Environmental group sues NOAA over document fees

SouthCoast Today: Environmental group sues NOAA over document fees
By Steve Urbon

In a federal lawsuit filed just before Christmas, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is accused of violating the Freedom of Information Act by charging the environmental group Oceana Inc. exorbitant fees to fulfill its document requests.

"The (National Marine) Fisheries Service told Oceana that it would only provide the unclassified, non-commercial documents to which Oceana is entitled if Oceana paid $16,338.60 in advance," says the suit filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C.

Oceana, based in Washington, D.C., contends that it is entitled to a waiver on the grounds that it qualifies as a media company because it publishes government information to inform the public about environmental issues. Media outlets are exempt from charges associated with FOIA requests.

"This happens all the time," Pamela Lafreniere, a New Bedford lawyer who deals with fisheries cases, told The Standard-Times. She said she is being billed some $600 for the answer to a single question about the use of the asset forfeiture fund within NOAA.

Oceana, which filed an earlier lawsuit in May accusing fisheries regulators of being too lax, was asking NOAA for the documents used to establish agency policy on sea turtles.

Recently, New England Fishery Management Council finalized Amendment 22 to the Scallop Fishery Management Plan, further restricting scallop boats from entering areas known to contain a large population of sea turtles in warmer months.

Carlos Rafael, owner of 20 scallop boats, said that the rule is unnecessary. In his case, he said his crews have taken one turtle in 15 years, and it was thrown overboard unharmed.

Ron Smolowitz of the Fairhaven-based Fisheries Survival Fund said that recent science estimates the number of loggerhead turtles alone at more than 1 million. And in any event, he said, gear changes have cut the take of sea turtles by scallopers from hundreds a decade ago to just a handful today.

He said that Oceana contends that scallopers are failing to account for turtles that run into the gear but aren't brought aboard, and that turtles on the bottom can be harmed by the turtle-resistant net chains. Smallowicz said that the chains do keep turtles out of nets efficiently, and a new dredge design will allow turtles to pass over the gear unharmed, and may soon be required by regulators.

Oceana claims NOAA, by charging excessive fees for information, is interfering with the public's right to know how policy is developed. Oceana, as well financed as it is, cannot afford such bills and is exempt by law from paying them, according to the lawsuit.

Lafreniere said that NOAA's practices are typical not only at NOAA but across the Obama administration. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a Freedom of Information Act case brought by a Washington State resident who sought information about the amount of damage expected from an explosion at the Navy's main West Coast ammunition dump on an island in Washington.

The Obama administration, the suit alleges, is abusing the FOIA exemption that exempts from disclosure documents "related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency."

Mayor Scott W. Lang said it is ironic that Oceana is complaining about withholding documents when environmental groups are siding with NOAA and opposing the disclosure of documents and the taking of depositions in the city's lawsuit challenging catch shares and sector management of the fishery.

NOAA is slow to produce documents even when it is willing, Lang said. He said only now is the city receiving a few documents it sought in spring when it filed a FOIA request for information about scallop quotas.

Lang said it would be best if all parties would just be transparent about what they are doing. "This isn't the START treaty, this is fisheries management, for heaven's sake," he said.