NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — January 4, 2015 — The biggest player in the New England groundfishing industry says he is cashing out of the business, selling off his scallopers and later his groundfish draggers, which count among the last in the country's top-grossing fishing port.
Rafael refused to name the company but said his decision is in response to the state's cutting in half the amount of federal groundfish disaster relief aid he would get. The policy applies to all Massachusetts permit holders but will affect only Rafael because he's the only one with more qualifying permits than the 10.9 permit cap.
"The deal is they have to go out of state; I do not want them in Massachusetts," Rafael said in his raspy voice, calm one minute and yelling the next. "That is the deal: They cannot bring any revenue to this state ever again.
"I'm gonna cash in and screw."
Rafael said he expects to close on the scallop boats early this year but said he's not naming the company because the deal hasn't closed. He said it's a "multi-billion dollar company" based overseas that will operate out of Virginia.
Rafael said he's staying in Dartmouth, where he lives, and will keep his city fish processing facility, Carlos Seafood. But he said he's moving his fishing business to the Cape Verde islands, where he will focus on the "virgin" mackerel fishery.
John Bullard, NOAA Fisheries' Northeast regional administrator, expressed skepticism Rafael would carry out the deal.
"I don't have any reaction at all," Bullard said. "I don't know it to be true number one; number two, the scallop industry and the groundfish industry are very different industries; number three, people get in and out of industries all the time.
Read the full story from the New Bedford Standard-Times