As U.S. Steps up IUU Enforcement NOAA Isn't Getting Any More Enforcers
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [E&E Greenwire] By Emily Yehle - March 12, 2015
On a recent afternoon, Gregg Houghaboom pointed to a photo of a fish fillet and asked a room full of ocean experts to identify it.
They couldn't. Absent a head, tail and scales, it looked like a hunk of grouper -- but it was actually Lake Victoria perch.
Houghaboom's point was simple: It's hard to uncover seafood fraud, even when you're looking for it. Houghaboom is now retired. But he is concerned that NOAA doesn't have enough investigators to tackle such cases, even as the Obama administration makes illegal fishing and seafood fraud a priority.
In December, a presidential task force released a set of recommendations to tackle IUU fishing. Notably absent was any mention of NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement.
NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement has 92 special agents, tasked with investigating both domestic and international cases for the entire country. In 2012, that number was 114; in 2006, it was 157.
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