Marine Resources Seeks Jurisdiction Law

By DAVID RAINER

The Marine Resources Division hopes the fourth time is the charm when the Alabama Legislature considers a bill that would simplify enforcement in the Gulf of Mexico.

For the past three years, the legislation has passed the House but has become bogged down in Senate. Although there was no opposition, the bill never got to the Senate floor for a vote.

What the legislation would do is basically draw a line down the middle of Mobile Bay out to the federal jurisdiction line of 200 miles. If the Marine Resources Division enforcement officers write a citation for a violation outside state waters, whether commercial or recreational, the case must go to federal court. The legislation would effectively direct the case to either the Baldwin County or Mobile County District Court, an advantage for the state and the violators.

“This would allow those cases to be adjudicated in an expedient matter,” said Vernon Minton, director of the Marine Resources Division. “The federal courts are just full. As a consequence, our officers might not be able to make a case just because of the system.”

Minton said that the U.S. Congress addressed the problem several years ago when money was allocated to the National Marine Fisheries Service to be distributed to coastal states for assistance in enforcement of federal fisheries laws and regulations.

“We’ve received money for the last several years in anticipation of getting this law passed to move forward with our commitment,” Minton said. “The bill has passed the House every year for the last three years, but we’ve been unsuccessful in the Senate. It’s not controversial, but we’ve gotten behind things in the Senate where nothing was passed.”

Maj. John T. Jenkins, Chief Enforcement Officer with Marine Resources, said Alabama has to specifically designate the authority to route these cases to the appropriate district courts.

“Right now, Louisiana and South Carolina are the only two states that have passed laws to accomplish this,” Jenkins said. “Under this joint enforcement agreement with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), they put the money where it’s most used. They are giving it to states where they can handle the case in their own state courts. They’ve been giving us between $500,000 and $750,000 a year to help with enforcement. If we aren’t able to get this legislation passed, sooner or late, NOAA is going to cut the money to the states that aren’t able to do this and give it to the states that can.”

That money can have a significant impact on the ability to have enforcement officers in the field, according to Jenkins.

“We only have 17 full-time officers and each one of them will work 2,080 hours a year,” he said. “If you get 50 percent of officer’s time patrolling, you have done well. We have added 4,000 patrol hours because NOAA has been paying for it. That equates to four extra officers that work for us full time.”

Jenkins said it’s a common-sense approach to have the district courts in the coastal counties handle the cases.

“The federal government is overwhelmed,” Jenkins said. “Smaller cases can’t be prosecuted, because the feds are so limited in manpower that they have to work the major cases. And if they do prosecute the smaller cases they settle out of court with small fines just to get them out of the system.

“The thing is for us to write a citation, it would have to be in violation of state law for us to be able to take it to Baldwin or Mobile District Court. In other words, if the federal law limits a catch to two fish and the state law limits it to four fish, the angler could only be prosecuted in district court if he had more than four fish. And it’s a lot easier for the accused to have their day in court in Mobile and Baldwin counties, instead of having to go through the federal system.”

Jenkins said all of the Marine Resources enforcement officers are already cross-trained and deputized by NOAA, which means the proposed legislation could be implemented as soon as the bill is signed.

“The thing is it gives us the ability to protect the resource, especially with the smaller cases,” he said. “If everybody out there kept three undersized fish or were two fish over the limit, that would be a problem Gulf wide, so the smaller cases can add up to be bigger than the major cases. With several species already designated as overfished, including red snapper, that’s why it’s important that we get the ability to protect the fishery.”

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