Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: At Fishermen’s Memorial Service, daughter speaks language of loss

August 24, 2017 — Candace Unis, who will speak at Saturday’s annual Fishermen’s Memorial Service of the grief of losing a loved one to the sea, knows of which she speaks.

In September 1978, her father left on a Sunday for two days of fishing on his nephew’s 52-foot trawler and was never seen again.

There were no mayday calls, no signs of distress.

The boat, the Alligator, went down — possibly hit by a freighter — with three men onboard: Unis’s 55-year-old father, James Sinagra, his 46-year-old nephew, Carlo “Bronco” Sinagra; and a 26-year-old crewman, Glenn Guitarr. It was the second boat lost out of Gloucester that month, with a total of nine lives lost, and to Unis, who was 25 at the time, it was a wound that would never really heal.

“I wish they would strike the word closure from the dictionary,” Unis said this week. Now a grief counselor with an active consultancy here in her native Gloucester, Unis says she believes there is no such thing as closure to the loss of a loved one, and there shouldn’t be. “They will always be there in who we are, and to seek closure from that is, I think, to diminish who they were.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Sanfilippo to be honored at Sea to Supper Celebration

August 17, 2017 — To Angela Sanfilippo, the glass is never half empty. Or half full. To Sanfillippo, the glass is always full. As president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association for the past 40 years, her unbounded optimism and energy has lit the way through the most troubled waters ever seen by the fishing industry of Gloucester and all of New England.

In 2012, during some of the darkest of those very dark days, she told a local audience, “We have 250 boats in our harbor and 198 of them are commercial fishing boats … and just last year when everyone thought the fishing industry was dead, what they brought into this port, into dock, was $60 million … people want us to think that the fishing industry is dead … the fishing industry is not dead.”

The feisty Sanfilippo — who noted in the same speech that Gloucester is the city of “Captains Courageous” — is widely considered to be the region’s most effective long-term advocate for commercial fishermen, and for this she will be honored at a dinner on Thursday, Aug. 24, at the Mile Marker One Restaurant & Bar.

The gala benefit, billed as the Sea to Supper Celebration, is one of three gala fundraisers commemorating the 20th anniversary of Fishing Partnership Support Services, a nonprofit Sanfilippo helped found in the late 1990s and on whose board she still serves.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Marbleheader cleared in alleged fish smuggling plot

August 15, 2017 –A Marblehead businessman is asking the federal government to pay his attorney’s fees after being cleared of what he described as “being framed” by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Robert Kliss and his company North Atlantic Traders Ltd. was indicted in April, after a nearly five-year investigation. He was charged with smuggling, falsifying records and conspiracy.

In July, it took a jury only about an hour to clear him of all charges.

“This is a case the government never should have brought,” said Kliss’s Attorney Barry Pollack.

“I would have to say it was probably the most stressful thing I’ve very gone through,” Kliss said. “More so than an IRS audit and I’ve been through three.”

The Motion

In his motion for an award of attorney’s fees, which was filed in U.S. District Court Aug. 9, Pollack lays out all the ways the government’s case went wrong, including pressuring witnesses to, in some cases, exaggerate testimony and in one case invoke the Fifth Amendment.

Three cooperating witnesses pled guilty to a misdemeanor, “as the result of a hybrid charge and fact bargaining,” Pollack stated in his motion. “The government paid substantial consideration, in that respect, to each witness while pressuring him to provide testimony against Kliss.”

One of the most damning pieces of evidence against the government’s case however was when Agent Shawn Eusebio testified that during the more than four-year active investigation, no one on the government’s team realized Kliss wasn’t even in the country during the time he was alleged to have created and filed false documents in Massachusetts. Kliss had been in British Columbia with his son.

“My evidence was my stamped passport along with my son’s,” Kliss said. “That’s how bad the investigators and (prosecuting) attorneys are.”

