Bolinas fisherman Josh Churchman, named as a volunteer of the year in 2009 for his work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, now facing big fine of $35,786 from the agency. Media report states that Churchman will plead his case on July 13 to an administrative law judge at the Alameda Coast Guard Station in hopes the fine is wiped away.
Churchman, a commercial fisherman who has plied the waters of West Marin’s coast for three decades, was shocked after hearing the news of fine. The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation – which supports NOAA’s marine sanctuary programs – hosted Churchman at a ceremony in Washington during Capitol Hill Ocean Week last summer. Joy Williams, acting president of the foundation, at the time, said that Josh is an incredible role model for citizen involvement in NOAA’s work to protect the marine environment.
NOAA’s law enforcement arm alleges Churchman was fishing 22 miles off of the Sonoma coast in 2008, in 900 feet of water, in an area of a marine sanctuary that was off limits in order to protect rockfish populations. Churchman took about 500 rockfish on an average day. Churchman said he was a quarter of a mile inside an imaginary line created by NOAA, but didn’t realize it at the time.
NOAA said that Churchman knew he was fishing in a closed area known as the Nontrawl Rockfish Conservation Area because he had been told that by another fisherman. In its filing NOAA said that it was Churchman’s “decision to continue his illegal fishing operations once he knew his fishing grounds were within the Nontrawl RCA that is the focus of this case, and is the key factor mandating that a significant sanction be imposed.
But Churchman said that NOAA observers were onboard and he took them to the area that was off limits where he had been fishing that area for some time, but they never said anything to him. He then received a letter from the agency saying he had to pay the $35,786 fine. Jack Siedman, Churchman’s attorney, said that no one ever told him he was on the wrong side of the line. It is difficult to understand why they are treating him so harshly and being so punitive.
