Enforcement

Senator John Kerry (D-MA) released the following statement regarding the removal of Dale Jones as head of NOAA Fisheries Law Enforcement. “Transparency and accountability are key for fishermen whose economic well-being is in large measure decided by NOAA’s rules. They can’t swallow them if an official is destroying documents. Replacing this official was an important step to clear the air and turn the page. Administrator Lubchenco did the right thing.  I know it was painful at NOAA but it had to happen. We’ve all had to make tough choices as managers. Now we start over with Alan Risenhoover who has long been an advocate for our fishermen.  I again request a delay in active prosecutions on NOAA enforcement actions which may be tainted by the problems within the NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement.  I will continue to work with Massachusetts fishermen and NOAA to help to resolve the many difficult issues to reestablish a sustainable fishery in Massachusetts.”

Eric C. Schwaab, Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, sent the following message to NOAA staff announcing the removal of Dale Jones as head of Law Enforcement and the appointment of Alan Risenhoover, Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, to serve as the interim Director, Office of Law Enforcement.

Dear Colleagues:

Fair and effective enforcement is essential to NOAA's efforts to rebuild our fisheries and sustain the jobs and coastal economies they support, as well as the management of marine resources under our stewardship. That is why Dr. Lubchenco called for a thorough review of NOAA's enforcement program.

Today, I am announcing personnel changes in the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement (OLE). These changes are a result of NOAA's response to the recent Department of Commerce Inspector General Review of NOAA Fisheries Enforcement Program and Operations and position us to move forward on key elements of our recently released action plan dated March 18, 2010.

Effective immediately, I am reassigning Alan Risenhoover, Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, to serve as the interim Director, Office of Law Enforcement. Emily Menashes will serve as acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, while Alan is on this detail. On the advice of departmental counsel, and due to Privacy Act requirements, any other associated personnel changes cannot be discussed at this time.

This change will ensure continued enforcement operations and position us to effectively implement the actions identified by Dr. Lubchenco in response to the Inspector General's report, including workforce planning, priority setting and communications improvement, as well as prepare to recruit new leadership for the OLE Program. I will be holding a conference call with the NOAA OLE Special Agents in Charge later today.

I will soon be undertaking a search to identify candidates to compete for the Director of Law Enforcement position. Mr. Vince O'Shea, Executive Director at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, has agreed to assist NOAA Fisheries in this effort.

I want to thank you for your continued focus on our important law enforcement responsibilities as we work through these reviews. I have heard from some of you already about ways to improve enforcement efforts and we will continue that dialogue in the weeks and months to come. Ensuring a fair and effective enforcement program is our focus moving forward.

Thank you.

Eric C. Schwaab
Assistant Administrator for Fisheries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Washington, DC – Today, Congressmen Barney Frank (D-MA) and John F. Tierney (D-MA) responded to the recent decision by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to appoint an Acting Director for the Office of Law Enforcement (OLE), replacing the current Director, Mr. Dale Jones, and immediately open a nationwide search for a permanent OLE Director.

“While this not a cause for celebration, it is clearly an improvement,” said Frank.  “I express my gratitude to Dr. Lubchenco for this positive step, and I expect NOAA to undertake a careful and thorough selection process as they select a new Director of Law Enforcement.”

“Today’s action by NOAA to appoint a new Acting Director for OLE is a step in the right direction. I am grateful to Dr. Jane Lubchenco and Assistant Administrator for Fisheries Eric Schwab for acting on this matter and I am hopeful this will lead to the end of the unfair and abusive practices by the enforcement agency toward our fishermen,” said Congressman Tierney.  “It is my intention to formally request the public release of a new IG report on the unacceptable behavior and work practices of Mr. Jones. This is imperative and only fair to those in the fishing community who have been unjustly targeted for so long. I will continue to be actively engaged on this issue and work to ensure appropriate action is taken.”

Congressmen Frank and Tierney have repeatedly called for Mr. Jones to step aside, as Jones has come under heavy scrutiny in recent months as a result of findings in a January Inspector General’s (IG) report on enforcement issues, questionable actions revealed through Mr. Jones’ testimony at a March congressional hearing in Gloucester, Massachusetts and potential improprieties by Mr. Jones and OLE brought to light through recent Congressional Hearings.

The chief counsel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, assigned to bringing the rule of law to a tarnished enforcement cadre, has proposed what might be called a "let-bygones-be-bygones" policy as the agency strives to gain the trust of an abused fishing industry.

Lois Schiffer, considered an expert in environmental dispute resolution, submitted her policy proposal Thursday to NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco in a package of documents that updated reforms to gain control of the agents who investigate violation cases — and the litigators who bring cases made by the agents.

The Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Commerce produced a scathing report in January based on a six-month national investigation of claims and complaints by members of the fishing industry and their congressional representatives.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

NEW BEDFORD — NOAA is revamping its fishery enforcement methods after a scathing report by the Commerce Department's inspector general, but the agency is not revisiting past cases for prosecutorial abuse, NOAA chief counsel Lois Schiffer told The Standard-Times Thursday.

Perhaps the biggest change was announced by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Jane Lubchenco in a press release: In cases before an administrative law judge, the burden of proof in cases of alleged fishery lawbreaking will shift away from the alleged violator and to the government.

The change does not affect catch seizures, which NOAA must justify in federal court, NOAA spokeswoman Monica Allen said.

The proposed change was published in Thursday's Federal Register and will not take effect until after a comment period. But Schiffer said that, in practice, the shift in the burden of the argument will happen now, with pending cases. 

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

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Dr. Lubchenco’s report to the Inspector General is available online

The report’s appendices are available online

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration yesterday announced a suite of detailed reforms with an eye toward "moving toward an effective enforcement program" for federal fisheries, the agency's chief administrator said.

The agency has been chipping away at longtime patterns of dissonant behavior since January, when a 28-page inspector general's report outlining misconduct, lack of leadership and provocative actions against fishermen and fish brokers dropped with a thud into the lap of NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco.

Yesterday, Lubchenco made no mention of Dale Jones, whose 11-year record heading NOAA law enforcement has become a major distraction to Lubchenco and a bar to rapprochement with a fishing community whose complaints have been corroborated through Inspector General Todd Zinser's investigation and preliminary report.

She did, however, announce a commitment to healing scars from wounds and slights to the fishing industry over many years by agents cited by the inspector general for confusing their "criminal" orientation with the technical and reporting violations of fishermen and dealers.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

 

Dr. Lubchenco’s report to the Inspector General is available online

The report’s appendices are available online

 

The conduct of enforcement agents for the National Marine Fisheries Service should be a target of more than an audit or a civil inquiry by the U.S. Department of Commerce Inspector General.

It deserves a criminal investigation.

The evidence continues to pile up that the agency, which is under the oversight of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has been functioning as a law unto itself. It is not just a pattern of disproportionate enforcement. It now includes things like unauthorized entry and, most recently, an allegation that agents may have tried to coerce a witness before the start of a trial.

The blatant, ongoing disproportionate enforcement is bad enough. IG Todd Zinser, in a recent report, found that fines and other penalties assessed against fishermen in the New England region were more than double those in other regions of the country.

Read the complete story at The Daily News of Newburyport.

A Gloucester fisherman accused of harassing humpback whales on Stellwagen Bank in 2008 reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors yesterday that will see him fined $200.

Christopher Jacques of Western Avenue pleaded guilty to two violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but avoided what could have been up to $100,000 in fines and a year in jail if he had been convicted at trial.

In March of last year, he was charged with three counts of whale harassment — including hitting two humpbacks with a boat.

"I took the deal," Jacques said yesterday when reached by phone after giving his plea in U.S. district court in Boston. "I wanted to fight it but couldn't take the chance. I am living paycheck to paycheck."

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

The two congressmen who last week grilled federal oceans law enforcement chief Dale Jones about findings of his agency's wrongdoing against the fishing industry during a field hearing at Gloucester's City Hall have stepped up their push for answers — and financial documents.

Mass. 6th District Congressman John Tierney, a member of the congressional oversight Domestic Policy Subcommittee, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, the subcommittee chairman, have demanded that Jones, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Law Enforcement, provide a "full accounting" of all international travel he has taken since 1999 and a "full accounting" of all such travel taken by "other top officials" at OLE over the same time frame.

Read the full story in the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

 

The chairwoman of the House panel that oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration yesterday called for the agency's director of law enforcement to step down in the wake of a scandal over heavy-handed fisheries enforcement.

House Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee Chairwoman Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) said that NOAA Law Enforcement Director Dale Jones should be at least temporarily relieved of his duties, given questions over whether he may have tried to destroy documents to avoid an even more scathing report from the Commerce Department's top investigator.

"As the top cop at NOAA and a longtime investigator himself, Dale Jones must be acutely aware that shredding documents during a federal investigation raises serious questions about his commitment to a full and fair look at all the facts," Bordallo said at a subcommittee hearing on the issue yesterday. "At a time when transparency and accountability in the way our government operates is of utmost importance, this type of behavior cannot be condoned, and Mr. Jones should step aside until the IG's investigation is completed."

Read the complete story at E&E Publishing, LLC.