Read the full story at the Marblehead Reporter

Read a statement from Stephen Ouellette, an attorney for North Atlantic Traders, here

 

 

North Atlantic Traders Acquitted on Smuggling and Conspiracy Charges in Less than One Hour of Jury Deliberation

August 15, 2017 — BOSTON — The following was released by Stephen Ouellette, attorney for North Atlantic Traders:

A 12-person federal jury acquitted federal tuna dealer North Atlantic Traders and its principal, Robert Kliss, on Lacey Act, smuggling and conspiracy charges in a case before District Judge William Young, investigated by the Department of Justice working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.   The jury reached its verdict of not guilty on all five counts against both defendants in less than a full hour of deliberation.

Barry Pollack of Boston, attorney for Kliss, added, “the federal agents engaged in misconduct by pressuring witnesses to make exaggerated statements, which the jury saw through.”

Stephen Ouellette of Gloucester, Massachusetts, attorney for North Atlantic Traders, said “the verdict of not guilty reflected more than two decades of regulatory compliance by my client and its dedication to a sustainable fishery.  That NOAA’s overzealous prosecution in this and other cases following closely on the heels of the highly critical assessment of NOAA law enforcement by the Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General can only be seen as an attempt to justify NOAA’s enforcement budget at the expense of the fishing industry and fundamental principles of justice.”

For further information, contact Stephen Ouellette at 978-281-7788 or 978-317-2542.

Charter boat owners see jump in cancellations as cod ban takes effect

August 14, 2017 — A new rule that recreational anglers in the Gulf of Maine can’t keep cod they catch is putting the squeeze on the charter boat industry, business owners say.

Capt. Don Taylor runs a six-person charter boat out of Rye Harbor. He said he can see the scientific reasoning behind imposing the restriction, but says it is causing people to cancel their reservations — even though they can still keep haddock, cusk and hake.

“I don’t think not allowing us to have one cod per person on a boat is going to make any difference at all. That’s my opinion on it,” Taylor said. “I think they’re going a little overboard, myself, and it’s hurting the charter boat industry.”

Allison Ferreira, who is in charge of communications for the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office in Gloucester, Mass., said the reason for the restriction is that recreational fishermen exceeded their cod catch limit by 92 percent last year.

Federal officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration use estimates from the Marine Recreational Information Program to determine if a population is being overfished. In addition to getting reports from charter boat captains, they survey individuals who go out on their own boats.

Read the full story at the New Hampshire Union Leader

Despite guilty plea, Carlos Rafael continues to fish

August 14, 2017 — Gloucester fisherman and vessel owner Vito Giacalone is the chairman of governmental affairs, and sits on the board of directors of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, the umbrella organization that oversees a dozen sectors, including Rafael’s. Up until 2016, Rafael was also a coalition board member.

Giacalone believed that Rafael was simply too big to be allowed to fail, that his sector worked with NOAA to enact changes — including bringing in new board members and a new enforcement committee — that allowed them to stay in business.

Rafael’s vessels control considerable groundfish quota, up to 75 percent of what New Bedford holds, according to New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, and Rafael has said he has 280 employees.

“You don’t have to be too imaginative to see that that is an enormous collateral impact as soon as that operation is stopped in its tracks,” Giacalone said, estimating that as many as 80 fishermen would be immediately out of work.

“I wish Carlos Rafael had thought about that before he did what did,” said Hank Soule, manager of the Sustainable Harvest Sector in South Berwick, Maine.  “The bottom line is New Bedford is the richest port in the U.S. The loss of his groundfish boats won’t devastate the port.”

NOAA is reportedly working with Rafael’s legal team on an agreement that would have him selling off his vessels and permits and leaving fishing forever, including scallop and lobster vessels not involved in the fish smuggling scheme.

At least 13 vessels are scheduled to be forfeited to the government as part of the plea deal and Giacalone thinks NOAA may be trying to maintain the value of the assets by keeping them fishing.

“I think it would be clumsy of the sector to cause collateral damage that could be excessive to innocent third parties,” Giacalone said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Honors planned for Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association president

August 9, 2017 — Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, will be the guest of honor at the Sea to Supper Celebration at 6 p.m. Aug. 24 at the Mile Marker One Restaurant & Bar, 75 Essex St., in the Cape Ann Marina Resort.

