NOAA Fishery Enforcement Under Investigation

Richard Gaines, writing in today's Gloucester Daily Times, reports that "Fact-Finders" from the office of Todd Zisner, inspector general for the U.S. Department of Commerce, will be on North Carolina's Outer Banks next week as part of a national investigation into abusive law enforcement practices by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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The 200-mile long sand-barrier island chain known as the Outer Banks is home to more than 2,000 commercial fishing boats and very different from New England's rocky coast. But complaints from fishermen up and down the Atlantic coast from Maine to The Carolinas report similar problems in dealing with NOAA law enforcement practices.

The Daily Times story quotes Susan West, a reporter for the Outer Banks Sentinel as saying, ". . . the feelings are nearly universal."

West tells the New England paper that "the attitude of law enforcement, which is part of a regional regime based in Gloucester, is to treat the fishermen as if they are outlaws or serfs, subject to the whims of the lords and masters and entrapped over and over again by irreconcilable regulations that bring them fines and penalties out of proportion to the severity of the crimes.

The inspector general's teams will hear from fishermen and industry employees and officers at two sites — New Bern, located on an inlet of Pamlico Sound, and Wanchese, a fishing village on the banks themselves.

The Gloucester paper quotes North Carolina Fisheries Association President Sean McKeon as saying, "Intimidation" is a constant quality of the federal-fisherman relationship. NOAA officers often behave like fictional "Smokeys" who enjoy using the authority of the badge.

North Carolina fishermen spend considerably more time than their New England counterparts fishing in state waters because the entire sound is inside the 200-mile exclusive economic zone that begins three miles east of the banks themselves. The feeling is the state folks can have a workable relationship and are easier to communicate with."

The inspector general undertook the investigation into NOAA law enforcement after receiving a plea from U.S. Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry and the Massachusetts congressional delegation.

Similar requests were made by elected officials in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The Department of Commerce's Inspector General's teams were in Massachusetts two weeks ago, and New York earlier this week.

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