The owners of the Zen Restaurant will pay a civil penalty of $18,000 over the next 12 months for illegally purchasing subsistence-harvested Pacific halibut in 2010, according to a settlement agreement signed on February 23.
This news was released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement.
The release stated that according to the agreement, Zen owners Cai W. Hu and Yai W. Hu purchased Pacific halibut they knew to have been harvested under a subsistence fishing permit on two occasions, in February and March of 2010, with the intention of serving the fish in their restaurants. The Northern Pacific Halibut Act, which governs the commercial, sport, charter and subsistence halibut fisheries in the U.S., prohibits the sale, offer for sale, trade or barter of subsistence-harvested halibut.
Following the purchase by the Hu’s, which was part of an undercover investigation by NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement’s Alaska Division, administrative search warrants were executed on the Hu residence and the Zen Restaurant, where agents seized the halibut.
“The subsistence halibut fishery is critically important to the traditions and survival of rural Alaskan coastal communities,” said Special Agent in Charge Sherrie Tinsley Myers of NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement Alaska Division. “The federal laws that govern all halibut fisheries were specifically crafted to ensure that the subsistence halibut fishery does not compete or interfere with the commercial halibut fishery. It is precisely this principle that was violated in this case.”
The maximum civil penalty under the Northern Pacific Halibut Act is $200,000 for each violation.
The violations were reported to and investigated by NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement’s Alaska Division and prosecuted by NOAA’s Office of General Counsel’s Enforcement Section.
Comments (26)
Add commentGood outcome but
This is a good outcome but rural subsistence is a myth. People living in Ketchikan, on Shelter Island in Juneau, and even in the Mat-Su Valley can be more dependent than people in Sitka on subsistence food yet only Sitka (of those place cited) qualifies for subsistence. Oreo cookies are just as obtainable in Arctic Village as they are in Anchorage, and while oreo cookies cost more in Arctic Village almost everyone buying them there uses federal transfer payments for all that they buy. When the federal government attempts race-based discrimination everything becomes unequal and respect for the law evaporates.
Just a question
If the maximum penalty is $200,000 for each violation, and they were caught on two occasions purchasing illegal halibut, why is the fine only $18,000?
Perhaps if the fine had been higher the restaurant might have some really serious fears of committing the same crime again, and it might dissuade others from trying to do the same thing.
But that's only speculation.
Am I missing something?
I dont see any mention of sanctions or penalties for the person who owns the subsistence permit. This person used the permit (designed exclusively for personal use) for financial gain, as a business. Why is the permit holder not being held accountable? Am I missing something here?
It was an undercover set up I
It was an undercover set up I believe.
Even so
Even so, the halibut would have to have been subsistence for an offense to have occurred. Unless they merely SAID it was subsistence, which would be entrapment, wouldn't it?
If you read the article, the
If you read the article, the law "prohibits the sale, offer for sale, trade or barter of subsistence-harvested halibut" -- I've poked around NOAA's regulations and nowhere is the purchase of subsistence-harvested halibut prohibited (at least that I was able to find).
Something doesn't add up here unless the Hu's were the subsistence permit holders, which isn't explicitly mentioned. Even in that case, the charge would be the SALE of subsistence-harvested halibut, not the purchase.
Whatever really happened
Based in recent revelations it is a safe assumption to make that the Fed’s were not acting in an ethical manner.
You armchair lawyers are
You armchair lawyers are hilarious. Undercover setup? Really? Jsoza, in order to purchase halibut, you must have a registered buyers permit. In order to purchase it with your registered buyer permit, the seller must have IFQ's. The prohibitions for their part are under commercial regs, not subsistance regs.
They nailed...
...Doc Waters for the same thing a couple of years ago. Buy it at Foodland and you don't need a permit. If you are a business, you better keep the reciept!
@kpawsuh It would have been
@kpawsuh It would have been helpful for that sort of information to have been included in the article, that's all. To say Zen was busted for *purchasing* subsistence-harvested halibut but cite a law that prohibits the *sale* of said halibut is odd.
Definitely a setup!
"Following the purchase by the Hu’s, which was part of an undercover investigation by NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement’s Alaska Division, administrative search warrants were executed on the Hu residence and the Zen Restaurant, where agents seized the halibut."
The question is...
...was it really subsistence caught fish that NOAA used in their sting? If not, are the charges valid? If subsistence caught, why does NOAA have it?
@kpawsuh Found it - 16 USC
@kpawsuh Found it - 16 USC Sec. 773e(a)(5): "It is unlawful... to ship, transport, offer for sale, sell, *purchase*, import, export or have *custody, control or possession of*, any fish taken or retained in violation of the Convention, this subchapter, or any regulation adopted under this subchapter."
