After a six month investigation, Dan Rather Reports will broadcast an in-depth look at the US commercial fishery along the east coast on Tuesday May 17th at 8 p.m. ET.

The report examines charges that NOAA, the agency that oversees the National Marine Fisheries Service, has been over-zealous in its prosecution of those in the fishing community. Fisheries Administrator Eric Schwaab’s responds to the charges.

Included in the report is rarely seen video of a NOAA raid against the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction and details of NOAA’s attempt to shut down the fish warehouse.

Also, the report examines the Asset Forfeiture Fund where fines, many in the hundreds of thousands of dollars against the fishermen, are deposited.   The broadcast digs deep into what NOAA used the fund for.  For example, it paid for bonuses for NOAA employees.  Also, the broadcast documents that hundreds of thousands of fund dollars were spent on NOAA travel.  One document shows that the fund paid the expenses of two prosecutors to Kuala Lumpur along with the judge in the case they had just completed.  Eric Schwaab responds to these and other uses of the asset forfeiture fund.

Dan Rather Reports has obtained the confidential Inspector General’s report on the shredding of official documents by the head of NOAA’s law enforcement arm during an official investigation.  NOAA responds to questions about that and to questions about an audit of the fund.

Dan Rather Reports airs on HDNet at 8 p.m. ET with an encore at 11 p.m. ET. 

HDNet is available in the U.S. via AT&T U-verse, Time Warner Cable, Charter, Comcast, DIRECTV, DISH Network, Insight, and Verizon FiOS and in Canada via Access Communications, Cogeco, Rogers, Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct. Also available from iTunes within a few days of airing.