Saving Seafood

BASE auction withdraws its bid to buy Carlos Rafael’s boats

January 10, 2020 — An attempt to gain control of a large portion of Carlos Rafael’s fleet by the local seafood auction has been withdrawn after a fight over the vessels made its way to court.

Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE), the seafood display auction on the city’s waterfront, attempted to take over an existing deal negotiated by Blue Harvest Fisheries for a number of Carlos Rafael’s groundfish vessels, Blue Harvest CEO Keith Decker told The Standard-Times in December.

However, since then BASE has withdrawn their bid on the vessels, and Blue Harvest Fisheries’ original deal is back in place, according to both BASE and Decker.

The fight is an important one as New Bedford is trying to keep the fishing and scallop boats, as well as their federal permits, in the city. Though both entities have pledged to do that, Blue Harvest would consolidate ownership and BASE has said it would resell the boats to individual owners.

In a press release sent out on Thursday, BASE said, “Unfortunately the folks that encouraged BASE to move forward have now withdrawn their commitments, due to Blue Harvest’s litigation.”

Blue Harvest filed a civil suit against Carlos Rafael and the fishing corporations associated with his fishing vessels on December 23, after BASE had exercised their Right of First Refusal to their purchase, and listed BASE as an interested party in the suit, according to court documents.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Canastras: Backers for Rafael vessels withdrew after Blue Harvest lawsuit

January 9, 2020 — Richard and Raymond Canastra say the reason they withdrew their $19.3 million offer to buy 15 of Carlos Rafael’s groundfish vessels, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, is because the lawsuit filed by Blue Harvest Fisheries scared off their backers.

Undercurrent News broke the news Wednesday morning that the Canastras, the founders and owners of the Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE), New Bedford’s largest seafood auction, were ending the fight which has served to divide the New England fishing community.

The two brothers did not immediately respond to requests by Undercurrent for an explanation. On Thursday, however, they answered with a press release sent by Cassie Canastra, BASE’s director of operations, and the daughter of Raymond Canastra.

“It was not BASE’s intention to acquire and own these permits and vessels for BASE’s long-term ownership,” the statement reads. “In fact, it was quite the opposite.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Bregal’s Blue Harvest set for 15 Rafael vessel deal after Canastras withdraw offer

January 8, 2020 — Richard and Raymond Canastra, the founders and owners of the Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE), the seafood auction in New Bedford, Massachusetts, have withdrawn their offer for convicted former commercial fishing mogul Carlos Rafael’s 15 groundfish vessels, essentially giving the boats and their related permits to Blue Harvest, Undercurrent News has learned.

The details are as scant as the three sentences contained in an email sent by one of the attorneys to the others involved in the highly contentious fight to acquire the vessels, a copy of which has been obtained by Undercurrent News.

“BASE has provided notice to the Rafaels that they are not moving forward with the transaction. Blue Harvest is free to complete the transaction with Rafaels. Kindly forward a stipulation of dismissal of the Blue Harvest matter,” reads the email.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Rafael has deals for four more vessels, brings fleet fire sale close to completion

January 8, 2020 — Carlos Rafael has moved another step closer to completely removing himself from the New England commercial fishing scene, successfully unloading at least four more of his groundfish vessels, Undercurrent News has learned.

Between the Thanksgiving and Christmas 2019 holidays, according to sources, Rafael’s family and his New Bedford, Massachusetts-based attorney, John Markey, Jr., have succeeded in helping the former fishing mogul sell the:

  • Bulldog (a 22-year old, 75.4-foot vessel with a 855 HP engine) for $1.4 million;
  • Hera (a 31-year-old, 80.2-foot vessel with a 850 HP engine) for $1.2m;
  • Drake (a 30-year-old, 77.7-foot vessel with a 575 HP engine) for $1m; and
  • the Hercules (a 36-year-old, 76.1-foot vessel with a 575-HP engine) for $800,000.