It would've been more consistent with the story had the Empire (or whoever wrote the release with that language) simply included "purchase" in their list of prohibited things to do with subsistence-harvested halibut.
Skirz, more likely they got a
Skirz, more likely they got a tip that these folks were willing to purchase and just watched it for a while.
I'm willing to purchase and
I'm willing to purchase and have purchased halibut/salmon/shrimp from the docks or parking lots around town. I don't have a buyer's license so am I in violation?
That's a harsh penalty.
That's a harsh penalty. Alaska Natives or Subsistence users can and have used Subsistence foods for bartering or goods or trade. Money is bartering.
The halibut wasn't wasted...what is the big deal? Law are made to protect the greed from the Fisheries Industry. This story disguss me.
If it was me, I would tell the State and Feds to kiss my brown ass. lols... serious. This is my own opinion.
My Fish Your Fish
Give me a break. My kids were born and raised in this state, and cannot subsistence fish. But if some Okey from miskokey moved to petersburg with 12 Wheres my baby-daddy kids they could. Do you know that the local federal/state fish cops need to check to see if those claiming rural status in
Ketchikans surrounding areas like Loring are actually in their homes/cabins 12 months a year. What a joke, imagine the cost factor just to check a few cabins for residency status. Limited entry is not much better than this scam. purchase the right to catch my kids fish,,,, and view my kids as the problem. More government cops, less liberty.
I think it's funny that these
I think it's funny that these jerks got nailed. I just wish the fine had of been higher. Those guys knew full well what they were doing was illegal, but they just didn't care. I'm sure that NOAA had good intel that these guys had been doing the same thing for a long time and that's why they set them up for a sting. Furthermore, I'm sure they're not the only restaurant in the state pulling the same monkey business. Maybe other eating establishments will be a little more wary about cutting corners in this fashion knowing that they too might end up with a sound whack on the pee-pee.
entrapment?
Borders closely on entrapment in my opinion.
But that aside, I like the food at Zen.
subsistence abuses are an epidemic joke
and they will only escalate because there is never a penalty for the subsistence permit holder.
Why should they stop? Not even a $1 fine and no sanctions on their subsistence permits.
Pull your panties out of your butt.
Its amazing how fast a couple of you are willing to bring out the hang man's noose when you see the word subsistence. Isn't that racial profiling?
What's your next assumption? They paddled their canoes in from Angoon? Hoonah? Surely Gustavus, Haines or Skagway doesn't have any of those types.
Or, maybe a couple of starving crab bait fisherman catching Gray Cod thought they could sell their by-catch Halibut too.... ya think? Times are tough....naw, that's too easy.
*Blackdog. The people you have purchased seafood from must have whats known as a catcher-seller permit. But they must have caught it legally though for them to do that and meet some qualifications.
Last time...
...I ate there, I don't recall the halibut being any cheaper on their menu...
Race Card?
Of course its about Race. Last I checked, Petersburg stereo type is Norwegian. And they fall under rural subsistence. So gird up your loins (me plus), the Vikings are the minority race. And good for them. For some reason alaskans are not the same. And we beg the Feds to manage we thee people, the fish are just the tool in which to do so. Nomadic people used the land bridge, some stopped is all. I think thats when they filed out forms, sent to Washington DC for the first permits.
More federal corruption
The most egregious criminal here is the subsistence user that sold the halibut. Feds continue to choose targets based on their internal desires. Same Feds ignored Bill Allen's sexual abuse of children so they could try and change the balance of power of in the senate. Headline should read more corruption from federal government. Feds ignore criminal activity of subsistence user illegally selling halibut.
And by the way to the posters above I didn't see anywhere in the story that it said the uncharged criminal was an Alaska Native. Many subsistence users are Caucasian and other races.
I hope the empire follows this story and reports who the seller was and why he or she was not prosecuted.
Mo and concerned
You can back peddle but you know good and well those posters were not talking about Petersburg and Norske's (I'm talking about the posters above who bowed up when they read the word "subsistence") .
Anyone can go out and catch their own halibut mo. Some people are so clouded by the word subsistence you forget you CAN go out and get your own fish too. You, the mexicans, anyone - even the Hu's as long as they have a right to live in this country. You SIMPLY have to get a sports license and go get some sport caught or personal use halibut!!!! Who is shorting you? Look in the mirror, you are shorting yourself.
If you want something to gripe about, go out to Elfin Cove and watch the plane loads, big plane loads of fish leaving that little community bound for out of state every single day in the summer! Or, go meet a Ward Air super Otter at the seadrome and ponder who catches what and for who for a while. Then figure out where those fisherman (or guides) are or went after September 20th.