Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: New leaders of Rafael’s shuttered fishing sector seek meeting with NOAA exec

December 4, 2017 — The new leaders of Carlos Rafael’s former fishing sector say they never got a chance to introduce themselves personally to John Bullard, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Greater Atlantic Region, before he made the decision in November to end their groundfishing season five months early.

They’re hoping he’ll see them now, asking for a face-to-face meeting as soon as possible in a letter sent Monday.

“Sector IX is disappointed in [the decision by Bullard, on Nov. 20, to withdraw its management plan] since it forces a complete shutdown of the sector for an undetermined period of time leading to severe collateral consequences – disrupting the lives of crew members and numerous shore based support businesses,” writes Andrew Saunders, the attorney recently hired by the board. “Sector IX strongly believes that your initial determination was based upon incomplete information and respectfully asks that you reconsider your position.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

US fishing rules coming to impact New England scallops, cod harvests

November 29, 2017 — The US’s National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) has released a proposal that could mean dramatic changes for the way fishing is managed off the coasts of the New England states, the Associated Press reports.

The proposed “Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment” from NMFS, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, would address the way such species as scallops and haddock are harvested in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and other areas, and how rare whales are protected.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News 

 

NOAA site aims to help fishing communities bounce back

November 24, 2017 — NOAA Fisheries has introduced a new website designed to help fishing communities be more resilient in the face of climate change, fluctuating fish stocks and even declines in waterfront infrastructure and economy.

The new website endeavor, introduced this week after almost three years of planning, is called Community Resilience in the Greater Atlantic Region.

“It really came out of the strategic plan we developed here in the regional office, which was the first one anywhere,” said Peter Burns of NOAA Fisheries in Gloucester. “One of the goals of that plan centered on building community resilience to help strengthen fishing communities.”

Working with NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, the community resilience working group — which included NOAA staffers from the West Coast, as well — began exploring ways to assist fishing communities in coping with regulatory, environmental and economic changes that challenge the very sustainability of fishing communities.

According to NOAA Fisheries’ own description of the endeavor, the resiliency strategy would provide information on “solutions to improve groundfish business practices and economic vitality,” as well as incorporating climate change, ocean acidification and ecosystem analysis into NOAA Fisheries’ activities.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Massachusetts: Despite Gloucester dialogue, Sector IX fishermen on ice

November 24, 2017 — In late October, about a month after the New England Fisheries Management Council insisted by vote that NOAA Fisheries hold Northeast Fishing Sector IX accountable for allowing the illegal actions of its most dominant member, Carlos Rafael, the Northeast Seafood Coalition brokered a meeting at the NOAA Fisheries office at Blackburn Industrial Park.

The Gloucester-based fishing advocate sought to bring together officials of the sector’s reconstituted board of directors with federal fishery regulators. It’s mission was to begin sifting through the rubble of the Rafael-induced damage to the fishery and begin focusing on future reforms to bring the sector into compliance with its operation plan to preclude widespread abuse from occurring again.

“We facilitated the meeting to open up a dialogue,” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the coalition. “That’s our role. We understood the severity of the charges and we certainly don’t condone Carlos’s actions. We just wanted to try communicating in a calm, reasonable manner.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Uncertainty surrounds NOAA banning Carlos Rafael’s vessels from groundfish

November 22, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The effects of NOAA’s decision to ban Carlos Rafael’s fleet from groundfishing on Monday remains unclear.

Mayor Jon Mitchell, who criticized NOAA’s approach to the case, said it’s “really hard to say” how big an effect the suspension of about 20 vessels from groundfishing will have on upwards of 70 fishermen.

“I think it’s fair to say there will be certain folks on the waterfront that will lose the opportunity to make a full livelihood this winter,” Mitchell said.

There’s a number of reasons that contribute to the uncertainty with NOAA withdrawing the operational plan for groundfishing of Sector IX, one of 19 fishing divisions in the Northeast primarily made up of permits held by Rafael.

It’s unknown how long the the vessels will be prevented from landing groundfish. There are few precedents to follow in a measure NOAA said it hasn’t been done before.

Monday’s order extends through the 2017 fishing year. However, Sector IX could submit a new plan at any time. If NOAA approves it, business would return as usual.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Carlos Rafael’s fraud leaves New Bedford fishing permits on ice

November 22, 2017 — BOSTON — South Coast officials and seafood industry interests were stunned by Monday’s federal decision to shut down a sector with ties to disgraced fishing magnate Carlos Rafael, a decision they say will cut into the livelihoods of fishermen during the holiday season and beyond.

“The ruling itself was unexpected,” said Andrew Saunders, a New Bedford attorney retained two months ago by Northeast Fishery Sector 9, one of 19 non-profit entities set up to manage fishing industry operations in the face of strict catch limits imposed by the federal government.

The decision stems from the fraud perpetrated by fishing magnate Carlos Rafael – dubbed the ‘Codfather’ in local media coverage – but New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell says there’s collateral damage involved for people in the New Bedford area whose jobs are tethered to the harvesting of groundfish such as cod, flounder and haddock.

“The tying up of these vessels will deprive crew members opportunities to earn a living and it will eat into the revenue of shoreside businesses that support the industry,” Mitchell told the News Service, citing impacts on fuel and ice suppliers, net menders and settlement houses.

The decision was handed down by NOAA Regional Administrator John Bullard, a former mayor of New Bedford. In his ruling Bullard zeroed in on Rafael, who was hit with a 46-month prison sentence in September after federal prosecutors convicted him of charges associated with falsifying records to evade federal fishing quotas and smuggling business proceeds to Portugal to avoid U.S. taxation.

