Feds detail costly enforcement actions

A federal enforcement report submitted to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council includes these case updates:

• F/V Aldebaran — Operator Terry Fisher was charged under the Magnuson‐Stevens Act with assaulting, sexually harassing, and harassing a fisheries observer assigned to his vessel. A $24,000 NOVA (notice of violation and assessment) was issued and the case settled for $21,600.

• C/P Bristol Leader — Owner Bristol Leader Fisheries LLC and operator Joseph Pohl were charged jointly and severally under the Magnuson‐Stevens Act with two counts of conducting directed fishing for Pacific cod in Steller sea lion protection areas. A $34,425 NOVA was issued, and the case settled for $32,025.

• F/V Magnus Martens — Owner Magnus A. Martens LLC and operator Jeb Phillips were charged jointly and severally under the Magnuson‐Stevens Act with operating a vessel in the Bering Sea Pacific cod pot fishery without carrying an operable NMFS‐approved vessel monitoring system and without complying with VMS requirements. A $36,000 NOVA was issued, and the case and the settled for $24,000.

Council thanks Coast Guard for enforcement efforts

Here's the letter.

Fishy activity reported along Russian boundary

The U.S. Coast Guard included the following in its enforcement report to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which is meeting this week in Sitka.

U.S./Russian Maritime Boundary Line (MBL) Enforcement

Foreign F/V activity along the MBL increased dramatically in May. In April, there was less than one vessel per day along the MBL, increasing to an average of 15 vessels per day at the end of May. There have been numerous detections of Russian longline fishing vessels briefly crossing into the U.S. EEZ, but no clear evidence that they were fishing in U.S. waters. There is strong evidence that one Russian trawl vessel repeatedly entered the U.S. EEZ. As a result, the Coast Guard increased surface and air presence along the MBL to deter future incursions. Additionally, the Coast Guard communicated these incursions to the Russian Border Guard for further action.

NMFS discloses costly enforcement actions

A federal enforcement report submitted to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council details several interesting cases, including these:

• F/V Alaskan Lady — In an initial decision issued March 7, 2022, Administrative Law Judge Susan Biro found crewman Eliman S. Bah liable, and imposed a civil penalty of $20,000, for sexually harassing an observer in violation of the Magnuson‐Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson‐Stevens Act). Judge Biro found that Bah harassed the observer both by conduct that had sexual connotations, as well as by otherwise creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment. The judge's decision followed a two‐day hearing that occurred Sept. 1-2, 2021.

• F/V Magnus Martens — Owner Magnus A. Martens LLC and operator Jeb Phillips were charged jointly and severally under the Magnuson‐Stevens Act with operating a vessel in the Bering Sea Pacific cod pot fishery without carrying an operable NMFS‐approved vessel monitoring system (VMS) and without complying with VMS requirements. A $36,000 NOVA (notice of violation and assessment) was issued.

• F/V Cape Kiwanda — Owner B&N Fisheries Co. and operators Ronald Weyburn Naughton and Cory Dehning were charged jointly and severally under Magnuson‐Stevens Act with exceeding the Rockfish Program maximum retainable amount (MRA) for pollock in the Gulf of Alaska. In Count 1, a $1,099.58 penalty was assessed against B&N Fisheries Co. and operator Ronald Weyburn Naughton for exceeding the MRA by 15,815 pounds (a 2,869 percent overage), worth $1,099.58. In Count 2, a $6,502.86 penalty was assessed against B&N Fisheries Co. and operator Cory Dehning for exceeding the MRA by 43,746 pounds (a 729.1 percent overage), worth $3,502.86. A $7,602.44 NOVA was issued, and the case settled for $6,842.20.

• F/V Silver Lady — Vessel co-owners Hammer & Son LLC and Lonnie R. Chestnut and operator/IFQ permit holder William R. Hammer Jr. were charged jointly and severally under the Magnuson‐Stevens Act with unlawfully discarding at least 990 sablefish. A $14,000 NOVA was issued, and the case settled for $12,600.

Two high-dollar enforcement cases disclosed

A federal enforcement report to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, set to meet June 8-10, includes these items:

• AK1708987 — Bradley Stewart Haynes (vessel owner/vessel operator/IFQ permit holder) and Gregory Beam (IFQ permit holder) were charged under the Northern Pacific Halibut Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Act with IFQ two-area violations and for making false statements. A $195,555.34 NOVA (notice of violation and assessment) was issued.

• AK1806496A — A $191,773 Magnuson-Stevens Act NOVA was settled for $177,373. The NOVA charged Bristol Leader Fisheries, LLC and Alaskan Leader Fisheries, LLC (vessel owners) and Curtis Foster (chief engineer) with eight counts of unlawfully making adjustments to the vessel's flow scale.

Feds issue $91K penalty in sablefish case

A federal enforcement report presented last week to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council included this item:

F/V Tribute — IFQ permit holder/operator and vessel owners were charged under the Magnuson-Stevens Act for intentionally making false prior notice of landing reports and signing false landing receipts to conceal IFQ sablefish violations. A $91,472.00 NOVA (Notice of Violation and Assessment) was issued. Case pends.

More on the Mezirow case

We recently posted an item about an enforcement action against Andrew Mezirow, a member of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's Advisory Panel.

When contacted about the matter, Mezirow declined to comment for the record.

Here's the case file, which The Brig requested from the court clerk in Seward.

Big trawl fine among NOAA enforcement cases

At the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's December meeting, federal authorities presented a six-page report listing enforcement cases referred during the year ended Sept. 30, 2009.

Some of the cases on the list remain unresolved as the accused contest the violations.

Others, however, have been settled.

A notable example is an illegal fishing case involving the 296-foot factory trawler Katie Ann, part of the American Seafoods fleet.

Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that on March 17 of last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assessed a civil penalty of $115,219 against the captain of the Katie Ann, Jarl M. Hogseth, and the boat's owner.

Hogseth and the Katie Ann, in March 2007, illegally trawled for Pacific cod in a western Aleutians area reserved for Atka mackerel fishing, the documents say.

To settle the case, Hogseth on April 29 of last year signed an agreement to pay $105,219, with the remaining $10,000 suspended.