Each vessel maintains small to large amounts of quota on the northern Atlantic Coast for cod, haddock, plaice, redfish, hake, flounder and/or pollock.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Deadly conditions for Indonesian migrant crews tied to illegal fishing

January 7, 2020 — D, 28-year-old Indonesian man, was witness to a deadly assault on a fellow boat crew member by the captain when they worked aboard the Taiwanese fishing vessel Da Wang a few years ago. The captain hit his friend in the head, then forced them to continue working.

“In the morning when we woke up for breakfast, we found him dead in his room. The captain wrapped up my dead friend’s body with a blanket and then stored him in the freezer,” D said in an interview in July 2019.

D is one of 34 Indonesian sailors featured in an investigative report by the environmental group Greenpeace and the Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Union (SBMI) published on Dec. 9. The organizations looked into their complaints of forced labor during their employment on 13 fishing vessels registered in China, Taiwan, Fiji and Vanuatu.

The crews’ statements described conditions in which they experienced overwork, withholding of wages, debt bondage, and physical and sexual violence. These conditions eventually forced them to cut short their working contracts, which typically run about two years, and forfeit the deposits they were typically required to pay to get the jobs.

Read the full story at Mongabay

MASSACHUSETTS: US auction owners seek to spoil Blue Harvest’s deal for Rafael groundfish vessels

December 26, 2019 — Carlos Rafael’s remaining fleet of as many as 35 groundfish vessels and skiffs in the US port city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, may not be under Blue Harvest Fisheries’ Christmas tree after all.

Richard and Raymond Canastra, the founders and owners of the Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE), a nearly 26-year-old seafood auction house, also in New Bedford,  informed the members of New England fishing sector 7 on Friday that they are taking advantage of the group’s right of first refusal (ROFR) rules to seek acquisition of the vessels and their related permits, Undercurrent News has learned from its sources.

Additionally, the Canastras have filed another challenge to Rafaels’ earlier sale of six scallop boats and their related permits to Quinn Fisheries, a longtime New Bedford-based scalloping company, this time in federal court.

Undercurrent reported late last month how documents showed Blue Harvest, a US scallop and groundfish supplier backed by New York City-based private equity Bregal Partners, had signed a purchase agreement to buy the Rafael fleet and all of their associated permits for nearly $25 million. The deal includes millions of pounds of quota for at least eight types of fish in the northeast multispecies fishery, including cod, haddock, American plaice, witch flounder, yellowtail flounder, redfish, white hake and pollock.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

US House Ways and Means leaders request study of China’s IUU imports

December 20, 2019 — Two members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee are seeking the U.S. International Trade Commission to review the economic impact illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing has on American fishermen.

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal (D-Massachusetts), the committee’s chairman, and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), who chairs the Ways and Means trade subcommittee, wrote to USITC Chairman David Johanson on Thursday, 19 December, to request the study. The lawmakers are seeking to understand the true impact of IUU fishing, including its impact on production and pricing.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NGOs, businesses urge US Labor Department include distant-water fishing in forced labor list

December 17, 2019 — Greenpeace USA, AFL-CIO, Human Rights Watch, Environmental Justice Foundation, Whole Foods Market, and 19 other groups have sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor requesting the organization end its practice of only considering a country’s territorial waters when creating its List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.

The letter, sent to Marcia Eugenio – the director of the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking for the Bureau of International Affairs with the Department of Labor – comes in the wake of a damning report by Greenpeace identifying forced labor issues in Southeast Asia. The new report includes accusations of forced labor against 13 distant-water fishing vessels registered in China, Taiwan, Vanuatu, and Fiji.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US defense bill addresses IUU fishing domestically and abroad

December 17, 2019 — The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which funds the U.S. military for the 2020 fiscal year, includes provisions to combat illicit fishing and increase transparency in the seafood industry.

The bill’s fate had been in jeopardy because of questions over whether it would curtail President Donald Trump’s authority to spend defense money on the proposed border wall. Congressional negotiators kicked those negotiations down the road, and on Wednesday, 11 December, the House overwhelmingly passed the bill; bipartisan approval is expected to push it through the Senate, too.

Read the full story at Seafood Source