Opinion piece on NOAA in local Portland paper.

[boot]

NOAA moves from being a joke to truly dangerous
The Portland Daily Sun
By Curtis Robinson
Mar 17, 2011 12:00 am

For fans of Dirk Pitt, the James Bond-ish hero of all those Clive Cussler novels, it was often a pleasant surprise when we discovered there really was a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. What a shame that leadership of the agency has evolved from a national joke to a seriously dangerous rogue bureaucracy.

Think not? We’ll get to their crimes against New England fishermen soon enough, but let’s just start with the BP spill in the Gulf. When “the federal government” made those lowball early spill estimates, that was NOAA. When the government announced “the vast majority of oil was gone” when it clearly wasn’t, that was NOAA.

Around the Gulf, the agency has pretty much replaced FEMA as the icon of inept federal presence, and that took some doing. Playing the role of FEMA director Michael D. “heck of a job” Brownie in this debacle is NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, who was ushered into the job by a warm media embrace but has proven that running these agencies is not for the inexperienced.

This week, in the kind of comprehensive damage control response Gulf residents could only wish for during the BP disaster, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke “... announced that he would allow fishermen and businesses until May 6, 2011 to submit complaints about potentially excessive enforcement penalties to the Special Master for review, as well as request stays of their penalties as part of the complaint process. This is part of a series of ongoing improvements to NOAA’s Law Enforcement System. The Secretary and NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco also announced policy changes aimed at strengthening, simplifying and improving both the enforcement and regulatory process for fishermen and businesses.”

All that official-speak comes as NOAA faces repeated cries for a special prosecutor to look into its practices. The Obama Administration has found the allegations hard to ignore, especially when a February "60 Minutes" report noted a few investigative items, like:

• The {Dept. of Commerce} Inspector General found that $30 million the fishermen paid in fines went to a NOAA fund with no oversight. The fund was used by regulators to buy more cars (202) than agents (172) and for trips to fishing conferences in exotic locales such as Australia, Malaysia and Norway. It was also used to purchase a $300,000 ‘luxury vessel’ used by government employees for ‘fishing trips.’"

• NOAA officials in Washington had a "shredding party" destroying garbage bags full of documents. The shredding truck pulled up right outside NOAA's enforcement headquarters, where the agency's top cop later admitted he destroyed 75 percent to 80 percent of his total files.

• As an example of NOAA abuse, in 2009 NOAA fined a fisheman $19,000 for catching about 20 extra codfish — nearly three years after he caught them. A fine, he says, that destroyed his one-man operation.

Here’s an example of how bad it’s become. Sen. John Kerry is calling the Obama Administration out on fishing issues and promising to hold field meetings of his powerful Senate Commerce Committee “somewhere in Massachusetts.”

Meanwhile, the fishing industry's feelings — at least those that can be expressed in polite society — were conveyed in recent testimony before a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee subcommittee when Vito Giacalone, the policy director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, described a common New England perception that enforcement has been an “improper scheme” involving government officials, recreational fishing interests and "the pro-catch share environmental community, and perhaps NOAA itself."

Most of the issues swirl around a NOAA program called catch-share that NOAA’s Lubchenco has made a cornerstone of her policy. Sen. Kerry and others say the result of the allotment policy has been to destroy smaller fishing operations at the benefit of large companies and consolidate the industry. The senator even says it’s time for NOAA to admit failure.

How does that fit into enforcement abuse? NOAA critics say the abuse was just to get them on-board with the new regulations or get rid of their operations.

So the debate here isn’t about fishing policy, any more than Watergate was about hotel security. It’s about how long an administration that campaigned on transparency and advocacy for common folks tolerates leadership of an agency that blows millions of dollars of fines on cars and yachts and then shreds documents in the face of an investigation.

And, oh yeah, and it's the same agency that first lies about how much oil BP is pumping into the Gulf, then lies about how much is left. And while Sen. Kerry doesn’t use the term “lie,” he has complained that the NOAA fisheries service provided information that did not "accurately" reflect the status of the fishery while “improperly withholding market reports and other data on the catch share regimen now nearing the end of its rollout year.”

Meanwhile, fishing regulation, of course, continues, and Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree is asking the nation’s top fisheries regulator to “... hold a hearing in Maine and allow more time for comment on proposed bluefin tuna fishing regulations. “

Says Pingree in a press announcement: “The Obama Administration is proposing rules that would impact Maine fishermen, but aren’t giving Maine fishermen a chance to weigh in on the rules without having to drive to Massachusetts for a hearing next week... dropping everything and going to Gloucester with no more than a week’s notice just isn’t practical for many commercial fishermen.”

