Tag Archives: in U.S. District Court

Fishermen indicted in federal court for alleged fraud, violation of herring laws face September trial

A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 23 in U.S. District Court regarding trial scheduling and a motion to continue for the fishermen and seafood dealers who were indicted in 2022 with conspiracy, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice in connection with a multi-year scheme to sell unreported Atlantic herring and falsify fishing records. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Sept. 5. The trial is anticipated for September and expected to last two weeks. According to the indictment, between June 2016 and September 2019, the owner, captains, and crew aboard the fishing vessel Western Sea sold more than 2.6 million pounds of Atlantic herring that was not reported to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The indictment alleges that members of the crew were paid directly by fish dealers and lobster vessel operators for the unreported herring. >click to read< 12:56

Alaska tribal groups sue federal fisheries managers, seeking action on salmon crisis

Two of Alaska’s largest tribal groups have sued the federal government, alleging federal regulators are mismanaging Alaska’s billion-dollar pollock and cod fishery amid an ongoing salmon crisis in central and southwestern Alaska. The Association of Village Council Presidents, which includes 56 tribes in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta, and the Tanana Chiefs Conference, which includes 42 tribes in Interior Alaska, filed suit Friday in U.S. District Court against the National Marine Fisheries Service and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.  The two tribal groups are asking a federal judge to require the agency to update the assessments used to set catch limits for federally managed groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. >click to read<  14:57