While executives at the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction in Gloucester, Mass., are not saying how they will respond to a 10-day suspension of their business by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, they are fighting it in court.
Because of the impending NOAA sanction, Gloucester Auction owner Larry Ciulla is not responding to media calls, according to a company receptionist. The auction must inform NOAA by 24 June if there is any legal reason it should not face the 10-day closure. If there is none, the auction must determine when — up until July 13 — it will begin the 10-day sanction.
NOAA charged the Gloucester auction with buying illegal cod and falsifying records in 2000, and also in 2004 after the auction violated terms of the first settlement by falsifying records again, according to NOAA.
“They negotiated with us [as part of the settlement] that they would serve these 10 days,” said Mitch Macdonald, enforcement attorney with NOAA.
Even though the auction appealed the second charge to NOAA, the agency found that it had violated probation in April. The auction appealed the case to U.S. District Court, which has not rendered a decision on the case. In the 2000 case, the auction was found to have purchased illegal cod on nine occasions, totaling 20,691 pounds during a three-month period from July to September 2000.
In addition, the company falsified 35 records in an attempt to cover up those illegal purchases, according to NOAA. The auction was assessed a civil penalty of USD 125,000 (EUR 89,377) and a 60-day permit sanction, which was later reduced.
While some have accused NOAA of harming fishing businesses with the 10-day sanction, Macdonald says the opposite is true. “I want honest people to succeed, and the fisheries to succeed,” he said.
When he worked on the settlement in the 2000 case, NOAA agreed to a settlement so executives and employees at the auction would have a chance to prove themselves. “In that first case, we were trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to give them that opportunity, because they claimed they would follow the law,” said Macdonald.
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