Department of Commerce
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
National Marine Fisheries Service
- Office of Law Enforcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 5, 2007

DEPUTY SPECIAL AGENT-IN-CHARGE MICHAEL GONZALES RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS NOAA ADMINISTRATOR’S AWARD FOR 2007

Michael Gonzales, deputy special agent-in-charge for the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Office of Law Enforcement was recognized at a ceremony at NOAA Headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. Sept. 27.

Gonzales and seven other NOAA employees received the award for their role in implementing regulatory programs for the conservation and management of Antarctic Marine Living Resources – in particular, the Patagonian toothfish, more commonly known as Chilean sea bass, an increasingly rare, highly prized, cold water fish vulnerable to wholesale poaching by high-seas pirates.

Gonzales began at NOAA in 1984. Prior to NOAA, Gonzales was a Groundfish Observer on foreign fishing vessels in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea.

In 2004, Gonzales was appointed to the U.S. Delegation to the Antarctic Marine Living Resources Treaty. The Delegation implemented a permit system for U.S. harvesters and dealers which allowed NOAA to regulate who was participating in the trade; regulations for new and exploratory fisheries by any U.S. fishing vessels, procedures for ecosystem monitoring, and an enforcement framework to ensure compliance by U.S. and foreign businesses seeking to import toothfish. The development and implementation of a Catch Documentation Scheme allows NOAA Fisheries to track the trade of Chilean sea bass from the harvesting vessel to the United States.

Gonzales worked with the U.S. delegation, and the delegations of other member countries to bring about change to the enforceability of the treaty. Working cooperatively with his enforcement counterparts they worked to prevent pirate fishing in the treaty’s convention waters.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.