National Marine Fisheries Service
Alaska Region
NEWS RELEASE

PERMIT SANCTION IMPOSED AGAINST ALASKAN FISHERMAN

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of General Counsel in Juneau announces that on January 1, 1999, Richard A. Newby of Anchorage, Alaska, entered into a settlement agreement with NOAA to resolve violations for failure to obtain a Vessel Moratorium permit before engaging in the red king crab fishery. Pursuant to the settlement agreement, Mr. Newby admits to the charged violation and accepts a permit sanction for one week of the next red king crab fishery.

The violations were discovered in January of 1999 when NOAA Fisheries agent Ken Hansen was cross-checking a list of vessel moratorium-qualified vessels with vessels with landings of C. opilio tanner crab. Agent Hansen discovered that Newby had landed red king, blue king and opilio tanner crab in 1997 and 1998 without a vessel moratorium permit. The case was pursued by NOAA’s Office of the General Counsel. According to Assistant-Special-Agent-in-Charge Hansen, “Fishermen can’t legally conduct directed fish for crab or groundfish without having a License Limitation permit on board the vessel. If you’re commercially fishing for any License Limitation species without a permit, you’re robbing other fishermen of their share of the resource and you can expect severe enforcement action to be taken against you.”

The vessel moratorium program was an interim program for limiting access to the groundfish and crab fisheries. That program expired on December 31, 1999, and the License Limitation program took effect on January 1, 2000. The License Limitation program permits fishing for crab and groundfish species based on past documented harvests made by each fishermen. Both programs are intended to increase safety for fishermen and alleviate overcapitalization of the fisheries.

NOAA Fisheries, also referred to as the National Marine Fisheries Service, is an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States Department of Commerce. The agency conducts scientific research and provides services and products to support fisheries management, fisheries development, trade and industry assistance, enforcement, and protected species and habitat conservation programs.