Read the full story from the State House News Service at the Newburyport Daily News

Fish fleet film earns thumbs-up

November 22, 2017 — ROCKPORT, Mass. — John Friedrich drove down here from Amesbury on Saturday afternoon for the sole purpose of attending the premiere of the fishing documentary “Dead in the Water” at the Rockport High School auditorium.

Friedrich had read a story in the Newburyport Daily News about the documentary that chronicles the demise and unceasing challenges faced by the once-mighty Gloucester groundfish fleet and thought it was something he should see, to gauge for himself the true extent of the problem.

“I thought the film was very well done,” he said of the 15th documentary from veteran filmmaker and Rockport native David Wittkower. “But it was also very disturbing, just emotionally disturbing. It’s such a tragedy. The problem is so much more huge than I imagined.”

If Wittkower and producers Angela Sanfilippo and John Bell were looking for a template for the response they sought from Saturday’s packed house, that was it.

From the day he first envisioned the film in 2013, the mantra that has driven Wittkower has been to spread the story of Gloucester’s fishing crisis beyond the rocky shores of Cape Ann, to bring to the rest of America the tale of a disappearing American legacy and one of its first industries.

The showing on Saturday drew almost 300, most of them from Cape Ann and most with at least a nominal sense of the regulatory, environmental and market pressures faced by America’s oldest commercial fishing fleet.

Read the full story from the Gloucester Times at the Salem News

 

Massive fish fraud results in huge penalty for fishermen

November 20, 2017 — In an unprecedented punishment, federal regulators Monday ordered scores of commercial fishermen in Massachusetts to return their vessels to shore after the owner of many of the boats, a New Bedford fishing mogul known as “The Codfather,” failed to account for the fish they caught and orchestrated a massive fraud.

The move immediately prohibits 60 permit holders, including 22 active vessels, from going back to sea until at least the start of the new fishing season in May.

Most of the vessels were operated by Carlos Rafael, the magnate who was recently convicted of one of the nation’s largest violations of fishing regulations.

Read the full Story at the Boston Globe

 

Rafael Scandal Shuts Out Boats From Cod, Flounder Fisheries

November 20, 2017 — Federal regulators are shutting down fishing rights for a significant portion of New England’s stressed groundfish stocks, such as cod and flounder. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says managers for a New Bedford, Massachusetts-based sector undermined conservation goals while disgraced fishing magnate Carlos Rafael was falsifying catch reports.

There are 19 groundfish sectors in the Northeast, each representing a group of fishermen who manage catch quotas set by NOAA regulators. Sector IX is dominated by boats based in New Bedford and owned by Rafael, also known as “the Codfather,” who started a nearly four-year jail sentence in Fort Devens, Massachusetts, this month after he confessed to falsifying catch information.

Federal regulators say Sector IX officials, including Rafael’s daughter, failed to develop information to show that quotas were no longer being violated, and so its fishermen won’t be allowed to catch more groundfish this fishing year, which ends in April — or the next year, if a valid new management plan isn’t offered.

Read the full story at Maine Public

 

New England Council Supports Regional Administrator’s Action to Enforce Groundfish Sector IX Operations Plan

November 21, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fisheries Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council supports today’s announcement by the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) that it will be enforcing groundfish sector rules and the Northeast Fishery Sector IX operations plan.

Under Amendment 16 to the Council’s groundfish plan, GARFO’s regional administrator has authority to withdraw approval of a sector at any time he or she, after consulting with the New England Council, determines that: (1) sector participants are not complying with the requirements of an approved operations plan; or (2) “continuation of the operations plan will undermine achievement of fishing mortality objectives” of the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan.

Regional Administrator Bullard consulted with the Council on two occasions – first during the Council’s June meeting in Portland, ME and then again during the September meeting in Gloucester, MA. On September 27, the Council voted to request that “GARFO immediately enforce sector regulations and the Sector IX operations plan.”

“We asked them to enforce the rule, and that’s what they’re doing,” said Council Executive Director Tom Nies. “Since 2004, the Council has emphasized repeatedly that sectors are responsible for monitoring their catch and enforcing sector provisions. Sector IX failed to comply with its own enforcement provisions when its president admitted to reporting violations.”

NMFS published an interim final rule on April 28, 2017 stating it had “provisionally approved” the Sector IX operations plan for 2017 and 2018, along with the annual catch entitlement (ACE) allocated to the sector for 2017.

Carlos Rafael, who was president of the sector at that time, pleaded guilty on March 30 to falsely reporting catch information for 13 vessels operating under the sector. However, since the Rafael case was under litigation when NMFS published the interim final rule approving all of the region’s 19 sectors and their operations plans, the agency stated its intention to take “additional action” if warranted for Sector IX following settlement of Rafael’s criminal case.

Rafael was sentenced September 25 in U.S. District Court in Boston to 46 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines. On October 11, he was further ordered to forfeit his interests in four vessels and their associated permits.

GARFO’s announcement today withdrawing approval of the Sector IX operations plans means that vessels enrolled in Sector IX are prohibited from: (1) fishing on a sector trip and harvesting sector ACE; (2) fishing on a common pool trip; or (3) joining another sector.

However, the action does not reallocate the ACE to other sectors or to the common pool. NMFS is continuing to analyze the extent of the sector’s ACE overages based on the misreporting of catch information for several stocks. The agency stated, “Any accountability measures, such as assessing and deducting ACE overages incurred by the sector, (will) be determined in a future action.”

“For the future success of the sector system, fishermen and the public must be confident that sectors will adhere to management provisions.”

– New England Fishery Management Council in a September 29, 2017 letter to GARFO Regional Administrator John Bullard seeking immediate enforcement of sector regulations and the Sector IX operations plan

Learn more about the NEFMC by visiting their site here.