Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Carlos A. Rafael held without bail

February 26, 2016 — BOSTON — Carlos A. Rafael was held without bail Friday afternoon after appearing in U.S. District Court on charges of conspiracy and submitting falsified records to the federal government.

Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy ordered Rafael, 64, held until a preliminary and detention hearing is held in the federal court in Worcester on Wednesday, March 2 at 1 p.m.Rafael’s bookkeeper and co-defendant, Debra Messier of Dartmouth, faces the same charges but was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond.

The two appeared in the Boston court Friday afternoon after federal authorities, including the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement and the Internal Revenue Service, executed two search warrants and raided the headquarters of Rafael’s groundfishing and scallop business on the city’s South End waterfront Friday morning.

Federal prosecutors charge that for years, Rafael, with the help of Messier, lied to federal authorities about the quantity and species of fish his large New Bedford fleet caught, in order to evade federal groundfishing quotas, according to the criminal complaint filed by the IRS. After submitting false records to federal regulators, Rafael then sold the fish to a business in New York City in exchange for bags of cash, the Office of U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling argued Rafael posed a flight risk.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

View a PDF of the affidavit of agent Ronald Mullet in support of a criminal complaint charging Carlos Raphael

Jack Spillane: Rafael’s fall puts New Bedford fishing on brink

February 26, 2016 — They called him “The Codfather” and like his namesake in the movies, everybody secretly loved him.

Sure, he was a rough, tough guy who said “mother——” every other sentence.

Sure, he liked to brag about how he got the money to buy his first boat might not have all been on the “up and up.”

But he was a big success.

Carlos Rafael parlayed one boat into two boats and then two boats into a fleet of boats and then the money from the boats into a seafood processing house.

On a waterfront where the once mighty groundfish industry has been slowly rotting to a sad shipwreck, we admired Carlos.

Like everybody on the waterfront, he made money on the scallopers but how the hell was he doing it on groundfish? Nobody else understood how to make money groundfishing anymore.

Now, we know how Carlos did.

Or at least how the feds say he did.

The rough, tough Codfather had fish that were on the books and fish that were off the books. He had low-priced haddock that was really higher priced dabs or gray sole. He had an elaborate scam he called “the dance” under which he and his bookkeeper had their boat captains bringing off-the-books fish down to another wise guy in New York.

The off-the books fish sold for cash in the big city and Carlos is said to have made a killing. More than $600K in just six months. Probably millions over time.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

View a PDF of the affidavit of agent Ronald Mullet in support of a criminal complaint charging Carlos Rafael

Groundfishermen worry looming $600 cost shift could hurt industry

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — February 24, 2016 — New England fishermen say that they have already been gutted by limits set by the National Marine Fisheries Service over how much of certain species of groundfish remain off our shores. Now, a looming cost shift is threatening the industry entirely.

Back in 2000, there were about 100 groundfishermen in New Hampshire, using small commercial boats catching the cod, haddock and flounder that we equate with New England seafood.

In 2016, most have switched over to lobster and scallops. Many of them were forced out by limits and quotas.

David Goethel is one of only nine groundfishermen left in the state. But he’s worried something else could wipe out groundfishing completely.

“I lost 95 percent of my cod quota in the last four years and I’m fishing for things that are less value and then I’m going to have to pay for these monitors on top of that. It simply does not add up,” said Goethel.

Read the full story from WMUR

New Video System Can Help Count Cod Population

February 16, 2016 — DARTMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Researchers with the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth say a new video system will help provide data to better inform management of New England’s beleaguered cod population.

UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology scientists say their new video system will help assess the species in the Gulf of Maine. The system uses open-ended fishing net with video cameras mounted on its frame to take pictures of fish passing through.

The university says the scientists tested the system on Stellwagen Bank in January with good results.

Cod are one of the most important food fish species in the Atlantic, but the stock has collapsed. Cod fishermen caught more than 33 million pounds of the fish in 2001 and managed only about 5.2 million pounds in 2014.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WWLP

Court battle continues over at-sea monitoring

February 10, 2016 — The federal lawsuit filed by a New Hampshire fisherman to block NOAA Fisheries’ plan to shift the cost of at-sea monitoring to groundfish permit holders has devolved, at least for now, into a paper fight.

