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Commerce IG says fisheries officials illegally shredded documents in probe |
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An unpublished Inspector-General’s report obtained by The Examiner said officials of the Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) destroyed hundreds of documents in a “shredding party” in November 2009 “in the middle of an investigation by the Office of the Inspector-General.” The NMFS is part of the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and is responsible for regulating the nation’s commercial fisheries off the coasts. The IG report resulted from an investigation of complaints by several congressmen of “heavy-handed and unfair enforcement activities” directed against commercial fishermen in New England.
The IG report said “such compliance is particularly troubling given OLE’s obligation to ensure proper management of its own records – especially as a federal law enforcement agency that enforces record-keeping violations by the fishing industry it regulates.” Read the complete story from the Washington Examiner.
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JESSICA HATHAWAY: 'National Fisherman' editor says New York Times misrepresented catch share support
May 18, 2012 - The New York Times heralds catch shares for saving summer flounder and Northeast haddock, which is like crediting a freshman class for the seniors' high college placement rate. By the same token, we could blame catch shares for the demise of Northeast cod stocks. But we don't.
