Tag Archives: NOAA’s Office of General Counsel

NOAA OLE closes a successful investigation after numerous Observers filed complaints against an Alaskan-based vessel

“This was a large, time consuming investigation involving many violations, victims, and witnesses,” said Kevin Heck, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of OLE’s Alaska Division. NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement began receiving complaints filed by Observers1 about the Aleutian Sable, owned by Arctic Sablefish, LLC, in 2013. A case file was opened and officers began communicating with one of the vessel’s operators, Jay Hebert, and closely monitoring the vessel for compliance purposes. Complaints and violations continued to pile up through October 2014. Once the investigation was complete, OLE investigators forwarded the case package to NOAA’s Office of General Counsel for prosecution. On March 8, 2016, a Notice of Violation and Assessment of Administrative Penalty (NOVA) was issued to the owner and operator of the F/V Aleutian Sable. The NOVA charged the following eight counts of violations under the Magnuson‐Stevens Act Read the rest here 09:28

From the Deckboss – Feds and American Seafoods are talking – pinched for “essentially stealing fish,”

Last week brought news of some big enforcement actions against American Seafoods, the top operator of pollock factory trawlers in the Bering Sea. The company is facing more than $2.7 million in fines for allegedly shorting catch weights, or “essentially stealing fish,” in the words of federal authorities. continued