Saving Seafood

Enforcement

NOAA, Coast Guard: More regs needed in wake of Rafael ’s fraud

December 4, 2019 — Representatives from NOAA and the US Coast Guard are using Carlos Rafael’s case as evidence that more regulations and oversight are necessary in the groundfishing industry.

NOAA Special Agent Troy Audyatis explained to a crowd gathered at the New England Fishery Management Council Meeting on Tuesday how NOAA worked with other agencies to catch the so-called Codfather and said, “We need to prevent something like this from ever repeating itself down the road.”

Rafael was sentenced to 46-months in federal prison for falsifying fishing quota, cash smuggling, and tax evasion in a criminal case, and was ordered to pay a $3 million penalty to address the federal government’s civil claims against him which included counts of misreporting and underreporting his groundfish catch.

Audyatis said if there wasn’t an observer, who collects data from U.S. commercial fishing and processing vessels for NOAA, on Rafael’s vessels or a dock-side officer “thousands upon thousands of fish would simply disappear” without being reported.

One of the reasons Audyatis gave for Rafael being able to misreport and underreport was the vertical integration of Rafael’s business.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

‘We caught him using his own words’ NOAA: Rafael’s own fishery complaints opened door to his downfall

December 4, 2019 — It turns out that it was Carlos Rafael himself who opened the door to the civil and criminal investigations that resulted in his exile from the commercial fishing industry and his current residency at the FMC Devens federal prison.

In January 2015, angered by cuts to his portion of federal groundfish disaster relief, Rafael publicly railed against the process and said he planned to sell his more than 40 vessels and the approximately 60 federal fishing permits attached to them.

And with that, according to a NOAA Office of Law Enforcement presentation Tuesday to the New England Fishery Management Council on the criminal case against Rafael, five federal law enforcement agencies saw their opening.

They began widespread undercover investigations that ultimately led to Rafael’s indictment and conviction in November 2017 for fisheries reporting violations, tax evasion and bulk smuggling.

“We took this as an opportunity to reach out to Carlos Rafael as interested buyers,” said OLE Special Agent Troy Audyatis. “We caught him using his own words.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Coast Guard Report Finds Misreporting in Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fisheries

December 2, 2019 (Saving Seafood) — WASHINGTON — Tomorrow, at the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) December Meeting in Newport, Rhode Island, the United States Coast Guard will present a summary of an analysis it conducted from late 2014 through 2016 into potential misreporting in the Northeast Multispecies (NMS) fishery. The analysis identified over 350 trips from 2011-2015 where there is evidence of misreporting.

The Coast Guard analysis claims that several misreporting schemes were utilized from 2011 to 2015, and potentially up to 2.5 million pounds of regulated species were misreported by vessels from multiple sectors in the NMS fishery. The analysis also argues that the current regulation regime is vulnerable to stock area misreporting and limits the ability of enforcement to detect and document misreporting of stock areas.

Since February 2017, fishery managers have been developing Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) FMP, which would implement measures to improve reliability and accountability of catch reporting and ensure an accurate representation of catch (landings and discards). Amendment 23, which is currently in draft form, has been developed concurrently with the Coast Guard study, and is not a response to it. It has been developed by the NEFMC in consultation with the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The draft amendment is available here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/nefmc.org/190905_Draft_Groundfish_A23_alternatives.pdf.

The Coast Guard report was authored by the First District Enforcement Staff and is available here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/nefmc.org/USCG-Groundfish-Misreporting-Investigation-and-Analysis.pdf.

The species of fish off the New England coast commonly referred to as “groundfish” are managed under the NMS Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and regulated under Title 50, Chapter VI, Part 648 of the Code of Federal Regulations (50 CFR 648). The latest updates on the development of NEFMC Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies FMP are available here: https://www.nefmc.org/library/amendment-23.

Coast Guard: Catch misreported on 350 fishing trips

December 2, 2019 — The Northeast multispecies groundfishery may have been victimized by several misreporting schemes through a five-year period and “potentially up to 2.5 million pounds of regulated species were misreported by vessels from multiple sectors” in the fishery, according to a Coast Guard investigation of misreporting.

The report chronicling the Coast Guard investigation from 2011 to 2015 will be presented to the New England Fishery Management Council on Tuesday during the first of its three days of meetings in Newport, Rhode Island.