The Sea to Supper Celebration will feature local, fresh seafood specially prepared for the occasion by Todd Snopkowski of Snapchef, wines, oral tributes and displays on Cape Ann fishermen and more.

Tickets cost $75, and may be obtained by calling 978-821-1590 or visiting http://bit.ly/2v0HBdj.

Proceeds benefit nonprofit Fishing Partnership Support Services, which Sanfilippo helped found in the late ’90s, and on whose board of directors she has served ever since. Fishing Partnership Support Services helps commercial fishermen and their families through a variety of free services — from safety trainings, to health coverage enrollment assistance, to disaster relief support.

While honoring Sanfilippo, the Sea to Supper Celebration will also highlight the contributions commercial fishermen have made to coastal communities and to the health of seafood consumers, according to J.J. Bartlett, president of Fishing Partnership Support Services.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

MASSACHUSETTS: A meeting of the minds on the future of the fisheries

August 3, 2017 — For some, the focus was on collaboration and the need to build sustainable seafood partnerships.

“Much of what we have already learned comes from the farming sector,” said Jack Wiggin, head of the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Urban Harbors Institute. Opening a Wednesday morning conference on the seafood industry at The Gloucester House, he noted cited parallels between harvesting America’s farms and seas.

To Anamarija Frankic, however, the future of the seafood industry is tied to a more basic approach.

“It’s like the chicken and egg,” said Frankic, a UMass-Boston teacher of biomimicry — the science of seeking solutions based on time-tested patterns and models. “How can you have aquaculture? How can you sustain seafood without protecting the ocean (waters), not just in the harbors but in watersheds? Much of what we do is very specific, protecting and rebuilding specific species or specific habitat, but we have to work to sustain the entire coastal habitat.”

Those were just two of the ideas raised over the course of the daylong conference, which was funded by the state’s Seaport Economic Council and drew more than 50 experts representing government agencies, fishermen, seafood processors and community leaders.

“This is a summit — I would call it that,” Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said in welcoming the group to Gloucester. “We haven’t truly had something like this in 20 years.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: A focus on selling seafood

Local stakeholders hope event generates opportunities

August 2, 2017 — More than 60 key players from the fishing and seafood industries will be in Gloucester on Wednesday exploring new ways to promote locally caught seafood and spotlight seaport economic successes.

Presenters from the U.S. Department  of Agriculture and the University of Massachusetts Boston, along with waterfront representatives from Maine to New Jersey will attend a day-long conference, open to the public, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Gloucester House.

“Building the Massachusetts Seafood System,” as the event is titled, will include presentations and discussion groups, said local organizer and harbor activist Valerie Nelson. But she said it will be more than just talk.

“This is designed to produce recommendations to the Seaport Council, to the state, maybe to the UMass system,” Nelson said . “This isn’t an idle conversation, this is to lead to a next step. We want some real momentum to come out of this.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Improving the science is key

Gov. Baker pledges support for new studies, research on fishing industry

July 31, 2017 — Governor Charlie Baker says more and stronger data will help Gloucester fishermen push back against federal fisheries regulations they believe are unwarranted and which, they claim, are in some cases based on inaccurate government data.

Citing scientific data as key to reviving not only Gloucester’s, but also the state’s fishing industry, Baker told a roomful of fishermen and their supporters Thursday that he will continue to support their push for new studies and other research. He also hailed the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition for its focus on those needs.

“We’re very proud of you and all that you are doing to improve the science,” Baker told up to 300 people gathered for the coalition’s annual fundraiser at The Gloucester House. The benefit, which was expected to raise up to $50,000 for the fishing industry policy and advocacy organization, carried a theme of “Know fish, better science.”

“We look forward to working with you, and we are committed to advocating for you,” the governor added, noting that the coalition continues to push for a greater role for fishermen in government trawl studies and other research used to craft fishing quotas on cod and other groundfish. “We respect the work you do, and we look to working with you and for you long into the future.”

Baker, who has consistently sided with fishermen in their questioning of the accuracy of government catch data, made his latest visit to Gloucester two weeks after the announcement that John Bullard, NOAA Fisheries’ Greater Atlantic regional administrator for the past five years, is retiring in January.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times