Bill Lee is mad as hell, and on behalf of his commercial fishing colleagues, who like himself face stiff fines for allegedly selling technically illegal flounder at the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction a number of years ago, he isn’t going to take it anymore.
One of the port’s best known commercial fishermen and a professional underwater photographer, Lee received his notice of alleged violations of the Magnuson-Stevens Act last Friday — weeks after high-ranking hands helped him make an appointment for next Tuesday with the top law enforcement official of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA is the parent agency of the National Marine Fisheries Service, which regulates fishing from Maine through the Carolinas from regional offices here.