August 17, 2012 — There's a disaster in the Northeast fishery, all right, but disaster, for fishermen at least, is the policy. It is the objective. Now it's beginning to look like the fishing industry was decimated and the fish were, too.
Somebody owes us another apology.
Larry Yacubian, a former scalloper out of New Bedford, has a rare keepsake from the U.S. Commerce Department: a letter from Secretary Gary Locke and from NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco apologizing to him for ruining his life.
Admitting error and apologizing for it are unusual deeds in the Commerce Department (more about that in a moment). In Larry's case it took a couple of inspectors general and a "special master" investigator to expose the behavior of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration law enforcement toward him.
Sure, they gave him $400,000 but that didn't even cover his legal bills. What they didn't give back were his boat, his permit, his license, his wife's family farmhouse and his reputation.
When he filed an administrative claim six months ago asking for these things, or a settlement, his claim was shelved. Ignored. NOAA ran out the clock and after six months, according to the rules, Larry's claim was automatically denied with no word of explanation.
So now Larry is in federal court asking for $15 million from this sincerely apologetic government department.
Larry lives in Punta Gorda, Fla., now, running tour boats.
"I have a son who is an infantry officer, and the two most difficult things in life are dealing with NOAA and having him away at war," he told me this week.
During the Olympics, he said, he watched again and again as Americans won medals. "When I looked at the stars and stripes, I choke up," he said. When he envisions the NOAA banner hanging next to the flag at headquarters in Maryland, he said he simply chokes. "I think it's contemptuous," he said.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times.