The American Dynasty in Dutch Harbor. Jim Paulin photoThe first we heard of a potential scandal involving the Bering Sea pollock factory trawler American Dynasty was more than four years ago, at a meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Federal agents said at the time that they were investigating allegations that hauls of fish were inaccurately weighed aboard the 272-foot trawler, which belongs to Seattle-based American Seafoods.
Well, now we know more.
The NOAA Office of the General Counsel, Enforcement Section, says the vessel owner, manager and operator have been charged with numerous civil infractions.
A NOAA case summary doesn't specify exactly when the charges were filed, just sometime during the first six months of the year.
The agency is proposing a $543,500 fine.
Here's the full NOAA summary on the enforcement action, beginning with the file number:
AK0700698; F/V American Dynasty — Owner, manager, and operator were charged in thirty-two counts under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act for failing to maintain or operate a flow scale to obtain accurate weights; for submitting inaccurate or false data, statements or reports; for failing to comply with flow scale testing requirements; for failing to provide notification to an observer and failing to have an observer present; for failing to comply with reporting requirements; and for failing to weigh catch, interfering with or biasing the observer's sampling procedure, and failing to provide reasonable assistance. A $543,500 NOVA (Notice of Violation and Assessment) was issued.
Feds are ramping up fines. Icicle last week. American this week.
ReplyDeleteFuglvog gets jail time and these guys just walk with a fine only. Sounds as premeditated as longline crimes......double standard.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that this is a common occurance out there in the fishing grounds. Investigate all of the big boats fishing in the Bering Sea.
ReplyDeleteIt's a blantant disregard for the rules and regulations. It's downright criminal.
Another Special American Dynasty from Ted Stevens...
ReplyDeletefailing to follow in Ted's footsteps
failing to fool nobody...failing to prosecute...failing to comply with flow test requirement's related to political campaign spending...failing to be able to comply with observer coverage of the CBC Headquarters...Washington D.C...where enforcement of any law needs little observation from the Murkowski and Begich towers.
This is THE enforcement issue. When a boat owned by company A delivers to a plant owned by company A who monitors the scales? Who monitors the"butchers thumb" on the factory trawler scale?
ReplyDeleteIt's a joke here in Kodiak that 20 year old boats pack less when delivering to Akutan than anywhere else in the state.
Go figure!
This is what happens when we allow a money making industry to monitor themselves.
ReplyDeleteThis is what happens when we have a regulatory council that is dominated by the industry.
Fines should be in the millions then perhaps they would stop cheating. Half a million is peanuts to these guys.
History - 1990's Ted slammed the Norwegian-American offshore F/T fleet as if evil "foreigners" in our fisheries while he gave the shoreside Japanese fish companies rights to pillage and allowed them to practice illegal accounting, product laundering. All while the shoreside branch economy of Japan held the second mortgages on F/T equipment and ripped them off for sugar drawback credits and slowed their production offshore, fostered roe stripping and disallowed production of fillets etc. while capturing the surimi. The plenary power of Japan's subsidiaries price fixed the surimi, transported it on their own ships, overpacked to avoid import quota restrictions, and tax evaded in Japan and USA. F/Ts had to finally capitulate and go Faustian before Ted crushed them even more, one might surmise. What, so Senate defense appropriation chair Ted could have nuclear arms in Tokyo Bay on US ships in violation of Japan laws, or what other overriding need of those who answer to no citizens?
ReplyDeleteAnd today we sit with Dead Ted, but the Gulf of Alaska's ignorant trawlers - who got paid about 1/3d of pollock prices Japan fleets got from same buying companies - still want to link up with those sogo soshas just to get coveted ITQs. PQs are too high of a price to pay, and will simply entrench a foreign branch economy in Kodiak in perpetuity, as in Dutch Harbor. Pollock ex-vessel level alone - since 1990's - cumulative missing revenues to USA fleet rings out at about $5 billion or more, not counting multiplier effects.
And how few years ago since the technology to even weigh the products on a moving vessel came into being? Final products packed, sampled, can give a rather good estimate. Still, it is best to do the best, but transparency on offloads etc. and accurate shipping audits (where was US Customs?) goes a long way... offshore or onshore. Figure that in your piezoelectric adjustments on the moving scales of justice.
Groundswell
To Aug 15, 2012 12:15 AM
ReplyDeleteCrazy is as crazy does. Get some sleep.
Wow you really impressed yourself with that comeback.
ReplyDeleteHow many trawlers know the Dutch Harbor plants had Japanese guys with portable computers sitting in UniSea's old office, back in 1992, doing 'day trading' on the US markets, using the yet-to-be-paid-out ex-vessel pollock funds?
Great way to insure their trading losses against the fleet payables for raw fish deliveries. IRS Criminal Investigation Division took a look at it and concluded it was technically legal, and very smart of the foreign controlled companies. But that the fishermen were very ignorant, and that it was stupid to let the processor hang onto the trawlers' money like that.
If the Japanese firm made money on the trades, using your money, did they share the profits? Surely if there were losses it was passed on, to you - once again in lower fish prices.
It's America's fault. Crazy trust in a foreign-controlled corporationis as crazy as it gets. Try the coffee and wake up.
Groundswell
Wow, another conspiracy theorist. Switch to decaf and get some sleep.
ReplyDeleteMr. Tauffen, folks on here have limited memories. Thanks for reminding folks of some of the dynamics of the past. The takeaway I get from your reminder is that in the grand scheme of things, this flow scale "scandal" is small potatoes, and entirely predictable (if not expected). Maybe that's why the proposed penalty is so light (especially when one considers how the Administrative Law Judge whittled down the Icicle fine for busting crab sideboards).
ReplyDeleteLittle guys get big time penalty - big guys get little one.
ReplyDeleteBalance is way off. It should be the other way around.
Amen 6:31. The little guys have 24/7 enforcement watching them to slip up. The big guys get 100 % observer coverage but only 30 % is mandatory. So what does that equal people. Looking the other way is what.
ReplyDelete"big guys" get to amend the rules to their benefit because money is power.
ReplyDeleteSince the draggers are so rich and powerful and Groundswell is so intelligent, maybe they should hire him. Don't worry Groundswell a lot of people respect you and your opinion- and your tinfoil hat.
ReplyDelete