes affect the entire community.

"The fishing industry remains an important contributor to our local economy," she said, "and must be given every fair chance to succeed."

The IG's investigation of NOAA enforcement's tactics on a national level comes at the request of new NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco — whose call for it followed sharply worded letters of complaint from Sens. John Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy, and fishing district congressional representatives such as John Tierney, D-Salem, and Barney Frank, whose district includes the fishing port of New Bedford. All have been critical of NOAA and NMFS enforcement moves against the auction — which included one last month in which NOAA officials charged the auction with a "probation violation" stemming from an initial case in which the auction is still challenging its guilt in U.S. District Court.

Tarr and Ferrante have both said that NOAA action — based solely on the agency's finding guilt on the auction's part within its own appeal system — was tantamount to denying the auction "due process" in federal court. Plus, a reporting team from the Boston Globe, apparently given advance notice of the pending charges by NOAA officials, showed up at the auction to get fishermen's reactions to the auction's pending shutdown before the Ciulla family, which operates the Gloucester auction, even received the NOAA notice of violation.

In fact, federal prosecutors in the case have sought and gained a two-week delay in the auction enforcement case, and the auction is poised to appeal the latest sanctions, with no plans to close. That's despite NOAA's efforts to get word to the fishermen to make "alternate arrangements" for bringing in their catch, according to the June 19 NOAA announcement sent to the media.

At the same time, the New England Fishery Management Council, responding to intense lobbying from the Pew Environmental Trust, other environmental groups, and Lubchenco — who is a former Pew fellow — two weeks ago approved a new regulatory format based on "catch shares," and some fishermen and industry leaders are raising concerns that the change will not only further reduce the fleet, but lead to "catch-share" buyouts of individual fishermen by large corporations or investment brokers seeking new market commodities.

As reported in the Times last week, Environmental Defense Fund Vice President David Festa told potential investors at the 2009 Milken Institute — two months before the New England Council gave the catch-share format its approval — that mutual and hedge fund managers could generate returns of 400 percent or more by buying up catch shares from fishermen, or fishing collaboratives known as sectors under the new NOAA regulatory system.

Gloucester's Vito Giacalone, who has worked in development of a New England sector system as part of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, described that scenario last week as "a conversion to share-cropping" for individual fishermen.

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Vigil, march planned to 'send message' to feds Wednesday

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