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Latest NOAA attack on auction shows disregard for courts

Reacting to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's latest bullying effort to shut down his business, Gloucester Seafood Display Auction co-owner Larry Ciulla said Friday that, while he and the auction's attorneys were still trying to get a handle on this new NOAA enforcement action, "I'm thinking this is more of the same of what's been going on.

In one way, it seems, he's right. Friday's move by NOAA enforcement to issue a show-cause ultimatum requiring the auction to show — by tomorrow — why it should not be shut down over an alleged "probation violation" stemming from an earlier settlement is indeed more of the same heavy-handed tactics the auction has faced at the hands of an aggressive, dangerously runaway agency.

In another way, however, Ciulla's dead wrong. The downright sinister execution of this attempted crackdown isn't just more of the same — it's far worse than the NOAA and National Marine Fisheries Service tactics local fishermen and the auction have confronted in the past. And it's an action that deserves a swift response from our state and federal officials who must crack down on this renegade band of marine enforcers who act like a police force, prosecuting attorneys and judges with no apparent regard now for even our own federal court system.

Friday's order — essentially requiring the auction to show the agency by tomorrow why it should not face a 10-day shutdown over the alleged "probation violation" on a previous charge, is tied to NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco's upholding a significantly reduced penalty against the auction — and the assumption that the auction is guilty of violations cited in the 2005 case.

It's not. The auction — railroaded through the biased and flawed Coast Guard Administrative Law system, where it still managed to beat NOAA's initial charges — has appealed the final decision to U.S. District Court. And it remains unresolved. So NOAA has essentially filed a probation charge against the auction as if it were already guilty.

State Sen. Bruce Tarr went as far as to say the latest NOAA action is "an attempt to deny the auction due process of law by attempting to impose a sanction while the case is still under appeal." That's exactly what it is, and it shows a blatant disrespect for the federal judicial system.

That's bad enough, but the manner in which the NOAA order was executed on the auction was even more sinister than that.

As noted in yesterday's Times, it's clear that the Boston Globe had advance notice of the order; it had a photographer and reporter on the scene to get fishermen's reaction to the auction's "shutdown." There was just one problem: it seems The Globe staffers arrived before the auction even received its notice.

Think that's just a bit of savvy public relations? Think again.

Rose Ciulla, matriarch of the family that runs the auction, said the Globe staffers weren't looking for reaction to some new allegations; they were looking to get reaction to the auction's "closing" — as if that dire result were a fait accompli. And there was good reason for that. The NOAA press release about the "probation" charges made no mention that the order was tied to a case still pending in court, and the story posted on The Globe's boston.com Web site, failed to note that as well. Make no mistake about it, this was a calculated attempted to get the word out to fishermen that the auction was in fact being shut down, and that they should make other plans for bringing in their catch, when that's simply untrue.

It would be bad enough is these misleading tactics carried out by a business competitor, or perhaps some foreign government trying to muscle in on American small businesses and workers — which, of course, is what Gloucester's seafood auction, its fishermen and their fishing vessels truly represent.

But — again — these underhanded, bullying tactics are being carried out by an arm of our own government. And it's an arm that, perhaps with at least a tacit blessing from national NOAA headquarters and even Lubchenco. seems perfectly willing to operate outside even our own federal and state court systems, with no accountability — nor fear of being held to any. That's scary — and it has to be stopped.

Let's hope that a judge issues an order blocking NOAA from any attempt to shut down the auction — and provides an enforceable means of doing so. But let's hope that our federal lawmakers clamp a stranglehold on NOAA carrying out any enforcement action, at least pending completion of a Department of Commerce Inspector General's investigation that, thankfully, is already under way.

An enforcement agency that shows such disregard for the law and our court system — has no place in our federal government.

Let's all stand with the Ciullas and the Seafood Display Auction — and against this runaway government agency that has long since lost its way.