ait@aftenposten.no

Open letter to King & Queen of Norway 

Aftenposten A/S
Education Editor
Akersgaten 51
0180 Oslo
Norway 

Email: ait@aftenposten.no

To 

His Majesty King Harald V, Her Majesty  Queen Sonja of Norway 

Our two nation's share the  rugged  northern edges of the Atlantic Ocean. 

We  are calling on Norway's Royal Family to help us in our efforts to protect our precious wild fisheries from two Norwegian companies that have been wreaking havoc in the easternmost waters of our country.  

Cobscook Bay, America's easternmost bay fully within US boundaries, has become home to  intensive fishpen aquaculture operations owned by Stolt Seafood and 

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME includes pollution offences, offences against the natural environment and fauna, offences against cultural relics, and offences against the working environment laws.

Environmental crime is primarily connected with private activity, particularly business activity. This applies, typically, to industrial companies which illegally emit pollutants, or which deliberately ignore orders to install emission_cleaning equipment.

Environmental crime will often consist of individual acts which are connected with local conditions. But environmental crime may also be international, taking the form of organised criminal acts _ such as illegal storage and dumping of hazardous waste via regular, secret channels, or the illegal capture of, and trade in, threatened species of animals and birds.

The most important Norwegian laws relating to environmental crime are the Pollution Control Act, the Act relating to Motorised Traffic in Unfenced Areas and on Watercourses, the Nature Protection Act, the Wildlife Act, the Salmon and Inland Fisheries Act, the Product Control Act, the Cultural Relic Act and the Working Environment Act.

A high priority area

An increase in the penalties which may be imposed for violation of special legislation, and the insertion. into the penal code of a general clause relating to serious environmental crime _ section 152 b _ in 1993 is evidence of the increased priority being given to this field. Effective from January 1, 1994, ØKOKRIM has included a special team with responsibility for dealing with environmental crime.

ØKOKRIM HAS MULTEDISCIPLINARY KNOW_HOW and assists local police districts with planning and support in investigations, thereby increasing local competence.

Assistance in investigations

Most cases of economic crime and environmental crime are investigated within the individual police district concerned. This is why it is important that local police should be enabled to investigate these matters efficiently and with adequate competence.

ØKOKRIM'S policy is that the unit should assist as many police districts as possible with as many cases as possible. This imposes obvious limits on the extent of assistance that can be provided in each individual case.

Two main forms of assistance are provided _ consultative and on the spot. Consultative assistance means that case documents and other information are considered by ØKOKRIM. The aim is to define the limits of the case and to lay the foundation for further, targetted investigation by the police force in the relevant district. Proposals are made as to how the task should be tackled, and how further investigations should be conducted. In the case of on the spot assistance, the same tasks are performed, but in closer cooperation with local lawyers and investigators on the spot.

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jrichardson@pressherald.com 

Magazine of the Nordic Council of Ministers 
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Denmark 

Tel: 45 33 96 02 00 
Fax: 45 33 96 02 02  Produced in Denmark but circulated and widely read across Scandinavia.\

Aftenposten A/S, 
Education Editor
Akersgaten 51
0180 Oslo
Norway