NOAA and Gloucester Fish Exchange, Inc. (owner of the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction) agreed late yesterday to settle three pending enforcement cases. From the outset, the Gloucester Fish Auction has vigorously denied all of the claims asserted by the National Marine Fisheries Service which had sought to impose fines totaling almost $400,000 and shut down the Auction for one hundred fifty (150) days based on incidents that occurred between 2004 and 2006. This sanction, if imposed, would not only have been detrimental to the Auction, but to the Gloucester fishing industry and the entire fishing community, which the Agency purports to serve. The Auction has been scrupulous about establishing and maintaining procedures to ensure compliance with the law.
In the settlement agreement the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction denies all liability in the three cases.
The settlement involves payment by the Exchange of $85,000 and a 35-day closure (non-consecutive) of the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction, over a three-year period. Under the terms of the settlement, the Auction is allowed to choose the days of closure in order to minimize any economic hardship, impact on its customers and/or the vessels that employ its services.
Larry Ciulla, President of the Exchange, said that "the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction settled these matters because we are a small, family owned business and, unlike the government, we could not sustain the enormous expenditures of time and money required to defend our position. Despite having confidence that we would have prevailed if we could have had access to the unlimited resources needed to litigate the matter to the end, we had no choice but to put these matters behind us."