Attorney General Martha Coakley said she heard enough of an "overbearing" federal enforcement effort during her mid-morning waterfront visit to convince her of the need for her office to "delve further into this". In an interview after her visit, Coakley said she was uncertain why the auction "appears to be now caught" in a federal bureaucratic hold "out of proportion to the violations, and it seems to be oppressive and repressive." The Attorney General said she saw a role for the state in ensuring that the "federal government is not overreaching."
The Massachusetts attorney general toured the embattled Gloucester Seafood Display Auction yesterday.
And after watching a boat unload, hearing of the auction’s operations from buyers and sellers — and hearing of its travails at the hands of federal fishery law enforcement agents pursuing two cases aimed at extracting heavy fines and shutting it down for long periods — Martha Coakley said she came away convinced that "something is wrong."
She emphasized she was "just at the beginning" of her education about the catching, brokering and policing of the fishing business. But she said her reading research, plus her hour on the wharf, at the cold storage warehouse and in the auction chamber left her with no doubt that the "wrong" comes from the federal government — not the computerized auction operation that anchors the local maritime economy, drawing boats from all along Gulf of Maine.