Weekly Highlights - December 11, 2017

Alaska Division

• A special agent issued a written warning to an individual for submitting false information on a Subsistence Halibut Registration Certificate. The subject reported that he lived in a qualified rural community when he actually resides in a non-rural area.
• Two enforcement officers issued a $1,250 summary settlement for numerous incidents of prohibited species mishandling.
• The Kodiak office responded to a report of Steller sea lion in a parking lot on the Coast Guard Base in Kodiak. After consulting with Protected Resources, the staff was eventually able to herd the animal out of a parking lot, across a street, over a guardrail, across the Air Station tarmac, and back to the water. The sea lion was estimated to be a female of about 400 pounds. The animal appeared to have some kind of minor injury but was still active enough to be a danger to itself and base personnel. No further reports of the animal have been received.

Northeast Division

• A special agent reviewed a case and will issue a written warning for the importation of sealskin gloves and a tanned sealskin hide.
• An Enforcement Officer led a bluefin tuna patrol in Morehead City and Beaufort, NC. Two federal dealers and 16 vessels were contacted. A U.S. Coast Guard safety violation was detected on one vessel.
• An Enforcement Officer led a bluefin tuna patrol in the Gulf of Maine. Five vessels were boarded. Compliance assistance was provided to for permitting and reporting requirements.

Pacific Islands Division

• An Enforcement Officer along with JEA partners from Guam Department of Agriculture, Law Enforcement Section (DoAg/LES) conducted a Port State Measures investigation of the Japanese flagged longline vessel. The Officers reviewed vessel logs, fishing gear, turtle mitigation gear, and the fish holds. The Officers monitored a 2-day fish offload in which the vessel was re-inspected to ensure all cargo was completely offloaded. No violations were identified.
• An Enforcement Officer and an Alaska-OLE Supervisory Enforcement Officer in American Samoa conducted a PSMA boarding of a carrier vessel docked at Samoa Tuna Processor. The vessel was taking on approximately 2800 Metric Tons of tuna from two foreign-flagged purse seine vessels from Spain. The Officers examined vessel documents, loading charts, and RFMO authorizations. The carrier vessel will head to Kiribati and then on to Ecuador for final offload of the tuna.
• An Enforcement Officer and an Alaska-OLE Supervisory Enforcement Officer provided compliance assistance to the captain of an American Samoa longline-fishing vessel. The vessel’s call sign recently changed but the owner had not updated the new call sign on the vessel. The complaint originated from the local Vessel Monitoring System technician and the Pacific Islands Permit Office.

Southeast Division

• A special agent completed a review of a case submitted by the USCG. The investigation involved a commercial fishing vessel operating with illegal Turtle Excluder Devices and Bycatch Reduction Devices. A written warning was issued.
• Two enforcement officers and a special agent conducted an MMPA patrol on board a NOAA patrol vessel in the St Petersburg and Tampa Bay areas. Another enforcement officer conducted a second MMPA patrol in Choctawhatchee Bay, FL. No violations were noted.
• An enforcement officer conducted 13 individual fishing quota and King Mackerel landing offload audits with no violations detected.

West Coast Division

• An enforcement officer initiated an investigation into an Alaska individual fishing quota halibut vessel not filing a Landing Report within six hours of landing. A Manual Landing Report filed 10 days after the landing resulted in a summary settlement offer issued to the subject in the amount of $2,000.