For Release: Monday, June 13, 2005
DEC Establishes Marine Enforcement Unit
MEU Will Further Efforts to Protect and Preserve Marine Resources
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Acting Commissioner Denise M. Sheehan today announced the establishment of a DEC Marine Enforcement Unit (MEU). The MEU will be responsible for protecting the State's marine resources by enforcing State and Federal laws and regulations concerning habitat preservation and the recreational and commercial harvesting of fish, shellfish, and crustacean.
"Our Marine Enforcement Unit will serve as the agency's eyes and ears on our marine waters," Commissioner Sheehan said. "While our Environmental Conservation Officers in the lower Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island have always provided enforcement of marine resource statutes and continue to do so, the enhanced skills and equipment of the specialized MEU will allow closer monitoring of these resources and their users. The creation of the MEU will enhance the DEC's long-standing commitment to protecting our fragile marine environment."
The MEU will include 10 officers and an investigator. The investigator will assist the unit in conducting long term and in-depth investigations into large-scale violations of marine resource statutes. The unit is being placed under the command of a Chief Environmental Conservation Officer and will be headquartered with the DEC's Marine Resources sub-office in Setauket, Long Island. The new commander, Captain Dorothy Thumm, is a 23-year veteran of the DEC's Division of Law Enforcement. In addition, a supervising Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO), with the rank of Lieutenant, will be assigned to the unit to handle field supervision.
Last week, 32 new ECOs graduated from the DEC Police Training Academy in Oswego. Five of these graduates are being assigned to the new Marine Enforcement Unit.
The specialized training and experience of the officers assigned to the MEU makes them experts at species identification, methods of taking, and the rules governing seafood harvests, as well as the operation and maintenance of their specialized equipment. The Unit will work closely with the National Marine Fisheries Service, the United States Coast Guard, and local enforcement agencies.
The members of the MEU are trained to operate the largest and most sophisticated of DEC's police patrol boats including a 42-foot craft stationed in eastern Long Island, and two 32- foot vessels powered by fuel-efficient and pollution-controlling 4-stroke outboard engines. MEU boats are able to patrol in all sea and weather conditions.
DEC issues nearly 10,000 permits for the taking of marine species, in what has become a combined $5.7 billion dollar industry for recreational fishing, commercial fishing, and other seafood-related activities in New York State.
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