The Gloucester Seafood Display Auction avoided trial today, settling a 59-count allegation of illegal fish brokering and threads from two other cases that, together, provided the spark for a protest that carried to Congress and helped launch a national investigation into federal fisheries law enforcement tactics.
The settlement requires the auction to pay $85,000 in fines over a three-year period and close for 35 days non-consecutively — essentially at the discretion of the Ciulla family which owns and operates the business that brokers the bulk of fish from the Gulf of Maine.
But the settlement also gives the auction "a clean slate going forward," said its attorney, Paul Muniz. It does not require any admission of liability on the auction's part — and it sets the stage for changes within the way NOAA carries out its regulatory enforcement.
Muniz said the deal includes an agreement to work out an understanding with NOAA limiting any auction or brokerage's liability when it comes to the legality of catch brought in by boats.
Auction President Larry Ciulla said the decision to settle rather than go to trial in an administrative law court was "very hard."
"If it weren't in an administrative law court, we'd have won hands down," he said. "We know from past experience that even if we'd won, we'd have had a good chance of losing."
Winning in trial only to lose after an appeal to the NOAA administrator is what happened to the auction in the second of the three cases that were tied up and sealed for all time by yesterday's agreement.
"The problem it became was a business decision," Ciulla said. "It was not prudent to spend that much money on litigation."
The settlement marks a new course for NOAA law enforcement. The negotiations were taken out of the hands of Charles Juliand, who heads the Gloucester office, and Deirdre Casey, who built the case against the auction. Instead, the talks were removed to NOAA headquarters where Lois Schiffer was recently installed as chief counsel.
"We are pleased to reach a settlement in this long-standing case and we are optimistic that we've entered a more constructive relationship going forward," said Charles Green, NOAA Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Enforcement and Litigation. "NOAA will continue to work with the New England fishing community to build a sustainable fishery that maximizes benefits to coastal communities and the nation."
Green said the closure "will be coordinated in order to minimize economic hardship and customer burden."
For more on this story and full coverage of today's congressional hearing at Gloucester's City Hall, look to tomorrow's print and online editions of the Gloucester Daily Times and gloucestertimes.com.
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