Tag Archives: NOAA Law Enforcement
Man jailed 47 days for illegal lobsters
The Gloucester man caught landing 230 illegal lobsters in two separate incidents — 183 in one case, 47 in the other — now is essentially paying for his most recent crime by spending what amounts to as a day in jail for each illegal crustacean. James A. Santapaola Jr., 42, of 16 Forest Lane, has begun serving 47 days in Middleton Jail after he entered guilty pleas to 28 counts of possession of illegally short lobsters and 19 other counts related his possession of 16 V-notched lobsters and three oversized lobsters among his illegal landings. >click to read<08:19
Lobsterman back in court – Only $720 of $10K fine paid for illegal lobsters
When James A. Santapaola Jr. got nabbed landing 183 illegal lobsters at a local lobster wholesaler two years ago, the Gloucester lobsterman eventually cut a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to 20 of the counts and pay two fines totaling $10,050. Now, nearly two years after the plea deal, Santapaola Jr. — who was arrested again last week on charges of possessing 47 illegal lobsters — has paid only $720 of the $10,050 in fines, according to the clerk’s office at the Gloucester District Court. ,,, The haul, according to law enforcement reports, included 28 undersized lobsters, 16 V-notched females and three oversized lobsters.>click to read<20:48
A little story about my day at sea yesterday
So we leave to go fishing at 0330 with an observer that the government forces us to take. Now the young man is a likable enough guy who I have no problem with. The problem is we are forced to take these people with no exception. When they tell you they are going to put one on your boat you either take them or you deal with the wrath of NOAA law enforcement. So we go out with the plan of going to catch some scup, fluke and sea bass to unload in Connecticut. We had some nice scup the day before and figured we would get CT’s allowance which is a whopping 1200 pounds of scup, 75 lbs. of fluke and 10 sea bass in count. So we make a couple of tows and come up a bit light on the scup but have the fluke and sea bass. We go and unload ion CT. and on the way there, which happens to be a 2 hour+ steam each way I am informed that the scup that we landed the previous day which had been paying around 60 cents per pound had dropped to 10 to 15 cents per pound. Not even worth the fuel to catch. WONDERFUL. So we go all the way to CT. , unload our catch and head back another 2+ hours for home. After we get back to our dock, I and my crewman are cleaning up the boat and we notice someone on the dock with a camera taking pictures of us as he walks by. No big deal.,,, Click here to read the story 10:24
NOAA Law Enforcement Investigative Work
NOAA special agents and enforcement officers handle more than 3,000 seafood fraud, marine mammal protection and fisheries-related incidents per year in the United States. This video focuses on the investigative work of NOAA Office of Law Enforcement special agents.11:51
