Dominican Republic

A boat captain from the Dominican Republic has to pay some $50,000 in fines after he and his 28 crewman pleaded guilty to numerous infractions and violations of fisheries law.

Captain Eduardo Diaz and his 28 member crew were brought before Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethel yesterday. They literally had the book thrown at them in terms of violations. They were charged with engaging in foreign fishing, possession of prohibited apparatus, posession of undersized crawfish and grouper.

The court dockets state that on the 11th of October the men were discovered fishing in waters belonging to the Bahamas, aboard the small fishing boat “Adrian I”

The fishing boat was caught by a Cutter with the United States Coast Guard to the east of Ragged Island in the Columbus Bank.

It was reported that the men were carrying quite an odd assortment of illegal things such as nine air compressors, nine spear guns, a large portion of undersized crawfish and some one and a half tons of grouper which weighed less than two kilograms each.

The captain and crew of the “Adrian I”, with the aid of a translator, plead guilty to all charges laid against them. Magistrate Bethel went a little more lenient on them than the circumstances provided for, as they did not waste any of the court’s time.

Diaz, being the captain, was given a choice; cough up the $50,000 fine, or spend a year in jail, his crew was immediately deported, and all equipment confiscated. There was no mention as to whether he would get to keep the “Adrian I” or not, but one imagines he might sell it to pay for the fine.

Handcuffs

A Japanese company was caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They were caught in one of the biggest fisheries bust in New Zealand, illegally reeling in 600 tonnes of fish.

The Fisheries ministry has said that Kanai Fisheries Company, Aurora Fisheries, a New Zealand fishing company, and four Japanese Citizens have pleaded guilt to a combine 54 charges in the Wellington district court.

Each charge means a hefty fine of up to $250,000, bringing the possible total to a staggering $1,350,000 in damages, not including other penalties.

Andrew Coleman, the Fisheries Ministry’s field operations deputy chief executive, has commented that the operation lasted almost two years, involved 25 staff, and was the biggest operation in the history of the organization.

He went on to comment that the Japanese company bought out part of Aurora Fisheries quota which in turned allowed them to fish in New Zealand waters.

Tomi Maru 87, the company’s fishing boat, then proceeded to catch 112 tonnes of silver warehou and 481 tonnes of ling in a short two year period. The problem is that the area where the fish were reeled in was off the southern coast of the South Island, and outside of Aurora’s quota area.

However the company reported that the fish were caught well inside these boundaries. The export value of the ill gotten fish was estimated to be in the vicinity of $2.4 Million.

It should be noted that even though a guilty plea has been entered, does not mean any convictions will be made… Only time will tell.

BOSTON – The fishery police underwent an audit recently to see how they were using the federal fines they collected. It has been discovered that the fines collected from fisherman were spent on things such as cars for managers, and a week long training seminars in Norway.

The audit were released to the public on Thursday, and was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s inspector general, when it discovered incongruities in the management of fines by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s law enforcement office.

Inspector General Todd Zinser started the audio after the slew of complaints fisherman were filing every year about the arbitrary enforcement of the fishery laws, they claimed that the fines were being collected solely for the personal use of the NOAA.

Richard Burgess, a fisherman from Gloucester who is fighting $85,000 in fines, has said that the NOAA should cough up the money, and return it to its rightful owners.
“We’ve all known that they’re criminals,” Burgess stated in front of the law enforcement office. “Every one of them has got to go.”

Some surprising things were found out about the fund where the fines and penalties collected were deposited. The funds went to the Asset Forfeiture fund, and is managed by the accounting firm KPMG. Zinser has stated that the fund is so poorly managed, that it isn’t even listed in the NOAA’s annual budget documents. It is not known if this oversight was an accident or perfectly planned.

In a memo Zinser wrote to the NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco he stated “NOAA has administered the [fund] in a manner that is neither transparent nor conducive to accountability, thus rendering it susceptible to both error and abuse,”

The audit also revealed the fact that between January 2005 and June 2009, $96 Million was deposited into the fund, expenditure for the same time is supposed to be $49 Million. This is suggesting that the balance of the fund should contain a lot more than the NOAA’s estimate of $8.4 Million.

