Weekly Highlights - March 22, 2019
Read about this week's enforcement actions from around the country.
Alaska
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An Enforcement Officer conducted a patrol on board the USCGC John McCormick in support of the 2019 Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) opener. Three joint IFQ Halibut boardings were conducted. One joint boarding was conducted on a seine vessel awaiting participation in the Sitka herring fishery.
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An Enforcement Officer conducted a joint air patrol with Coast Guard Helo 6015 from Air Station Sitka to monitor the opening of the IFQ season for halibut and sablefish. Officers documented the locations of IFQ vessels and fishing gear and permits fished.
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An Enforcement Officer and Alaska Wildlife Troopers on board P/V Stimson began a 23-day patrol from Kodiak. The joint boarding crew boarded multiple vessels at sea and dockside, inspected a shore side processor. The team identified several minor state and federal violations.
West Coast
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An agent closed several incidents involving referrals that originated from the Northwest Fisheries Science Center and National Seafood Inspection Lab/Trade Monitoring Program. The enforcement referrals identified several fish businesses and importers of swordfish that were delinquent in providing Economic Data Collection forms and/or bi-weekly swordfish import records. The agent assigned to the cases worked with company representatives to explain the importance of submitting the missing documents within regulatory timeframes, secured the missing documents and brought each business back into compliance.
Pacific Islands
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Two Enforcement Officers participated in an outreach event at the Criminal Justice Expo at Chaminade University of Honolulu. Participants at the event included college students majoring in Criminal Justice and Health Science. Various federal laws and regulations about marine conservation were discussed with the students.