Saving Seafood

Man Pleads Guilty to False Fishery Disaster Relief Request

October 31, 2018 — A New Hampshire man has pleaded guilty to giving false information in an effort to get fishery disaster relief funds following Hurricane Sandy.

Prosecutors say 56-year-old Dave Bardzik, of Ossipee, submitted several false and/or altered records to the state Fish and Game Department in 2015 in an attempt to qualify for the funds.

Investigators noted discrepancies between the 2015 submission and previous records Bardzik had completed. He admitted that he created the records because he would otherwise not have qualified for funds.

Required criteria included that “for hire” vessels, like Bardzik’s, must have taken at least 15 trips in three of the previous four years in which at least one New England groundfish species was harvested.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

MASSACHUSETTS: Portsmouth boat captain falsified fishing logs to get disaster funds

October 23, 2018 — A fishing boat captain, with a home port of Portsmouth, agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge stating he provided false fishing logs to state Fish and Game officials to fraudulently obtain fishery disaster-relief funds.

The captain, David Bardzik, endorsed the federal plea agreement with his attorney Jerome Blanchard on Oct. 10 and neither could immediately be reached for comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Rombeau is prosecuting the case and a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office did not return a request for additional information.

The plea agreement, however, summarizes the case and a plea hearing is scheduled for Oct. 30 in U.S. District Court of New Hampshire.

Bardzik signed the agreement noting prosecutors could prove he operated the “for hire” sport fishing boat Ultimate Catch, “generally catering to small outings such as family day trips or bachelor parties.” The federal record notes in May 2015 Bardzik was notified that, based on a review of his records, he was not qualified to receive disaster-relief funds implemented after the fishing industry was impacted by Hurricane Sandy and in anticipation of quota cuts for groundfish stocks.

Fisheries directors from New England, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, distributed about $33 million of the disaster-relief funds, the plea agreement states. To qualify in New Hampshire, commercial and for-hire fishermen were required to have taken at least 15 trips in each of the calendar years 2010-2013 and have Fishing Vessel Trip Reports (FVTR) showing at lease one ground fish species was recorded as harvested.

In an appeal to the denial of federal funds, Bardzik submitted FVTRs documenting several 2013 fishing trips, several of which “were false or altered,” the plea agreement states. The reports are originally completed in triplicate and must account for every day in a fishing season, even if to report no trip was taken, the federal record notes.

When the state compared Bardzik’s original filings, with his filings on appeal for the federal money, “they noticed substantial discrepancies,” Bardzik’s plea agreement states.

Read the full story at Seacoast Online