Saving Seafood

As Onerous Fees go into Effect that Threaten New Hampshire’s Fishing Industry, Sen. Shaheen Provides an Opportunity for Industry Leaders to Send a Message to Washington

March 3, 2016 — The following was released by the Office of Senator Jeanne Shaheen:

Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the lead Democrat on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, invited two prominent industry leaders in the New England fishing industry to testify at a committee hearing today. Through her leadership on the committee, Senator Shaheen was able to make New Hampshire’s struggling fishing industry a major focus of Thursday’s hearing. James Hayward and Dr. Joshua Wiersma both spoke to the enormous threat that new federal at-sea monitoring fees and existing catch limits pose to New Hampshire’s fishermen. As of the first of this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is forcing New Hampshire fishermen to pay for an at-sea observer program, which monitors catch sizes for conservation purposes. The program, which was previously paid for by NOAA, will cost fishermen an estimated $700 per day on fishing trips.

“Fishing is an integral part of New Hampshire’s economy and heritage,” said Shaheen after the hearing. “Our struggling small-boat fleet needs relief from onerous federal regulations so New Hampshire’s fishermen can continue to make a living. Catch limits and at-sea monitoring fees threaten the very existence of our fishing industry. I’m very pleased that Mr. Hayward and Dr. Wiersma took the time to inform the Senate of their first-hand experience in our region’s fishing industry.”

During the hearing Mr. Hayward and Dr. Wiersma delivered a dire warning to the Senate.

Mr. Hayward: “Time is crucial and the road we’re headed down right now is not a good one. It’s pretty much the end is near and if things aren’t changed soon, at least to some extent, the fleets going to look a lot different in thirty six month. I can assure you of that.”

Shaheen: “Will we still have any fishing in New Hampshire if we don’t see some changes from NOAA?”

Mr. Hayward: “What will happen is the infrastructure will be gone and when that’s gone, the boats will leave. The ones that want to remain will be forced out because they will have no place to offload, market or sell.”

That interaction can be watched here.

At a separate hearing today on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Shaheen confronted the Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker with the testimony she had just heard from Mr. Hayward and Dr. Wiersma. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Their interaction can be watched here.

Background information on Senator Shaheen’s invited witnesses:

James Hayward, President of XI Northeast Fisheries Sector, Inc.

James Hayward is a second generation commercial fisherman. He is primarily a day boat gillnet fisherman operating in the Gulf of Maine ranging from 20 to 120 miles from port. He currently owns two fishing boats located in Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire. He owns and manages Heidi Seafood Services, the only federally licensed groundfish dealership at the State facility in Portsmouth Harbor.  He is president of the community’s groundfish sector, XI Northeast Fisheries Sector, Inc., as well as treasurer of New Hampshire community supported fisheries, New Hampshire Community Seafood.  He is also a board member of the Northeast Seafood Coalition and the Northeast Sector Services Network, and a member of the Seafood Harvesters of America.

Dr. Joshua Wiersma, Manager, Northeast Fisheries, Environmental Defense Fund

Dr. Wiersma has over 15 years of experience working with commercial fishermen in New England to improve their business conditions. His doctoral research, which examined the value of collaborative research to New England fishermen, led him to work directly for the ground fishing industry after graduation. Initially hired by the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership as a Fisheries Economist, he then worked for the Northeast Seafood Coalition as their Sector Policy Analyst where he helped to create the twelve Northeast Fisheries Sectors. He went on to manage New Hampshire’s two ground fishing sectors for the next five years.  Over this time, he also co-founded and was the Executive Director of New Hampshire Community Seafood Association, a successful community supported fishery cooperative that offers fresh, local, underutilized fish to the New Hampshire public through a type of fish share model. He is now the Manager of Northeast Fisheries at Environmental Defense Fund, where he continues to work with fishermen to shape effective fisheries management, to improve fisheries science and data collection, and to develop better seafood markets and other business opportunities.

Carlos Rafael released on $1M bond, puts home and business up for collateral

March 2, 2015 — New Bedford fishing magnate Carlos Rafael will be allowed to return to his Dartmouth home under strict bond conditions and to continue working while facing federal conspiracy and falsification charges, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Rafael and his wife agreed to place their home on Tucker Road in North Dartmouth and the Carlos Seafood building, on South Front Street in New Bedford, as collateral for the $1 million bond. Prosecutors said the total value of the two properties is about $900,000.

Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy warned Rafael sternly during his detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Worcester that any violation of his bond could result in a warrant for his arrest and the loss of his home and business property.

“If you fail to comply with any of these conditions, the government can take that property away from you,” Hennessy said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Maine DMR to Issue Third Round of Federal Disaster Relief Funds for Groundfishermen

March 1, 2016 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The Maine Department of Marine Resources will soon be issuing the third and final payment to thirty-two Maine-homeported commercial Northeast Multispecies (groundfish) permit holders who are eligible to receive direct assistance under federal disaster relief funding.

