Nine people, including eight from Maine and one from New Hampshire, have been sentenced in a long-running commercial fishing scheme.
The fishermen pled guilty to underreporting their catch of Atlantic herring, a popular lobster bait, according to U.S. attorneys.
Federal officials said that in a three-year scheme, the owner, captain and crew of a Rockland-based commercial fishing vessel known as the Western Sea knowingly submitted false landings reports to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
According to court records, the crew caught more herring than is typically allowed under weekly federal limits from June 2016 to September 2019. They sold the excess catch to seafood dealers and some unlicensed processors, and received cash or checks in return. Federal officials said that the Western Sea then concealed the income on tax documents.
NOAA sets quotas for herring and other species to ensure that the population is not being overfished.
Court documents describe more than 80 trips where the Western Sea crew caught and sold more than 2.6 million pounds of herring that was not reported to NOAA.
"Atlantic herring is a vital resource in Maine, particularly to the thousands of people involved in the lobster industry in the state," U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee said in a statement. "Led by Glenn Robbins and Western Sea, the defendants in this case subverted regulations for the sole purpose of lining their own wallets, regulations that are in place to ensure Atlantic herring are not overfished and are available for future generations of fishermen and safeguard the viability of the marine ecosystem."
The Western Sea owner and crew members will each serve two years of probation and are subject to fines and restitution. Three seafood dealers were sentenced earlier this year in connection with the scheme.
