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Report A Violation | NOAA Fisheries
Report A Violation | NOAA Fisheries
Report A Violation
Please contact us if you see a possible violation of a federal marine resource law.
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(800) 853-1964
NOAA Fisheries' Enforcement Hotline provides live operator coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for anyone in the United States to report a federal marine resource violation. During regular business hours, you may also contact the closest
NOAA Office of Law Enforcement field office
to report a possible violation.
Examples of violations include, but are not limited to:
Feeding, injuring, or killing dolphins, whales, seals, sea lions, or any other marine mammal.
Feeding, injuring, or killing sea turtles or harvesting sea turtle eggs.
Intentional mislabeling of seafood for profit.
Buying or selling fish without the proper permits.
Examples of information to include in your report are:
Location, time, and date of the activity.
Description of the activity.
Name(s) of the vessel, owner/operator, captain, crew, or additional witnesses.
Rewards
Protecting our nation's living marine resources is a team effort, and information from the public plays a vital role. NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) may, on a case-by-case basis, issue rewards to individuals who provide information that leads to an arrest, conviction, civil penalty assessment, or forfeiture of property for violation(s) of the laws and regulations NOAA enforces. In determining whether a reward is appropriate, OLE will evaluate whether the information provided was sufficiently substantial such that the unlawful activity would likely have continued undetected and/or a successful prosecution would not have been able to have been obtained without the information provided.
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on May 30, 2025