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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 9
May 2009
OLE chief urges industry to report enforcement concerns
MYSTIC, CT – Officials within the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Northeast Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) have taken seriously several allegations made by the Massachusetts Legislature regarding potentially inappropriate behavior by OLE agents.
Eighteen prominent state legislators accused enforcement agents of being “overzealous,” “heavy handed,” and “vindictive,” among other things. In a Feb. 26 letter to US Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), US Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), and three Massachusetts congressmen, they called for a US Inspector General investigation into enforcement practices (see CFN April 2008 for details).
Andy Cohen, special agent in charge of OLE’s Northeast division, addressed the allegations head-on during the April 7-9 meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council.
After learning of the legislators’ concerns, Cohen said he and other top OLE officials made internal inquiries, which did not seem to support the claims.
“I’m unaware of this kind of behavior,” he said. “But if any of these are true, I need to know about it. We expect nothing less than professional behavior from our special agents.”
All agents are required to work within the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics and established OLE policy, he said. Furthermore, the NMFS Office of Law Enforcement is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies and operates under “best professional practices.”
Industry in compliance
In order to assess the scope of the Northeast enforcement division’s work, Cohen said he and his staff ran a three-year comparison of the number of permitted vessels and number of fishing trips taken by fishermen against the number of investigations made by OLE agents and penalties assessed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of General Counsel for Enforcement and Litigation.
The analysis showed that in 2008:
l 5,400 federally permitted fishing vessels made 128,266 trips;
l The Northeast enforcement division opened 498 investigations resulting in the issuance of 111 notices of violation and assessment (NOVAs); and
l 2.04% of the fleet was found to be in violation, resulting in the assessment of $899,591 in penalties, which amounted to less than 1% of the $713,474,060 total value of all fish and shellfish landed in 2008 by federally permitted vessels.
“This says to me that the vast majority of the people in the industry are following the rules,” said Cohen.
“The results indicate high compliance with regulations and balanced enforcement, so to think that we are out there targeting everyone for everything is simply not the case,” he said.
Report concerns
Cohen encouraged anyone subjected to or witnessing inappropriate behavior by an OLE agent to contact him and the Northeast division. Procedures for filing a complaint are posted on the division’s web site at <www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ole/cc.html>.
The site explains that all reports may remain confidential, but “OLE personnel have been instructed to make every effort to obtain contact information to allow us to conduct a thorough investigation into the alleged violation.”
Complaints can be phoned in, made in person, mailed, or submitted electronically on the web site. Anyone needing more information or wanting to speak to someone personally can call Cohen’s office at (978) 281-9213.
Also, anyone wanting to view the “best professional practices” associated with accreditation can go to <www.calea.org>.
Cohen said he and his office would support an investigation by the Inspector General as requested by Massachusetts legislators.
“I welcome the scrutiny,” he said. “I am really confident that the closer people look at the law enforcement program in the Northeast, they will see that we are committed to enforcing federal fisheries regulations in a fair, consistent, and equitable manner.”
Janice M. Plante
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