Department of Commerce
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
National Marine Fisheries Service
- Office of Law Enforcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 18, 2007

ALASKAN FISHERMAN PAYS PENALTY, AGREES TO VESSEL MONITORING SYSTEM FOR QUOTA VIOLATION

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has entered into a settlement agreement with individual fishing quota permit holder Fred Currier of Homer, Alaska, to resolve a violation. Currier was charged for the infraction of misreporting the area where his halibut individual fishing quota (IFQ) was caught when he landed the fish on Sept. 18, 2006.

In the settlement agreement, Currier admitted to the charged violation and accepted a liability of $25,000, the penalty assessed by NOAA. In addition, the proceeds from the halibut harvested in the prohibited area were forfeited to the government, in the amount of $27,000. Currier also agreed to install and operate a vessel monitoring system (VMS) on any vessel that he operates under his IFQ for the next four years. This is the first time VMS has been required as a compliance measure in an IFQ case. In accordance with the agreement, the government also suspended $10,000 of the $25,000 civil penalty for a period of four years on the condition that Currier has no further IFQ violations during that period.

“Area misreporting hurts both the integrity of the IFQ program and other individual IFQ fishermen,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Kevin Heck with the Office of Law Enforcement at NOAA Fisheries Service. “Requiring a monitoring system to be installed on the violator's vessel is the perfect response to this type of violation, and is the most significant part of this settlement.”

The IFQ program is a system of managing Pacific halibut and sablefish fixed-gear commercial fisheries through a direct allocation based on individually held quota shares. Fishermen know at the beginning of the fishing season the amount of catch they are allotted and the specific regulatory area from which that allotment can be harvested. Some of the noted benefits of the program include safer fishing conditions, improved product quality and alleviation of the overcapitalization of the fisheries.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation.  From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.