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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 32 Number 10
June 2005
Hanlon named head of MA Environmental Police
BOSTON, MA - Jim Hanlon, a 27-year veteran of the Massachusetts Environmental Police (MEP) coastal bureau, has been named director of the entire agency.
The announcement came within weeks of the completion of a comprehensive review of the MEP, formerly known as the Division of Environmental Law Enforcement, and was greeted with enthusiasm by members of the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Commission during their May 5 meeting.
“We’re very pleased that Jim Hanlon was chosen,” said Vito Calomo of Gloucester. “He’s been a really good officer.”
Added commission Chairman Mark Amorello, “We’ll have an excellent director in Jim Hanlon. I’m glad the system worked.”
Hanlon had served as MEP director in an acting capacity since July 2004. Prior to that, he served as the acting head of the coastal bureau for a number of months.
Between the two leadership posts, he was in a position to begin making a number of significant changes for the agency, including beginning to fill some of the agency’s 28 vacancies, 18 of which are in the coastal bureau.
In early May, the MEP announced it had hired 12 new officers – the first new-hires in four-and-a-half years.
“The coast is my top priority,” Hanlon said. “Ten of those 12 new officers are going into the coastal bureau.”
New, fast boats
Hanlon has also begun to modernize the MEP fleet with the addition in May of four new SAFE Boats – two 27-footers and two 31-footers.
The aluminum patrol boats are equipped with full heated cabins for year-round operation, able to easily navigate 5'-8' seas, and can achieve speeds of up to 60 knots.
“These boats are extremely fast. They can get from Boston Harbor to Stellwagen Bank in 15 minutes,” he said. “In this day and age of reduced manpower, I need to be able to get my officers from point A to point B fast.”
In the coming weeks, the SAFE Boats will be stationed to allow for complete coverage of the coast.
One 27-footer will be based in Boston Harbor and the other will be based in the Sandwich Boat Basin to cover the waters from Plymouth to Provincetown.
One 31-footer will be based in Falmouth to cover Nantucket Sound, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. The other will be based in Gloucester to cover the waters from Stellwagen to Boston.
Under Hanlon’s direction, the MEP has also purchased a 38' working lobster boat capable of hauling pots at sea.
Change for better
Hanlon said he believes “hiring new recruits and better equipping them to do their job” will help boost morale among MEP officers.
The MEP’s compliment of 122 officers is divided pretty much evenly between the coastal bureau, which enforces marine fisheries and other marine environmental laws, and the inland bureau, which enforces fish and game and other environmental laws. A number of officers also staff the MEP’s boating safety branch and a hazardous waste unit.
However, Hanlon is clearly committed to bringing Massachusetts’ marine enforcement capabilities up to full capacity.
“I’ll always be involved in fisheries because that’s my background – 27 years as a coastal enforcement officer,” he said. “Having come up through the ranks in the coastal bureau, I can see what needs to be done. Things are going to change, hopefully for the better.”
Lorelei Stevens
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