September 20, 2024 — Mr. James Binniker has been selected as the new director of the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement. In this new role, Mr. Binniker will lead the agency’s work to enforce laws that conserve and protect our nation’s protected marine resources, places, and habitats, as well as to advance actions to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and promote sustainable fisheries management. Mr. Binniker will assume his new role on September 23.
As the newly appointed head of the Office of Law Enforcement, Mr. Binniker brings a strong combination of skills and experience. The office is responsible for enforcing more than 40 federal statutes over more than 3 million nautical miles of open ocean, 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline, 16 National Marine Sanctuaries, and Marine National Monuments.
“The breadth of ocean and coast NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement must cover and the number of laws they must enforce are immense; so it’s crucial that leadership continue to set priorities and pursue those enthusiastically as we strive to fulfill our sustainability and stewardship missions,” said Janet Coit, NOAA’s Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “With James’ extensive enforcement background and incredible level of experience with marine issues nationally and internationally, he will hit the ground running—especially in our ongoing fight against illegal unregulated and unreported fishing globally.”