NOAA Fisheries
Office for Law Enforcement
- Alaska Enforcement Division

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 25, 2004

CAPTAIN CITED FOR FAILURE TO SORT PROHIBITED SPECIES FROM CATCH

Joseph Hamm, operator of the FV Chellissa, was recently charged with violations of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation & Management Act after repeatedly delivering trawl catches containing very high numbers of Pacific halibut. Regulations, issued pursuant to the Act, require all incidentally caught halibut to be immediately sorted from the catch and returned to the sea with a minimum of injury, regardless of condition. Pacific halibut are prohibited to be retained at any time by trawl vessels.

Following a Federal investigation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of General Counsel for Enforcement and Litigation assessed a $35,000 Notice of Violation and Assessment against Hamm for failing to sort his catch and return prohibited species immediately to the sea. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The investigation was initiated when officers from NOAA Fisheries' Office for Law Enforcement (OLE) began documenting unusually high incidental amounts of halibut being sorted from delivered catches by Kodiak shoreside processors. Mr. Hamm was previously issued warnings in 2001 and 2003 for failure to sort prohibited species from his trawl catch.

"We are frequently monitoring landings to insure vessel operators are sorting their catches at sea," Enforcement Officer Tim Gould, NOAA Fisheries OLE - Alaska Division.

Federal fishing violations can be reported to the OLE 24 hour hotline at 1-800-853-1964

NOAA Fisheries is dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation's living marine resources through scientific research, management, enforcement and the conservation of marine mammals and other protected marine species and their habitat.

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