$260,000 in sablefish sanctions

From the NOAA Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement, in a report to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council for the period January to June:

Tri Fish LLC, Barry McKee and Michael Lang, owners of the Alaskan fishing vessel TRIDENT, have agreed to pay $10,000 for the false reporting of areas fished by the master of their vessel. Lang also had all of his Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands sablefish IFQ suspended for the 2010 fishing season, and McKee had all of his Aleutian Islands sablefish IFQ suspended for 2010. Both McKee and Lang had their hired skipper privileges revoked for one year. Under a separate settlement agreement, the vessel operator, Kenneth Spjut,is barred from serving as the captain of a fishing vessel on the West Coast of the United States for five years.

In a separate enforcement action, an IFQ permit holder was cited for falsely reporting where the vessel fished, paid an $8,265 penalty, and had 2,000 pounds of his Western Gulf sablefish suspended for one year.

The total value of penalties and sanctioned IFQ/quota shares in the two cases is approximately $260,000.