Lawyers for plaintiff David Goethel, captain of the Ellen Diane out of Hampton, N.H., have filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Joseph J. Laplante for an expedited hearing on the merits of the case. Federal lawyers have countered with a motion to dismiss the case outright.

Laplante, sitting in Concord, N.H., has yet to rule on either motion.

In late January, Laplante denied a motion by Goethel’s lawyers for a preliminary injunction that would have immediately halted federal plans to shift the costs of at-sea monitoring to the groundfish boats, thereby helping stave off the impending economic carnage the shift is expected to visit on the already reeling fleet.

“Given that preliminary injunctive relief is not available, plaintiffs request that the court proceed to the merits at its earliest convenience,” Goethel’s lawyers wrote in their motion. “This case remains urgent, with a ‘substantial, largely unrebutted’ risk of ‘potentially disastrous financial impact’ impending in a matter of weeks.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it expects to run out of money for the at-sea monitoring around March 1. Groundfish fishing sectors have been instructed to begin negotiating with monitoring contractors to directly provide the service for the remainder of the 2015 fishing season and the 2016 fishing season that is set to begin May 1.

The question, however, is at what cost. The currently accepted estimate for the cost of groundfish monitors is about $710 per day per vessel, though some fishing sectors around New Bedford have said they were able to negotiate a better price from observer contractors.

Gloucester-based fishing sectors have declined to give specifics about their negotiations with the providers of observer coverage.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

New quotas cut deep for fishing industry

February 3, 2016 — Fishermen and fishing stakeholders say the darkness that has descended on the Northeast groundfish fishery over the past three years is only going to grow deeper in 2016, with some fishing stakeholders envisioning the final collapse of the small-boat industry due to slashed quotas for species they believe are abundant.

“With these cuts, we will not have a fishery as we know it anymore,” said Vito Giacalone, the manager of Gloucester-based Northeast Fishing Sector 4 and the policy director at the Northeast Seafood Coalition. “The great shame to this is we’re going to have this entirely detrimental economic impact while the stocks are in great shape and no one in the government is listening. There is just no leadership.”

At the heart of the issue is the expanding difference between what fishermen say they are seeing on the water and the results from NOAA stock assessments used to produce the annual fishing quotas. Call it a watery Great Divide.

“The fish are in great shape and the only real constraint on catch is quota,” Giacalone said. “Fishermen are seeing that across the board on a lot of the species.”

The quotas, set for 2016 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the final groundfish framework, reflect a far different analysis by NOAA and its scientists. They include savage cuts to gray sole (55 percent), Georges Bank cod (66 percent), northern windowpane flounder (33 percent) and Gulf of Maine yellowtail flounder (26 percent).

“We’ve never had a greater gap between what the fishermen are seeing on the water and what the scientists are saying,” Giacalone said. “Never.”

Gloucester fisherman Al Cottone said his personal sector contribution (PSC) for 2016 includes a slight increase in Gulf of Maine cod from the 1,800 pounds he was allotted in 2015, but cuts in several other species such as yellowtail flounder (down 25 percent to 2,400 pounds); American plaice (down 17.6 percent to 2,800 pounds) and gray sole (down 6 percent to 2,800 pounds).

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

 

Fishermen await trial on NOAA monitors mandate

February 2, 2016 — HAMPTON — Local fisherman David Goethel said he hopes a court ruling comes soon to determine the legality of a new federal mandate, as he and other fishermen are fearful they will go under before the trial begins.

Goethel said he may sell his fishing boat after this summer if the trial isn’t resolved by then. He filed the lawsuit causing the trial, challenging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s plan to make fishermen pay for their own policing. He filed it in conjunction with a fishing sector based in Massachusetts.

Industry members estimate the observers would cost a given fisherman $700 for each day the observer joined them at sea. Observers are mandated to go with fishermen on 24 percent of their fishing days. Fishermen say their industry was already being devastated by strict restrictions on catch limits.

“I will not be able to pay for this,” Goethel said. “I keep saying over and over: This is the straw that will break the camel’s back.”