Scott Smullen, NOAA spokesman, has said that the fund had an $8.8 Million balance as of June 14th. He stated “There may have been a misinterpretation by KPMG when it estimated how much money came into the fund in recent years.” Smullen divulged that the NOAA gave KPMG in the neighborhood of 5 million electronic records, at its request, including receipts for the entire agency, of which only a small amount actually involved the fund.

The above fact is what may have led to the confusion of the fund balance. Smullen added that the agency is hoping to clear up any misunderstandings and discrepancies by making sure that both KPMG and the Commerce Department receive the correct information.

The NOAA has released a statement saying that it has already taken steps to make sure something like that does not happen again in the future, including shifting the management of the fund to NOAA’s conptroller and requiring the conptroller to give authorization of any spending which is over $1,000.

A married couple based in Florida Keys have been sentenced to prison for lobster poaching and will have to pay 1.1 million USD to restore the marine sanctuary in which they carried out their illegal activities.

The husband was sentenced to 30 months in prison since he was he was deemed to be the ringleader while his wife got away with 7 months in prison and 7 months of house arrest. They will also forfeit three vessels and three vehicles. In a parallel civil action, the couple was ordered to pay $1.1 million toward the restoration of coral and sea grasses in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

The couple was indicted last year on a conspiracy charge together with four other lobster-poachers. The six were arrested on the first day of the lobster season after federal agents caught them using hut-like ”casitas” to illegally harvest spiny lobsters from the sanctuary.

In the government’s probe, dubbed Operation Freezer Burn, agents found that the poaching – which had been carried out for two days – had resulted in 1,187 spiny lobsters being caught and stored in freezers at the couple’s home. According to the investigation, the retail market value for such a catch is $21,662 USD.

The couple and three others pleaded guilty, while one defendant was convicted at trial. The couple is expected to raise the money by selling their Cudjoe Key home and another property on Little Torch Key.

The European River Otter (Lutra lutra) which was once almost eradicated from British waters is beginning to make a come-back thanks to improved environmental care and the reintroduction of captive-bred specimens.

Now, anglers and fishing clubs are calling for more research, governmentally funded fences, and – in some cases – even the right to cull otters. Some fishing clubs have already closed down after having their stocks devoured by otters, while others have been forced to lower their fees since they have less fish to offer than before. Clubs are also spending thousands of pounds on restocking their ponds.

Until the 1970s, otters were hunted in the kingdom using special otter hounds, and the population also suffered greatly from the consequences of habitat destruction and pollution. The use of pesticides proved especially fatal and in the 1970s the population was almost completely gone. Thanks to pollution control, habitat restoration, and a ban on otter hunting, the UK has however once again became a favourable country for this aquatic predator and the reintroduction of captive-bred have proven highly successful. Otters are now living even in urban rivers.

Dr Tony Mitchell-Jones, a mammal specialist from Natural England, said that otters had been released into the wild at the rate of more than seven a year between 1983 and 1999, but that no captive-bred otters had been released since then.

When the last large-scale survey was carried out in 2003, the European river otter was found in more than five times as many areas as in 1979.

On June 9, a meeting will take place in Hemel Hempstead were representatives of the Angling Trust, the Environment Agency, Natural England, and the Countryside Council for Wales will discuss the issue of otters competing with anglers for fish. The Angling Trust has announced that they will exact government support for special otter fences in an effort to quieten calls for a cull.

Mark Lloyd, the chief executive, said: “What we need is public funding for fencing because fisheries are important economic units that provide people with their livelihoods. What has to be stressed is that anglers are not anti-otter. If I see one when I’m fishing on a river it makes my day.”

Nick Pottle, secretary of the Lakeside angling club, near Lowestoft, said: “Our lake is now all but empty of fish, we have two families of otters that have cleared the fish out. The Environment Agency say we must put up a fence to stop the otters at our expense as we would not qualify for a grant. That is the end of our club.”

The Angling Times, a journal for sport fishers, are calling for more research into otter predation. Richard Lee, its editor, said: “The slaughter of these animals has been driven underground. It is already going on. If you watch £20,000 worth of stock disappear in just a few days – what are the owners going to do? We are desperate for research so the issue is fully understood. We don’t want random culling. But we want to stop fisheries’ owners taking the law into their own hands. We need some proper research with all the options on the table.”

