Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney's Office
- District of Alaska

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2004

COMMERCIAL FISHING CAPTAINS SENTENCED TO JAIL, FINES, LOSS OF OCCUPATION FOR UNDER-REPORTING HALIBUT BY-CATCH

Anchorage, AK - Commercial fishing Captain Paul Ison and First Mate Daniel Skauge pleaded guilty and were sentenced today in Anchorage Federal District Court for their roles in intentionally under-reporting the amount of "by-catch" halibut brought aboard the M/V Unimak during the 2000 groundfish season in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.

District Court Judge Robert Beistline ordered Ison and Skauge each to spend four months in prison, pay fines of $25,000 and restitution of $25,000 to the International Pacific Halibut Commission; forego employment in the fishing industry for one year and write an article for publication in a fishing journal explaining their criminal behavior.

"This conduct involves both economic and environmental crime," said United States Attorney Timothy Burgess, noting that this was the first criminal case of its kind to be prosecuted in this district. "We will pursue such cases aggressively in the future in order to deter fraud and protect the fishery resources shared by all." he added.

Ison, 49, and Skauge, 49, of Woodinville, Washington each pled guilty to violating the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act by filing false daily and weekly reports with the National Marine Fisheries Service concerning the amount of halibut caught by the M/V Unimak while the vessel fished for rex sole, rock sole and other groundfish in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska in 2000. During groundfish fishing operations, halibut are incidentally caught in groundfish trawl nets, and are considered a "prohibited species" which may not be retained aboard vessels such as the M/V Unimak. Observers stationed aboard groundfish vessels measure the amount of groundfish and prohibited species, including halibut caught and report the information along to the National Marine Fisheries Service. The Service tracks this information on a daily basis and closes groundfish fisheries based on that information. Groundfish fisheries are immediately closed when a pre-determined quota of groundfish species or prohibited species are reported caught by the fleet.

"Manipulation of by-catch reporting, by falsifying weekly production reports and causing sample bias in the observer reports, damages the government’s ability to manage fisheries and can lead to serious over-harvesting of fish populations" said Special Agent Mike Adams of the NOAA Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement.

According to Adams, this "presorting" of halibut from the observer’s samples, leads to significant under-reporting and the consequent extension of the groundfish season beyond when they would otherwise be ordered closed.

The convictions of Ison and Skauge come on the heels of a civil action against Rebecca Irene Fisheries, LLC, which operates a groundfish vessel similar to the F/V Unimak in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. In July 2004, following a hearing in Seattle, an administrative law judge found that the M/V Rebecca Irene under-reported halibut by-catch amounts during the 2000 and 2001 groundfish seasons and ordered the company to pay a fine of $240,000 and undergo a 60-day suspension of its groundfish permit during the 2005 season.

The investigation of this case was conducted by Special Agents of the NOAA Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement and prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska and the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.