To be eligible, Maine-homeported groundfish permit holders must have landings of over 5000 pounds in any one Fishing Year from 2010-2013. In addition, permit holders must have landed a minimum of 5000 pounds of groundfish in either Fishing Year 2013 or 2014. 

“The intent of these criteria is to focus disaster relief efforts on permit holders who have historical dependence on groundfish and have had continued reliance on the groundfish fishery during the disaster years,” said Maine DMR Deputy Commissioner Meredith Mendelson. “We know that Maine’s groundfish industry has seen declines in many years preceding this disaster declaration.  However, the Secretary of Commerce’s declaration was made based on what were, at the time, prospective revenue losses from the major reduction in Gulf of Maine cod quota available for the 2013 fishing year. Accordingly, our allocation of relief funds reflects the impact of that specific reduction.”

The amounts allocated to eligible permit holders were based on a formula developed by the Maine Department of Marine Resources after several outreach meetings with industry. Amounts issued will reflect landings in Fishing Years 2013 and 2014 individually and combined.

Awards under this formula will range from approximately $9,100 to $44,044.

The funds are a portion of the $3.3 million allocated to Maine from the $75 million allocated by U.S. Congress to help with six fishery disasters, including the disaster declared in 2012 by the Secretary of Commerce as a result of significant quota cuts for key New England groundfish stocks.

Of the $75 million, $32.8 million was allocated to the Northeast groundfish industry. The allocation of those funds was negotiated among the state fisheries agency directors and announced in June, 2014.

The agreement split the $32.8 million evenly, allocating a third of the funds to each of three areas. $11 million was paid out as direct aid to permit holders in the northeast who have landed a minimum of 5000 pounds of groundfish stocks in any one fishing year since 2010.

In October, 2014, fifty-two of Maine’s federal groundfish permit holders received $32,500 each. In 2015, the DMR distributed $640,005 to help Maine’s groundfish fleet and related shoreside industries by rebating dealer landings and handling fees. 

New England cod fishermen face new cost, fear future

February 29, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Some of New England’s embattled cod fishermen say they might go out of business because of a new cost the federal government is about to impose on them on Tuesday.

Fishermen of important commercial species such as New England cod and haddock must pay the cost of fishing monitors under new rules scheduled to take effect Tuesday. The monitors, whose services can cost more than $700 per day, collect data to help determine future fishing quotas.

The federal government had been paying the bill, but fishing regulators say there isn’t enough money to do so anymore because of other obligations within the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Fishermen, advocates for the industry and a host of New England politicians have said the cost will sink a fleet already struggling with tight catch quotas and dwindling cod populations. Some fishermen also say a cutback in fishing by New England’s fleet could make popular food species, including flounder, hake and pollock, less available to consumers.

‘‘Somebody’s got to catch it,’’ said Terry Alexander, a Harpswell, Maine, fisherman who is trying to manage the new cost. ‘‘We’re going to have to figure our way around it. The law is the law.’’

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe

Monitor Costs Shift to Fishermen March 1

February 29, 2016 — Cape Ann lawmakers Bruce Tarr and Ann-Margaret Ferrante walked a thin line last week when they sat down and penned a letter to state Attorney General Maura Healey on the issue of at-sea monitoring.

The state Senate minority leader and state representative, respectively, wanted to enlist Healey’s support in the legal campaign to block NOAA Fisheries’ plan to shift the cost of mandated at-sea monitoring (ASM) to groundfish permit holders on March 1 and they knew they were racing the clock.

They also didn’t want to overplay their hand by pressuring Healey to follow a specific course of remedy, such as having Massachusetts become an intervening plaintiff in the ongoing federal lawsuit filed by New Hampshire fisherman David Goethel seeking to block NOAA Fisheries’ plan to transfer the responsibility of funding ASM to the fishermen as of Tuesday.

“We didn’t want to pre-suppose any method of support,” Tarr said. “We just believe that this plan represents such an injustice that it would be a serious mistake not to look at every option and we wanted to make sure the commercial fishing industry is represented.”

So, Tarr and Ferrante carefully worded their letter, asking the state’s senior law enforcement official to explore any available legal avenue for supporting the industry effort that Goethel’s lawsuit has emerged to most poignantly represent.

“We request that your office explore all appropriate legal means to support our fishing families and ports through vehicles such as the current pending case,” they wrote, referring to the Goethel lawsuit that was filed in U.S. District Court in Concord, New Hampshire. “We are interested in Mr. Goethel’s plight because his situation is comparable to that of fishermen in Gloucester and the statewide fishing industry.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

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