In Depth, Dan Bacher – Former Marine Life Protection Act science co-chair sentenced to 10 months

A federal judge in San Francisco on May 20 sentenced Ron LeValley of Mad River Biologists, the former co-chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Science Advisory Team for the North Coast, to serve 10 months in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to embezzle over $852,000 in federal funds from the Yurok Tribe. The “marine protected areas” created under the MLPA Initiative fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, water pollution, military testing, seismic testing, wave and wind energy projects, corporate aquaculture and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.  Read more here 15:44

4 Responses to In Depth, Dan Bacher – Former Marine Life Protection Act science co-chair sentenced to 10 months

  1. DickyG says:

    Speaking of Marine Protected Areas and Marine Sanctuaries…
    NOAA and the NGOs seem to love Fishing Sea Lore as long as
    it’s not current. They’re all about undersea exploration of ancient wrecks and they were very much involved in the only surviving wooden whaler, the Charles W. Morgan, being rebuilt and refurbished at Mystic Seaport.

    Now the Morgan is a wonderful old ship and it was really
    great to see her move down the Mystic River. But the $12 million spent on refurbishing a vessel that represents honoring a very out of favor whaling industry is in sharp contrast to the fishing-hostile attitude of some of the very same people and organizations, that were so involved with the Morgan, when it comes to their posture toward a decimated local fishing industry that is currently struggling to survive.

    Our existing fishing fleet vessels are so old they will soon be of
    archaeological interest as well. A dangerously aging fleet is a result of the fact that, aside from the recent successes of the scallop boats, there is no liquidity in the rest of the industry, no available funding.
    There’s no respect from the government regulators, the financial institutions, or the general public for a living fishing industry
    that is supplying millions of tons of clean healthy food.

    In fact, a culture of anti-fishing prejudice persists as a theme in the attitudes of the regulators and in the public’s general opinion of the
    commercial fishing industry. Ironically, this hostile-to-fishing attitude is spawned by some of the same organizations that are now celebrating this iconic representative of the whaling industry.

    NOAA is exploiting the “38th Voyage of the Charles W. Morgan”— bound this summer for whale watching on the Gulf of Maine’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary— as a marketing ploy to shore up their anti-fishing “Marine Sanctuaries” and “endangered species” campaigns for Marine Protected Areas on all our current productive fishing grounds.

    • borehead says:

      The irony of people is interesting.
      They are all excited about Morgan, but seem to forget the reality of her.
      She was a killer, and today, fishermen are paying the price through more protection regulations.
      I wonder if the cruise ship that killed the one in NY harbor will be honored in the future.

  2. borehead says:

    Ya gotta love a guy like Ron. Giving biologists a bad name, everywhere! At least, making a few look over their shoulders, anyway.
    Dan lays it all out there, as he always does. Here are a couple of links to the MLPA grist, and exclusion of fishermen.
    A Parody of Marine Protection – The Oil Industry’s “Marine” Reserves http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/02/the-oil-industrys-marine-reserves/
    Meet Wal-Mart’s Rob Walton – The Worst of the One Percent?
    http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/11/30/the-worst-of-the-one-percent/
    Dan’s a rocker.

    • StripedBassHole says:

      Here we have the Science of Science. It’s Elementary extort it, rub shoulders with the wealthy, sue the Government, manipulate the Rules. Birds of a Feather flock together. They all need to be probed. Preferably with a HOT POKER.

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