NOAA Wins First Prosecution Using Vessel Monitoring System
A December 5 ruling against a New Bedford, Mass., - based fishing vessel and its captain was the first federal fisheries prosecution based exclusively on vessel-tracking data gathered by the satellite-based Vessel Monitoring System, reported the National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. U.S. Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge Edwin M. Bladen assessed a $250,000 fine and ordered the permanent revocation of the federal fishing permit of the fishing vessel Independence, owned by Lobsters, Inc., and the federal vessel operator permit of its captain, Lawrence M. Yacubian, for repeatedly entering an area closed to fishing.
NOAA: Lectures on Noise & Marine Mammals
The Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service and scientists from various academic institutions are sponsoring a free national lecture series on marine mammals and human noise. They will hold the eighth lecture in Baltimore, Md. on Sept. 23, 2004. NOAA Fisheries Acoustics Program and other scientific experts in marine mammals and human noise are hosting the programs at public aquariums and marine laboratories around the country, to help increase public knowledge about human noise and marine mammals. The lecture series, Marine Animals and Human Noise, started in March in Florida, and will continue through November 2004.
