On Dec. 20, NOAA issued a press release stating they had given a Notice of Violation Assessment to Wrangell resident Sylvia Ettefagh. She was given a fine for failing to offload and report the entirety of a halibut catch.
"Officers from the Alaska Division of NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement in Petersburg conducted an investigation," the press release reads. "It revealed that Ettefagh and crew retained 600 pounds of Pacific halibut that was not deducted from their IFQ permit or documented on the landing receipt. When authorities discovered the unreported fish, Ettefagh reported that the intent was to retain it for personal use and not for commercial purposes. It is a federal violation to fail to offload and report all fish taken while commercial fishing, and submit inaccurate information on a required report."
Ettefagh, with Sylver Fishing Company, explained that this was an honest mistake. She intended to split the halibut catch among two different tickets, she said in an interview with the Sentinel. However, she discovered that this was not allowed. Halibut is the only fishery where one is not allowed to divide their catch among different tickets, she said, and she was not aware of this.
"We thought we were within our rights to split the delivery," Ettefagh said. "Guess I won't make that mistake again."
NOAA assessed Ettefagh's penalty at $17,600 for two violations of the Northern Pacific Halibut Act of 1982. However, Ettefagh took responsibility for the violations and the fine was settled down to $15,840. She said that NOAA officials found that this was an unintentional violation, so things could have been worse.
"The maximum fine for that particular case is over $20,000," she said.
The takeaway from all of this, Ettefagh said, was for everyone going fishing to be sure to offload everything.
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