The Coast Guard presentation is one of two scheduled agenda items dealing with catch misreporting that will be before the council on Tuesday.

The same day, NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Law Enforcement is scheduled to make a presentation to the council specifically on misreporting uncovered during the criminal case brought against now-incarcerated New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael.

In its 21-page report, the Coast Guard said the analysis by its Boston-based First District enforcement staff identified more than 350 vessel trips during the period of 2011 to 2015 in the Northeast multispecies groundfishery “where there appears to be evidence of misreporting.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

US fisheries sees first IP-based broadband terminal and vessel monitoring

November 26, 2019 — An estimated 4,000 legally licensed commercial fishing vessels are permitted to fish in US Fisheries Management regions. These are required to report their GPS positions via a type-approved secure satellite link.

As explained, iFleetONE VMS is the first mobile satellite terminal to provide secure VMS services for NMFS with full-featured voice and IP-based communications capabilities.

In addition, it is expected, for the first time, to enable every stakeholder in the VMS ecosystem, including NMFS Law Enforcement, fisheries management officials and other end users to have a platform to develop new and previously limited applications.

As such, this terminal and VMS combination is expected to transform regulatory compliance, fisheries governance in US waters to sustain fish numbers and protect ocean habitats, explained Inmarsat’s Eric Griffin, VP for Offshore & Fishing.

Read the full story at Safety4Sea

New tool helps fisheries enforcement track criminal fishing around the world

November 19, 2019 — A new online tool maps vessels that have fished illegally or committed other crimes at sea, giving fishery managers and enforcement officials another way to keep tabs on illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Spyglass, which contains records for nearly 3,700 vessels and 1,200 companies so far, aims to document which vessels are the highest risk for IUU fishing so that they can be stopped.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Florida regulators crack down on harvest, sale of undersized spiny lobsters

October 16, 2019 — Kent Alexander Quinn Downs, a 33-year-old commercial spiny lobster fisherman from Marathon, Florida, was arrested Oct. 10 and charged with 11 counts of possessing undersized lobsters on his vessel as well as a felony charge related to destroying evidence, the Miami Herald reports.

Quinn Downs and his boat, That’s Right, were spotted in the East Bahia Honda Channel by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC) officer Joshua Peters in the afternoon and hailed for an inspection. Peters said he then noticed a man dumping half a basket of undersized lobsters into the water.

Quinn Downs later admitted there were about 15 undersized lobsters in the basket and that he dumped them when he saw the officer’s blue lights, according to the arrest report.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

NOAA Offers Reward for Information Regarding Unreported/Misreported Landings of Summer Flounder

October 2, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The NOAA Office of Law Enforcement is offering a reward of up to $20,000 in exchange for information leading to the successful prosecution of individuals suspected of being involved in significant unreported or misreported landings of summer flounder (fluke) in New York and New Jersey.

NOAA officials seek information from anyone who may have details of these incidents.

Anyone with information is asked to please call OLE’s Northeast Division at 908-339-1148, or the NOAA Enforcement Hotline at 1-800-853-1964.

Tips may be anonymous, however anyone providing information must leave their name and contact information to be eligible for the reward.

3 charged with breaking herring fishing laws in Maine

September 20, 2019 — The Maine Marine Patrol says it has cited three men for violating laws designed to protect an economically important species of fish.

The laws protect Atlantic herring, a bait fish that has been the subject of deep fishing quota cuts in recent years. The marine patrol says it has charged fishing boat captain Glenn Robbins of Eliot with exceeding the weekly limit of 160,000 pounds of herring and failing to file accurate reports.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

U.S. Coast Guard Targets Illegal Fishing in International Waters

September 9, 2019 — The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mellon, including two Canadian fishery officers, returned to Seattle on Sunday after an 80-day patrol detecting and deterring illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activity in the Pacific Ocean. The patrol was performed under the auspices of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and the North Pacific Fisheries Commission.

Economists estimate that IUU fishing costs the international economy billions of dollars per year. By diminishing stocks, it undermines the livelihoods of legitimate fishermen around the world, with negative effects on food security in developing nations. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, combatting global IUU fishing through international partnerships is a priority for Canada and the United States.

“IUU fishing is one of the greatest threats to the ocean’s fish stocks,” said Capt. Jonathan Musman, Mellon’s commanding officer. “It was an honor to be on the front lines of enforcement efforts of the distant waters fishing fleets.”

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive