NOAA’S SPECIAL AGENTS AND ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS UNDAUNTED BY MISSION

June 15, 2007 — Considering the 3.44 million square miles that comprise federal waters, is twice the size of the entire land mass of the United States, protecting resources withing this marine zone could be seen as a daunting task. However, for the 220 NOAA employees within NOAA Fisheries Service’s Office of Law Enforcement, this is just everyday business.

Enforcing more than 39 federal statues and numerous international treaties, these special agents, enforcement officers and support personnel rely on partnerships. They use help from other federal and state agencies and work with local communities, technology and traditional police skills to protect and conserve the nation’s marine resources.

"Protection of these resources range from stopping salmon poachers on the Columbia River in the Northwest to protecting endangered sea turtles resting on a Hawaiian beach," said OLE Director, Dale Jones." Each year the OLE investigates thosands of violations of federal regulations and statutes."

While a majority of their work focuses on the multi-billion dollar fishing industry, these agents do see a variety of unique and unusual cases.

Unusual OLE Cases
Recently, work by agents in the Northeast resulted in the conviction of two men who smuggled hundreds of sperm whale teeth from Russian into the United States, a violation of both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Another smuggling case from 2004 involved tens of thousands of juvenile leopard sharks poached from California waters and exported to aquaria enthusiasts all over the world. The two-year long investigation led Special Agent Roy Torres to the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Romulus, Mich., and focused on a pastor from the Holy Spirit Association for Unification of World Christianity. The church used its vessels and parishioners to catch the sharks in San Francisco Bay and export them in violation of the Lacey Act, which makes it a federal offense to knowingly sell or purchase fish, wildlife or plants that were captured in violation of any underlying law. In the end, six defendants paid monetary fines, three of them also were sentenced to federal prison, while the remaining three were assessed probation. The church also paid $500,000 as part of a non-prosecution agreement.

The agents and officers are also seeing more falsely labeled seafood in the United States. With the United States ranking third in the world in seafood imports, the temptation for some seafood importers and dealers to mislabel their products in hope of financial gain is ever-present. This false labeling can occur at any phase in the transaction — by the importer hoping to dump illegal product on the market, by the dealer hoping to increase his profits, or by the restaurant hoping to substitute one fish for another and still charge for the higher-value fish.

“Consumers should educate themselves about seafood so they can make educated purchasing decisions,” stated NOAA Special Agent Mark Kinsey of the Southeast Division. “If fish are priced below market value or being sold as fresh fish out of season or if they think the species is not what they paid for, they should ask questions of their suppliers and retailers.”

The OLE works closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and inspectors and state partners to counter these practices and to ensure consumers are getting what they pay for at the seafood market.

NOAA Vessel Monitoring System
This year, the OLE also expanded one of its enforcement tools — the Vessel Monitoring System. VMS allows the OLE to work in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard to effectively patrol vast expanses of ocean. By using a transmitter aboard commercial fishing vessels paired with traditional global positioning satellites, the OLE and the Coast Guard can monitor vessels at sea and determine if they are fishing in closed areas or out of season. As of May 2007, fishermen holding permits for the Gulf of Mexico reef fish fishery were required to install and use VMS on their vessels.

“VMS has great potential to provide for appropriate enforcement and ensure sustainable fisheries in the future,” said Jonathan Pinkerton, NOAA VMS program manager. "It also saves time, money, time and valuable resources."

Nearly 4,500 vessels in 17 fisheries in the United States are currently using VMS. The system continues to improve and expand and has proven to be an effective enforcement tool for protecting depleted fish stocks.

NOAA OLE Patrols
While VMS enhances the range and scope of monitoring fishing vessels at sea — traditional patrols are still needed. OLE officers and agents work closely with other federal, state and tribal partners to patrol our oceans, oceanic rivers, sanctuaries, wetlands, islands, beaches, marshes and estuaries.

Patrols are conducted at sea, in the air and on land by foot, all-terrain vehicles and occasionally on horseback. These patrols and subsequent inspections allow OLE to maintain a presence within fishing communities.

“Salmon are a major issue of importance for us in the Northwest,” said Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge Scot Yamashita, based in Seattle, Wash.“Salmon runs and salmon spawning areas need to be protected from poachers because they are important for both commercial and recreational fishermen as they often determine catch limits for that season.”

And to get up to those headwaters in Oregon, Washington and California, where the salmon spawn, agents sometimes have to get creative. In several instances they’ve ridden horses into back country ravines and even donned wetsuits and snorkels to swim up the rivers.

Patrolling the four NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries off California’s coast and key fishing grounds off Alaska and Hawaii often requires days — not hours — and the use of aircraft. To accomplish this, OLE agents and officers team up with U.S. Coast Guard and Civil Air Patrol personnel assets to perform airborne patrols in search of foreign fishing vessel incursion, illegal fishing and high-seas drift nets.

Other OLE Duties
Not all OLE enforcement work requires adventures into the wilderness. A large portion of an agent and officer’s investigative work requires sifting through logbooks, documents, purchase records, receipts, tax records and computer files.

OLE sworn personnel also search cold-storage warehouses, inspect catches at the docks, conduct interviews and testify in court. OLE agents and officers also conduct undercover operations to infiltrate a smuggling ring or catch fishermen hauling fish out of season.

On any given day an OLE officer in Homer, Alaska, may be braving below zero temperatures to inspect a halibut off-load, while thousands of miles away an OLE agent may be undercover on a whale watching boat ensuring compliance with Marine Mammal Protection Act guidelines. Meanwhile, agents in New Jersey might be monitoring the opening of scallop season through VMS, while down in Puerto Rico an OLE agent is at the docks monitoring weigh-ins from an international fishing tournament.

Life for an OLE employee has never been deemed easy, but then again it’s also never dull.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Fisheries Service

NOAA Fisheries Service Office for Law Enforcement

Media Contact:
Mark Oswell, NOAA Fisheries Service Office for Law Enforcement, (301) 427-2300