State Senate Assistant Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) and Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante (D-Gloucester) on Friday heralded Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Jane Lubchenco’s decision to have the Department of Commerce’s Office of Inspector General launch a formal review of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Services enforcement practices.
“The decision by Under Secretary Lubchenco to initiate an investigation of the operations of the NMFS Office for Law Enforcement is a positive and important development for everyone involved in our commercial fisheries,” said Tarr. He went on to say, “Hopefully now we can begin to remove the heavy burdens of unwarranted tactics and deep anxiety that fishing families have been living with for far too long.”
On Feb. 26, 17 coastal community state senators and representatives joined with Sen. Tarr and Rep. Ferrante in co-sponsoring a letter urging Massachusetts’s congressional delegation to look into the nature of some enforcement practices conducted by NMFS’s Office of Law Enforcement. Senators Kennedy, Kerry, Congressmen Frank, Delahunt and Tierney followed up with a letter to NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco explaining the situation and formally requesting her assistance and intervention.
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