NOAA has provided the Gloucester Times copies of two letters sent to Kerry earlier this year — months before his Oct. 19 letter to Lubchenco — by NMFS administrator Eric Schwaab, who reviewed the snafus that left fisherman Keding deep in debt from overpaying for a boat due to a misunderstanding about the landing history, and Scola denied a reissue of the limited access swordfish handgear permit he had been using without violation for many years.
Schwaab's letters analyzing Keding's and Scola's situations concluded that in both cases the fishermen — not NOAA — were responsible for their own misfortune.
In Keding's case, Schwaab said in his letter of Feb. 28 the facts show that Keding requested the catch data for the boat he was considering acquiring, and he based his decision on that data "assuming the entire landings history would be conveyed to him when he purchased the vessel."
His mistake, Schwaab wrote, was not asking — and therefore not being told — whether the entire landing history was to have been his as the buyer. In fact, the administrator explained, in the case of the boat in question, the previous owner to the one negotiating with Keding had kept for himself the entire catch history from May 1996 to October 2004.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.