CONTACT:  Chris Smith,                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 
          Public Affairs                 July 6,1998

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has charged the captain and the owner of a Louisiana shrimp trawler with civil violations of turtle excluder device regulations and for killing a Kemp's Ridley sea turtle, announced Senior Enforcement Attorney Karen Antrim Raine of NOAA's Office of General Counsel, who is prosecuting the case.

Raine assessed a total civil penalty of $6,000 in a Notice of Violation and Assessment against Gerald A. Turan, Jr., for violations that occurred on June 18, 1998, in Lake Pontchartrain, La. On that day, a U.S. Coast Guard team boarded the trawler and found that the turtle excluder device escape opening in the trawl was sewn shut, thus preventing the escape of the sea turtle that became entrapped in it.

"The respondent has 30 days from the date he received the NOVA to either pay the penalty, seek to have the assessment modified, or request a hearing before an administrative law judge to deny or contest all or any part of the violations charged and the penalties assessed," said Raine.

"The work of the Coast Guard boarding officers from Station New Orleans in this case exemplifies why the laws are so necessary," said Gene Proulx, special agent-in-charge of the fisheries service's Southeast Enforcement Division.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is an agency of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The fisheries service conducts scientific research and provides services and products to support fisheries management, fisheries development, trade and industry assistance, enforcement, and protected species and habitat conservation programs.