"A boycott might be in order," said Mayor Carolyn Kirk, whose city faces a massive surge in unemployment when a new industry model for the groundfishing fleet is launched two weeks from today.

Mayor Kirk told Saving Seafood that she is considering not only a boycott, but an alternative event to be held at the same time. She said having the forum run by the local officials, who were the local face of the leadership of OLE headed by the replaced Dale Jones, suggests that the officials in Washington may not realize how deeply the actions of the previous leadership of OLE have torn her community.

Mayor Kirk also noted that her office was not contacted about the planned event before it was announced. 

Gloucester's state legislative delegation, Sen. Bruce Tarr and Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, also condemned the idea of inviting the fishing industry to discuss reforming the system with agents and lawyers who prosecuted cases and imposed penalties found to be 250-500 percent higher than those levied in the rest of the country.

They said that if local Agent-in-Charge Andrew Cohen and Charles Juliand, who heads the Office of General Counsel in Gloucester, are not removed from the event and replaced by Lois Schiffer, the newly installed chief counsel at NOAA, and Alan Risenhoover, a sustainable fisheries official sitting in temporarily as chief of law enforcement, there is little reason to attend the planned three hour event, set for Monday night, April 26.

Late on Sunday, NOAA officials told Saving Seafood that Alan Risenhoover and a representative of the General Counsel's Office selected by Lois Schiffer will also attend.

The Forum will be facilitated by Dan Dozier, who was selected with the assistance of the Environmental Conflict Resolution Institute.

According to NOAA, local representatives from OLE and GCEL will attend and participate in the Forum. Neither Mr. Juliand nor Mr. Cohen was cited by name.

According to NOAA, one of the reasons for holding the Forum is to build rapport between the local OLE and GCEL staff members and the fishing community.  "We believe it is vital to have two way communications between the local NOAA employees and the fishing community.  We hope that the fishing community will view this as an opportunity to better understand how OLE and GCEL operate and to provide their perspectives on the enforcement process."

NOAA also told Saving Seafood that after the Forum occurs, the agency will evaluate it to determine whether to replicate it in other locations/regions.  The Forum was one of the outreach programs set forth in NOAA's response to the IG's report.

Read the original story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Read the event announcement and agenda