One of the reasons behind the belligerent situation may be another man-made environmental problem: the disappearance of the eels. During recent years, the number of eels has fallen dramatically in British waters. Eels are the otter’s staple diet and as long as there are plenty of eels the risk of otters attacking trout, salmon, pike, and similar species is low. However, as the eel population wanes the otters are forced to look elsewhere for food – causing confrontations between them and fishermen who do not like to see vast amounts of highly prized fish species ending up in the belly of an otter.

Many anglers refuse to publicly discuss otter hunting, fearing that public opinion will turn against them if they openly call for culling. On of few anglers openly arguing in favour of culling is Ian Chillcott, one of the country’s leading coarse anglers and a fishing writer. “Fisheries are being absolutely destroyed by these cuddly, little murdering blighters”, Chillcott said. “Livelihoods are being ruined but everyone is afraid to use the word ‘culling’. No one wants widespread mass slaughter, but there is a need for very targeted culling. It has to be done in a controlled way and not indiscriminate. No one wants to get rid of them, just for them to be better managed.”

Mitchell-Jones does not think that licensed killing of otters will take place anytime soon.

“Things are looking much better for the otter but it is not yet back everywhere it should be. Control of otter populations is likely to be discussed at the meeting tomorrow. I’m not going to prejudge the situation but there is a presumption against the licensing of killing of protected species unless there are extremely good reasons for doing so. For culling, you would have to show that the control would contribute to the solution of a problem.”

In the mean time, there are indications of some landowners and fishermen taking the law into their own hands. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act it is an offence to kill an otter, punishable by a £5,000 fine or six months in prison. Otters can only be hunted with a special licence and not a single one of these licenses has been issued. Despite this, some anglers have told reporters of otter hunting taking place in the British countryside.

Two years after destroying part of the Belize barrier reef, an U.S. skipper has been ordered by a Belize court to pay BZ$3.4 million, roughly equivalent of US$1.7 million, for the damage.

On May 2, 2007, the skipper was trying to reach harbour in his double hull catamaran when it ran aground in the Lighthouse Reef Atoll, causing damage to a piece of the reef measuring 125 feet by 75 feet.

Belizean magistrate Ed Usher ruled that the skipper did not exercise due diligence in navigating the atoll. Since the catamaran was so large, 37 feet x 21 feet, the person in charge should have hired a pilot and sufficient crew to navigate the reef safely. By neglecting to do so, the skipper recklessly caused a disaster that resulted in a loss to the environment.

The skipper must pay BZ$50,000 (US$25,000) within two months, but have been given a five year respite for the remainder of the fine. His catamaran, estimated to be worth around US$300,000, will however be held by Belizean authorities until he comes up with the money.

American fishing captain Linda Greenlaw, best known for her depiction in the book “The Perfect Storm” and the film on which it was based, has been convicted of illegally entering and fishing in Canadian waters.

Greenlaw and her boat the Sea Hawk was spotted by a Canadian fisheries patrol plane last September, with fishing lines running five miles (roughly eight kilometres) into Canadian waters.

According to Greenlaw, she had mistakenly entered Canadian waters without realising it while searching for swordfish.

“This line, which is drawn on a piece of paper, you can’t see it when you’re fishing and working on deck,” Greenlaw said outside the provincial court of St. John’s. “There’s no fence. There’s no blinking lights.”

Judge Joe Woodrow said he believed that Greenlaw had made an honest mistake, but that it was a mistake a reasonable skipper would not have made, because she should have checked her GPS equipment. Greenlaw was therefore convicted on counts of illegally entering Canadian waters and illegally fishing there.

The Crown wants Greenlaw to be fined $50,000, while her lawyer is recommending half of that amount.

Greenlaw provided key information about a fatal 1991 storm in the Atlantic for the book “The Perfect Storm” by journalist Sebastian Junger. When the book was turned into a movie starring George Cloney and Mark Wahlberg, Greenlaw was portrayed by actor Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.