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©2007 Cascadia Times

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A criminal investigation, political intrigue,
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Feds launch criminal investigation

Groundfish are fish that live near the bottom of the ocean. There are more than 100 species of groundfish in the California Current, and some are nearly fished out.

Catching groundfish would be easy, but the law says fishermen must avoid species that are depleted, or overfished — even if it means sending fishing vessels back to port. That's what happened to the whiting fishery in the summer of 2007. Whiting fishers caught too many of a depleted species, widow rockfish.. To protect the widows, the federal government closed the whiting fishery in late July.

The closure cost money for crews cannery workers and fishing communities. Law enforcement officials say the actions that led to the closure are being investigated as a possible federal crime.

Investigators said someone in the fleet hatched a plan to prolong the whiting season anyway by trying to conceal catches of the imperiled rockfish. It would soon become apparent how far fishermen would go to keep their jobs.

“There's a lot of money changing hands in these fisheries,” said Capt. Tony Warrington, chair of the council's advisory committee on enforcement. “And people will cheat.”

On July 17, wildlife officials collected about 3 tons of widow rockfish that had washed ashore near Long Beach, Wash. According to Warrington, an officer with the California Department of Fish and Game, the rockfish were dumped illegally by one or more whiting vessels that were trying to avoid surpassing the catch limit on widow rockfish.

In all, Warrington said about 8 tons of widow rockfish had been dumped, most of which probably sank to the seafloor was eaten by other animals.

Dumping the fish was illegal, and someone apparently tried to cover up the crime, Warrington said. The whiting fleet's activities are monitored by video cameras aboard each vessel, and recorded on computer hard drives. Police seized the hard drives from all 32 vessels that were fishing on July 16. Analysis of the hard drives determined that three of the video cameras were disabled just as the boats' nets were being hauled to the ocean surface, and on a fourth, the replay of the video did not conclusively determine when the camera was disabled. The time gaps ranged as long as three hours. Police have yet to announce the content of tapes from the remaining 25 boats.

Warrington said one person who had been on one of the vessels volunteered information about the case that led investigators to believe a crime or crimes had been committed.

Ten days after the rockfish washed ashore, a second incident drew the attention of investigators. A 3 a.m. inspection of a fish processing plant in Gray's Harbor by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officer Matt Jewett revealed an effort to dispose of widow and yelloweye rockfish by sending them through a meat grinder.

That plant, known as Washington Crab Producers, is partially owned by the Oregon-based Pacific Seafood Group, the nation's top seafood processor in terms of sales, according to Seafood Business magazine.

The rockfish came from a 10,000 pound haul that had been, or was in the process of being, dropped off at the plant. About 1,000 pounds of rockfish had been destroyed when the grinding operation was discovered, with the remainder awaiting the destruction.

“The by-catch would have been destroyed if Officer Jewett hadn't showed up when he did,” WDFW Capt. Mike Cenci said. “In my opinion this was a blatant effort to avoid the by-catch cap.”

After the second incident, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued 24-hour advance notice that it was closing the whiting fishery.

During those 24 hours, the fishermen went on a destructive fishing spree. They caught 21 tons of widow rockfish, pushing the yearly catch to a point that far exceeded allowable limits.

At its September meeting, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, mindful of the harm caused by the closure on fishing businesses and communities, voted to reopen the whiting fishery, and increase the catch limits on widow rockfish by 55 tons.

Some criticized the council for rewarding dirty fishing.

Julie Sherman of the Marine Fish Conservation Network said the council showed “alarming disregard” of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

“It is unfair to reward the whiting fishery by allowing them to keep fishing after they exceed their bycatch caps, while punishing the other fisheries that have obeyed the legal limits,” Sherman said.

“Instead of managing on the cutting edge of sustainability, the Council is managing the whiting fishery on the edge of disaster. Managers shouldn't re-open this fishery without first solving the serious monitoring and enforcement problems,” said Ben Enticknap, Pacific project manager for Oceana, a global conservation group.

But others noted that reopening the fishery extended the jobs of hundreds of innocent workers in communities up and down the coast who have been laid off during the whiting closure, while giving their communities an economic boost.

Warrington said there are now six active investigations related to the incident, but so far, no arrests.

The incidents underscore the severe hardships facing coastal communities. The pressure to keep fishing is so great, some fishermen say, that some apparently will resort criminal behavior if that means keeping the fishery open.

Next: ASeafood processors demand a piece of the pie

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