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Alaska commercial fishing news and notes
About me
- Deckboss
- I'm a journalist covering Alaska's commercial fishing industry. My real name is Wesley Loy. Reach me at wloy61@gmail.com.
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2025
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April
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- Juneau watch
- A 'new choice' in seafood certification
- Circle's salmon barge makes ready
- Blotter
- CFEC notes
- Kodiak trawl case draws nearly $13K in penalties
- Cutter Mustang exits
- Sitka herring summary
- Trump watch
- New salmon season in sight!
- New boss for NMFS
- Duncan Fields removed from ASMI board
- Juneau watch
- Last days for NMFS?
- Legal trouble for Northline's processing barge
- Juneau watch
- Fields family charged after extensive investigatio...
- Kodiak notes
- Crewman reported missing at Unalaska
- Washington watch
- Nenana woman named to Board of Fisheries
- Fish farming in Alaska?
- Bill would expand Farm Credit System for fishing
- A big cut for Southeast Alaska trollers
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April
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12 comments:
The Fields are a prominent family in Kodiak. Duncan Fields has long been deeply involved in Alaska fisheries, having served on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the board of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. He has a law degree from the University of Oregon. His wife, Leslie, has written or edited a number of books.
We asked Duncan Fields to comment on the state's case against the family, and he supplied this statement:
These charges stem from the gifting of limited entry permits to family and crew, something my family and I have done for 30 years. This is a common practice in the industry and we believe that our family has been singled out to try to set an example with a unique application of existing statutes. The charges are not supported by the facts.
A simple forensic audit of the CFEC files would show that the practices alleged here are commonplace among salmon set gillnet operations everywhere in Alaska. It leaves us with two prominent questions: Why was the Fields family singled out? And, will the prosecutor follow through to indict dozens of other similarly situated gillnet operations?
Go after the good guys and leave the terrible operators alone. Seems to be the new standard in fisheries enforcement.
I'm not an attorney, unlike Duncan, but relying on the argument that "this is how it's been done for 30 years" hardly seems like a viable legal defense against over 40 charges, including corruption, fraud and conspiracy.
Should have more than enough money from the swear jar on Harvester Island to hire a good attorney!
Just so you are clear on this, Wesley, it was not the "gifting" of permits that was the problem — it was the mandatory "regifting."
I thought that a "gift" was something that didn't have to be returned, say, at the end of the season. If these fraudsters have been doing it 30 years, it's time to collect all those fish they've stolen from the fleet.
DeWitt and Wanda would be so proud.
Pete is laughing.
I think most of the other ones involved — crew and friends — would testify they were fully aware of their right to keep the permit and would testify they transferred it back anyway on their own free will.
Doubtless there is fraud all over, but the law is the law. One man's "good guy" is another's "terrible operator." FAFO.
A forensic audit of the fleet is overdue, tired of this BS. Don't like the law, change it if you can. How many millions of pounds of sockeye have the Fields stolen from the fleet? How many others are doing the same? The dollar value of penalties which could be levied far outweigh the costs of prosecution. Go get 'em!
Here's the charging document in the Fields family case:
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25902235/fields-charging-document.pdf
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