The congressman for North Carolina's Outer Banks — an arm-in-arm ally of the New England fishing ports — has formally requested an oversight hearing by the House Natural Resources Committee into the Inspector General's report citing numerous failings and excesses by federal fishery law enforcers.
In a letter last Friday to the Democrat and Republican leaders of the panel, Congressman Walter B. Jones said the body of revelations by the U.S. Commerce Department's Inspector General "cry out for congressional oversight."
Jones wrote that the report "confirmed what I have heard from fishermen for years" about the law enforcement agents of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as well as the programs.
Due to the weekend blizzard, which closed many Washington officers, Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, and Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., the ranking Republican, could be reached.
But the request from Jones comes during a tumultuous time for NOAA law enforcement.
Last week — acting on the request by Gloucester's Congressman John Tierney, D-Salem — U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, announced he would hold a hearing into the IG's findings by the Oversight and Government Reform Domestic Policy Subcommittee. Tierney has asked that the hearing be held in Gloucester.
Also last week, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco took stopgap measures in one of Zinser's main areas of concern — shifting control of the asset forfeiture fund — the money and property taken as fines from fishermen — from law enforcement's own tills to the overall NOAA Controller.
Lubchenco also directed that charging decisions, penalties, permit sanctions and settlements be reviewed and approved at a "higher level" inside NOAA. And she acknowledged the need for systemic reforms and promised a public summit for the spring to vet the issues and identify appropriate changes.
While issuing a preliminary report last month, Inspector General Todd Zinser made it clear a further report was forthcoming into specific cases of "abusive treatment" of fishermen and the industry by NOAA enforcement personnel, who carry out their roles up and down the East Coast from regional headquarters in Gloucester Blackburn Industrial Park.
The specific allegations also stem from the findings of the IG's investigative teams during a six-month probe instigated in response to complaints from Gloucester charging vindictive and excessively harsh activities.
The IG's initial report has already found that fines assessed to fishermen in the Northeast range from 250 percent to 500 percent higher than in other parts of the country. In one still-pending case, Gloucester NOAA agent Andy Cohen has tried to levy a $10,000-a-page penalty — or $270,000 overall — to a New Jersey family for paperwork reporting violations.
In a phone interview with the Times, Jones cited the same syndrome of violations of professional conduct that had sparked the call for an independent investigation from Gloucester.
He said he was thrilled that the IG had "validated" the complaints, which often involved confiscatory fines and penalties for technical violations of regulations governing fishing and shoreside sales and brokering businesses.
In his letter to Rahall and Hastings, Jones cited the conclusion in Zinser's report of "a highly charged regulatory climate and dysfunctional relationship between NOAA and the fishing industry.
He also noted that the IG found the "civil penalty assessment process is arbitrary and unfair" and the workforce composition is misaligned with its mission — heavy in criminal agents who handle mostly civil cases while making fishermen feel like criminals.
The case that unleashed a flood of complaints and led to the IG's investigation — a 59-count claim against the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction that proposed shutting the number one Gulf of Maine sales platform for 120 days with a $335,500 penalty — is scheduled for trial on March 1.
The auction has been fighting law enforcement charges for most of the last decade. An appeal of an earlier case is before a federal judge in Boston.
A 2006 Gloucester Police report obtained by the Times also spotlights in which NOAA enforcement agents wrongfully and without authorization entered the auction after hours.
The raid came during a time when NOAA enforcement was compiling evidence toward an earlier charge that the Auction had brokered fish that had been landed illegally. It is not clear whether that is one of the "abusive treatment" cases still being probed by the Inspector General.
Richard Gaines can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3464, or via e-mail at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.
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