Tag Archives: vessel monitoring program

Coast Guard, NOAA resolve two closed area fishing cases for $80,000

uscg logoThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently resolved two civil penalty cases with two separate fishing vessel owners who violated the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act when their crews were found fishing in closed areas. Following up on a referral from the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement Vessel Monitoring program, a Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod HC-144 crew sighted the fishing vessel Warrior, homeported in New Bedford, Mass., on March 21, 2014 fishing for scallops within Closed Area II Essential Fish Habitat, which is about 120 miles east of Cape Cod, Mass. On April 30, 2013 the fishing vessel Crystal Girl B, a vessel homeported in Cape May, N.J. was also detected fishing for scallops inside Closed Area I, an area about 30 miles southeast of Cape Cod, Mass., by a crew aboard the Coast Guard cutter Tybee. The Warrior owner paid a civil penalty of $39,360 on April 1, 2016 for fishing in a closed area and deficiencies with its vessel monitoring system and the Crystal Girl B owner agreed to pay $40,750 on March 18, 2016 for closed area violations, including fishing in a closed area. Read the rest here 18:39

Disaster aid belongs to the fishing industry – It’s no wonder the industry views NOAA with suspicion

NOAA has in recent weeks been casting about for a pool of money to tap for its controversial onboard fishing cash. Efforts to make fishermen pay directly for the program — yet another unfunded federal mandate — have so far fallen short.,,,  states sill have about $10 million in the ‘third bin,’” John Bullard said. “(Monitoring) would be an eligible use of those funds.” Let us not forget one reason NOAA wants to expand its lobster monitoring program is because it has to spend the money it has budgeted for that plan.  Read the rest here 13:25