12:15/08. NEW JERSEY MAN PLED GUILTY FOR FALSIFYING FISHERY OBSERVATION DATA. In 1976 federal law enacted a fishery observer program to accompany commercial fishing vessels and collect data on the fish landed. The data collected from the fishery observers provides invaluable information to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which regulates the commercial fisheries, regarding health of the fishery. The data demonstrates the populations’ health and abundance by documenting: age, size, weight, sexual maturity, etc.
In a first ever case, John Depersenaire, from Margate, NJ, pleaded guilty to falsifying the fishery report information after he never left the dock on 59 trips between October 2001 and February 2002. Depersenaire pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years probation and must repay the government his salary of $29,541. Although Depersenaire did collect data, it was from the docks rather than from out at sea. NOAA fisheries officials caught Depersenaire when they realized that no fishing captains knew who he was.
The fishery observer program allows NOAA to collect large quantities of fishery data to base their regulatory decisions upon. If the data is being falsified then the Administration cannot make decisions founded in science to protect the resource in a sustainable way to ensure fisheries in the future. For more information see Richard Degener 28 October 2006 piece in the Press of Atlantic City at http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/atlantic/story/6881551p-6745848c.html.
My query : De person aire ? fictional government employee engaged in fraud. Hmmm. Why did this story come out now and how widespread is this practice? How could we tell - could a news media make this sort of thing up to influence people? How much of our data is jobbed by bureaucrats paid to keep themselves employed? How far up the food chain does ther behavior go?
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