You may recall that last year Pingree criticized the Obama Administration for considering an endangered species listing for bluefin tuna.

“I’m concerned that the Administration isn’t in touch with what is actually happening in Maine,” Pingree said. “For decades Maine tuna fishermen have acted responsibly, they’ve conducted research at their own expense and done everything they can to make sure that tuna aren’t over fished. Now I’m concerned that they will be subjected to unnecessary regulations that could put them out of business.”

No kidding. For my money, I’d take the consensus from any pre-dawn breakfast crowd at Becky’s over every fishing policy expert inside the Beltway. It’s hard to imagine the horror that rank-and-file NOAA employees must feel as the Keystone Cops convert their once-proud agency into the next “Minerals Management Service.”

Now, it seems the only question remaining is how long it takes President Obama to embrace some older fishing policy insight and wisdom: The fish always rots from the head.

(Curtis Robinson is editor of The Portland Daily Sun. Contact him at curtis@portlanddailysun.me.)

[Screamin' Seamen]

Good article. I remember reading last month about the 75-80% of files being shredded. Pretty outrageous!! "...one NOAA official admitted to shredding "75 percent to 80 percent" OF HIS TOTAL FILES. An investigation of that incident found it violated five federal laws but found no evidence of obstructing of justice." NO EVIDENCE OF OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE!? Thats what happens when the government investigates the government I guess.


CBS Evening News February 16, 2011
American Fishermen Caught in Net of Regulations
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/articl...hredding-party
NOAA Fined One Fisherman $19,000 for Catching About 20 Extra Codfish


CBSNews) For 37 years the waters off the coast of Mass. were a way of life for fishermen Bill Lee. Then, without warning - it all changed.


"NOAA took a career that I enjoyed and put me out of business," Lee said. "And laughed all the way to the bank."


NOAA is short for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - the federal agency that oversees the $3.9 billion dollar fishing industry.


CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports in 2009 NOAA fined Lee $19,000 for catching about 20 extra codfish - nearly three years after he caught them. A fine, he says, that destroyed his one-man operation.


"They just took it away," Lee said.


Now dozens of New England fishermen charge their livelihood is at risk. Sinking under the weight of 700 pages of confusing federal regulations.


"You almost have to have a college degree to understand what's really going on in this industry," said fisherman Richard Burgess.


Burgess said NOAA told him he had to pay $27,000 because of a problem with his paperwork.


"They just said if I tried to fight it and it goes in front of one of their judges - that I most likely - the fine will be between $120,000-$140,000," Burgess said.


An investigation by the Commerce Department's Inspector General found the regulations were "unduly complicated." Federal agents "overzealous" and "abusive." Excessive fines including one for $270,000 for "administrative errors."


"We're honest hard-working people," Burgess said. "And we have been treated as common criminals."


The inspector general found the $30 million the fishermen paid in fines went to a NOAA fund with no oversight. The fund was used by regulators to buy more cars (202) than agents (172,) and for trips to fishing conferences in exotic locales such as Australia, Malaysia and Norway. It was also used to purchase a $300,000 "luxury vessel" used by government employees for "fishing trips."


And according to this memo obtained by CBS News while under investigation NOAA officials in Washington had a "shredding party" destroying garbage bags full of documents.


The shredding truck pulled up right outside NOAA's enforcement headquarters, where the agency's top cop later admitted he destroyed 75 percent to 80 percent of his total files.


An investigation found the shredding violated five federal regulations but found no evidence of obstructing justice. The man was later removed from his job but remains at NOAA as an analyst, still making a six figure salary.


Eric Schwaab is the new head of Fisheries at NOAA. He came to the agency last February from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources armed with a mandate for change.

"We have worked hard over the last year to identify those problems and address those problems and to rebuild that trusting and productive relationship that we need with fishermen," Schwaab said.


For some, like Sen. Charles Grassley, change can't come soon enough.


"I want to make sure that heads roll," Sen. Grassley said. "Because you know in a bureaucracy, if heads don't roll, you don't change behavior.


Now a judge is reviewing at least 31 cases of fishermen caught up in the government's net to see if some of the fines should be returned.

[gmoney]

was about to post the same tidbit about the shredding when I saw it had already been posted. glad I'm not the only one who had that jump out at me.