A local fisherman has just been charged with criminal offences as he did not oblige the new rules put on by the government agency. Hundreds of commercial fishermen along the West Coast find it hard to earn livelihood as the U.S. government agency has put many new hurdles through regulations. According to the National Marine Fisheries, an arm of the Commerce Department, all commercial fishing vessels that deliver federally managed groundfish must have a vessel monitoring system operating 24 hours, seven days a week.
The commercial fishermen complain that the new rules compel the each fisherman to wear a leg bracelet continually to keep the government informed of our whereabouts. They said that such device transmits the boat’s GPS 24/7, even if they are not fishing. And thus it forced the fishermen to adopt some other way, which is certainly not legal, to get their catch without informing the agency.
The government has not charged fees for the installation of such devices on each fisherman boat. They even not have to pay any monthly service charge. The boat owners will have to pick up that tab. As per government rules all other expenses are to be borne by the owners.