Read the full story at the Portsmouth Herald

Massachusetts sector managers detail fishing costs

January 29, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD — Managers of area fishery sectors on Friday said many local groundfish boats could face daily charges of $125 or less-frequent charges of about $500, to pay for government-mandated monitoring of their catches.

Sector 9 manager Stephanie Rafael-DeMello and Sector 13 manager John Haran both said they negotiated with East West Technical Services, which has an office in Narragansett, R.I., for catch-monitoring services for which fishermen expect to begin paying around March 1.

Rafael-DeMello said the negotiated price was “just under $500 a day,” per boat. But because regulators randomly select boats for monitoring, she said, Sector 9 will spread the cost evenly, charging boats a flat rate of $125 per sea day in order to foot the overall costs of monitoring, which will apply only to about 20 percent of trips.

“We figured it will kind of ease the blow,” Rafael-DeMello said. “It will be a fair way for all of the vessels to share that cost.”

Sector 9 has about 21 groundfishing boats, nearly all of which operate out of New Bedford.

“We’re looking to see if we can afford to keep them all fishing, with the (quota) cuts and the costs that are coming next year,” Rafael-DeMello said. “It’s definitely going to be a struggle, to say the least.”

Read the full story at New Bedford Standard Times

 

BANGOR DAILY NEWS: How a groundfish disaster today can spawn a different-looking fishery tomorrow

January 27, 2016 — The federal government declared the Northeast groundfish fishery a disaster in 2012. But disaster arguably struck the region’s groundfishing fleet, particularly in Maine, long before that.

In 1982, there were 328 vessels from Maine actively fishing for groundfish. By 2012, the number had fallen to 63 vessels participating in the first true industry that took root in colonial America — fishing for cod, haddock, flounder, pollock, hake and other ocean bottom dwellers. In 2014, 52 Maine vessels held groundfish permits.

The disaster declaration paved the way for Congress to provide disaster aid, and Congress followed suit in February 2014, granting $32.8 million to New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

But the funding the states have distributed so far has largely gone to those who have continued to land groundfish — not the dozens of vessels that have been forced out of the fishery, arguably those most affected by the fishery’s disastrous state. In Maine, 50 groundfish permit holders qualified for $32,500 each in disaster relief because they had caught at least 5,000 pounds of groundfish in at least one of the past four years.

In the coming weeks, Maine has a small opportunity to use its remaining disaster funds in a different way — to help set the groundfish fishery on a sustainable path for the future and make it a viable and affordable option for new and small players, including lobstermen looking to diversify beyond the booming crustacean.

Read the full editorial at Bangor Daily News

DON CUDDY: Fishermen fight back against government overreach

January 28, 2016 — The commercial fishermen suing the federal government over the cost of at-sea monitors had their day in federal court in Concord, New Hampshire, last Thursday. At issue is the notice to fishermen that they will henceforth be required by the National Marine Fisheries Service to pay out of pocket for the at-sea monitors that accompany them on fishing trips, an expense previously absorbed within the annual budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That agency contends that it no longer has the money to fund the program, although these monitors act as agents for the government, and it insists that the boats must now assume payment. Fishermen believe that the high cost of monitors, as much as $710 daily, is excessive, will force many to tie up their boats and result in “irreparable harm.” They also believe that, irrespective of the cost, having at-sea monitors on their boats is a government mandate and consequently should be funded by the government.

I attended the hearing with John Haran of Dartmouth, manager of Northeast Fisheries Sector XIII which includes 32 fishermen. Sector XIII is a plaintiff in the case along with New Hampshire commercial fisherman Dave Goethel.

The all-day hearing concluded without a ruling. Federal District Judge Joseph Laplante will issue a decision in his own time after deliberating on a legal case with potential ramifications not only for the fishing industry but with respect to any government agency’s attempt to increase its own power.

Steve Schwartz, an attorney with Cause of Action, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on government overreach, represents the fishermen. He told the court that the scope of an agency’s power is determined exclusively by Congress and that NOAA lacks the statutory authority to require fishermen to pay for monitors. If NOAA can force fishermen to start writing checks, “it would open the door to a whole panoply of ways that agencies can expand their powers,” he said.

Read the full opinion piece at New Bedford Standard Times