THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503120332
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 127 lines
Fisheries officials had no right to close federal waters off Alaska to scalloping just to keep one trawler out of the scallop beds - even if that boat was ``Mr. Big,'' contend the owners of the Norfolk-based vessel.
In an 18-page lawsuit filed last week at U.S. District Court in Elizabeth City, the owners asked the U.S. Commerce Department to repeal an emergency rule that closed the offshore waters to scallopers on Feb. 23.
Never before has the area been completely closed to scalloping, the suit says. Mr. Big was the only boat scalloping in those waters this year.
``We've done nothing illegal. We broke no laws. We just want to go back to fishing,'' Joey Daniels said Friday from his family's fish house in Wanchese, N.C. The Daniels family owns Wanchese Fish Co. Inc., with seafood dealerships on the Outer Banks and in Norfolk. Two of the family's 12 scallop boats work the waters off Alaska.
``We knew they were going to try to stop us,'' said Daniels, whose brother captains the Mr. Big. ``But we figured they couldn't if we didn't break the law. Instead, the federal government and the state of Alaska broke their own laws. And now we're suffering.''
Able to carry 70,000 gallons of fuel and stay at sea for nearly two months at a time, Mr. Big is the largest vessel in the West Coast scallop-fishing fleet. Most scallop trawlers carry about 15,000 gallons of fuel and have to dock almost weekly.
Mr. Big has caught 61,893 pounds of scallops in federal waters so far this year. The dozen boats that scallop off Alaska caught a total of 50,000 pounds. Alaska officials closed state waters Jan. 26 because the year's quota had been met.
Mr. Big kept fishing in federal waters - because the boat is big enough to travel all the way to Seattle to unload its catch. Washington state does not have a scallop fishery, and, therefore, does not have a scallop quota. There are no restrictions on scallop-harvesting in federal waters.
State fisheries departments control the waters up to three miles off their coasts. Federal fisheries managers regulate areas from three miles to 200 miles offshore. Farther out, the ocean falls under international jurisdiction.
On Feb. 16, Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles said Mr. Big had been ``exploiting a loophole in state and federal fishing regulations'' and demanded that the ``pirate fishery'' be stopped immediately.
He admitted that ``the vessel does not fall under state jurisdiction'' because it was not fishing in Alaska waters and did not carry an Alaska commercial license. But the governor urged federal authorities to halt the ``bandits who are ruining things for the legitimate Alaska fishermen who play by the rules.''
One state manager said there was a chance overharvesting could lead to no scallop season next year in the Kayak Island region.
On Feb. 17, the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, which regulates fishing in federal waters, called an emergency telephone meeting about Mr. Big. The group voted to close U.S. Pacific waters to scallopers ``until the Council's Scallop Fisheries Management Plan is approved and implemented.''
On Feb. 23, the U.S. Commerce Department enacted the emergency closure.
That afternoon, eight Alaska enforcement officers boarded Mr. Big about 10 miles off the coast - in federal waters, the suit contends. The boat had stopped scalloping about five hours earlier. The state law enforcement officials had a state search warrant.
``We knew state officials couldn't do anything in federal waters. But they said they were coming aboard no matter what,'' said Lance Hayes, the mate on Mr. Big. ``There were eight of them and 16 of us. But they had guns. We didn't.''
The fisheries enforcement officers kept the crew in one part of the boat while they searched Mr. Big, Hayes said, and confiscated official documents about the vessel and its insurance; cassette tapes and videotapes; charts, receipts, log books; airline and rental-car receipts; a roll of film from a crewman's camera; a personal letter from another crewman's house-sitter; computer discs; and teletype messages that were being transmitted from the Wanchese fish house to Mr. Big.
Police did not charge any of the crew members or Mr. Big's owners.
``They had on rubber gloves and they went through our lockers, under our mattresses, through our bags, everything,'' Hayes said Friday from Seattle. ``It was kind of humiliating.'' Wanchese Fish Co. employs two people full-time to keep up with fast-changing commercial fishing regulations.
Daniels and his brothers said Mr. Big did not sail through any loopholes.
``It's ridiculous. We weren't fishing in Alaska's waters. We've got nothing to hide,'' William T. ``Punk'' Daniels said Friday from the Mr. Big. He captains the scallop ship and is living on it at a Seattle dock until the lawsuit is settled.
``They've treated us like criminals. The state of Alaska had no right to kick us out of federal waters,'' Punk Daniels said.
``It's time they join the rest of the union. It's time the federal government made them abide by the same rules as everyone else. I think they owe us an apology.''
In the lawsuit, Norfolk attorney Waverley L. Berkley III says the U.S. Commerce Department had no right to close the Pacific to scallopers.
The emergency meeting of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council was called illegally, without the required 20-day notice, the suit says. The scallop-closure rule was not debated in public nor was the public given a chance to comment on it.
The closure was based ``on administrative inaction to solve a long-recognized problem . . . resulting from the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council's failure to adopt a Fishery Management Plan for the weathervane scallop - despite the fact that it has had since 1976 to do so,'' says the suit.
``Closing the entire Pacific Ocean . . . or some 20,000 square miles, to scallop fishing to prevent one vessel from fishing was not based on the best scientific information available.''
Although Joey Daniels said Mr. Big's catch is worth about $200,000 from every two-month trip, his lawsuit does not seek any monetary relief from the federal government.
``We just want the federal waters reopened for scalloping - and the state of Alaska to stay in their own enforcement area,'' Joey Daniels said.
``We'll be glad to let federal observers come with us to see what we're catching. We hope they do develop a federal scallop management plan. But first, they have to see what's out there.''
The U.S. Commerce Department, which controls the closure of federal fisheries, has 45 days to respond to the suit. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
WHAT HAPPENED
Mr. Big has caught 61,893 pounds of scallops in federal waters so
far this year.
The dozen boats that scallop off Alaska caught a total of 50,000
pounds.
Alaska officials closed state waters Jan. 26 because the year's
quota had been met.
by CNB