Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: Fishing groups back New Bedford as wind liaison

April 10, 2018 — BOSTON — Fishing officials are calling for the New Bedford Port Authority to be the “central facilitator” for discussions between the offshore wind industry and fishermen.

Monday’s letter to Gov. Charlie Baker was sent by the National Coalition for Fishing Communities, a project of Saving Seafood, a group that New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell previously said was created by industry players in his city.

New Bedford is both the nation’s top fishing port as measured by the value of catch, mostly owing to the scallop fishery, and offshore wind developers have agreed to use the Whaling City’s harbor facilities as a staging area, so it is on its way to becoming an offshore wind hub, as well.

In the letter, officials also urged him to make the state’s first offshore windfarm “as modest in size and scope as possible” so that its effects can be studied and called for a possible delay in the selection of offshore wind partners.

“Three separate, developer-led outreach efforts have been launched, and all are stumbling to produce meaningful dialogue or move us closer to real solutions in areas ranging from navigation, access, cable routes, radar interference, and gear loss,” the coalition wrote. “Equally troubling, it has become clear that offshore wind developers are unwilling or unable to coordinate their interactions with commercial fishermen to tackle issues that cut across multiple project areas.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford City Officials Draft New Business Plan For Fishing Port

March 9, 2018 — New Bedford city officials have unveiled a draft plan to expand the business opportunities for the city’s lucrative port.

The Port of New Bedford is the number one commercial fishing port in the country, hauling in $9.8 billion each year. Ninety percent of that economic value is tied to the fishing industry.

However, city officials are looking to diversify the port’s business and they’re betting on offshore wind.

Mayor Jon Mitchell said according to a study by the federal Department of Energy, one of the windiest spots along the Eastern seaboard is about 25 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Read and listen to the full story at Rhode Island NPR

 

MASSACHUSETTS: New Name, New Goals for New Bedford Harbor Officials

March 8, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — It’s tough to argue that the most-well known attribute of New Bedford is its internationally known commercial fishing port. After all, it is called the Whaling City.

Since its establishment on the shores of Acushnet in the 18th Century, New Bedford has grown into the highest grossing commercial fishing port in the United States, and has been an unmatched center of the industry on the East Coast for years.

Despite hundreds of years of success, port leaders and city officials are planning to grow and diversify it even more. On Wednesday, Port Director Ed Anthes-Washburn, Mayor Jon Mitchell, and Dr. Brian Rothschild announced that the Harbor Development Commission (HDC) has changed its name to the New Bedford Port Authority (NBPA) as part of a five-year strategic plan to further expand and diversify the port, as well as enhance its operations.

“We were formerly the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission which was developed in 1957. In 1957 the focus was on a smaller subset of things. Today we have our hands in a lot of different areas and we’re a very diverse and vibrant port,” Washburn explained. “We want regionally, nationally, and internationally to be recognized and the New Bedford Port Authority moniker does that a little better than the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission.”

Read the full story at WBSM

Massachusetts: Senate candidate Geoff Diehl talks with SouthCoast fishing industry

February 28, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Geoff Diehl cruised around the Port of New Bedford in an RV Tuesday that maneuvered in and out of small entrances and exits. The red, white, and blue mobile home featured the slogan of the Republican U.S. Senate candidate, “The Real Diehl,” as he looked to learn the reality of the fishing industry in the area.

“If I’m going to be voting on any legislation that affects any industry,” Diehl said, “I better darn well be listening to the people who work in that field.”

Diehl made four stops in the area, which began with Mayor Jon Mitchell and concluded with a meeting with three members on the board of Sector 9 as well as the sector’s lawyer.

He spoke with the sector for more than a half hour as the members provided details of ban installed by NOAA that’s prevented about 80 fishermen from groundfishing since November.

“This thing that happened here showed how tragic it is for the support businesses,” Tor Bendiksen, manager of Reidar’s Trawl Gear and Marine Supply, said.

Diehl questioned what incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Warren has done to facilitate discussions between NOAA. The sector said it’s only met with U.S Rep. Bill Keating’s office, while it’s incurred challenges trying to meet with the Warren and Sen. Ed Markey.

“This is one of the most important industries in Massachusetts,” Diehl said before promising to look into the issue immediately.

Following Diehl’s meeting with Mitchell, the current state representative serving Plymouth’s 7th District stopped at New England Marine Engineering and Supply Inc. There, he spoke with President Paul Nosworthy, who emphasized that fishermen aren’t destroying the ocean.

“They’re blaming it all on the fishermen,” Nosworthy said. “But when you stop and you think about what the chemical companies and the sewer treatment guys, what they’re putting in the ocean is killing, literally killing (marine life).”

From North Front Street in New Bedford, Diehl crossed the the port and even waited in a bridge closure delay before discussing commercial fishing with Patrick Hughes II at Blue Harvest Fisheries in Fairhaven.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

A Famed Fishing Port Staggers as Carlos Rafael Goes to Jail

February 12, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Carlos Rafael, whose initials are emblazoned on boats all over this port city, boasted that his fishing empire was worth even more than official records showed. His trick? When he caught fish that are subject to strict catch limits, like gray sole or cod, he would report that his nets were filled with something far more plentiful, like haddock.

“We call them something else, it’s simple,” Mr. Rafael told visitors who seemed interested in buying his business. “We’ve been doing it for over 30 years.” He showed off a special ledger labeled “cash.” And he described an under-the-table deal he had going with a New York fish buyer, saying at one point, “You’ll never find a better laundromat.”

But Mr. Rafael’s visitors turned out to be Internal Revenue Service agents, and the conversations, caught on tape and described in court documents, began the unraveling of Mr. Rafael, whose reign over a segment of this region’s fishing industry gave him his larger-than-life nickname, “the Codfather.”

As Mr. Rafael sits in prison, having pleaded guilty to lying about his catches and smuggling cash out of the country, nearly two dozen of his boats have been barred from fishing for species like cod and haddock, grinding part of the centuries-old maritime economy in the nation’s most lucrative fishing port to a halt.

Fishermen, ice houses and shoreside suppliers who once did business with Mr. Rafael are anxious, as their own businesses have slowed or stopped. Regulators, who oversee a federal system aimed at limiting what the industry fishes for, want more penalties, raising doubts about the future of the port when it comes to groundfish, the bottom-dwelling species like cod that were once the backbone of the fishing industry in New England.

“There are a lot of people on this waterfront, very hardworking people, whose livelihood depends on Carlos’s landings,” said Jon Mitchell, the mayor of New Bedford. “They don’t deserve to suffer along with him.”

Tony Fernandes, a captain on one of Mr. Rafael’s boats, said he was collecting unemployment benefits and waiting to learn when he may be able to fish again. “He’s putting in his time and he paid his fine,” he said of Mr. Rafael. “We are in limbo.”

For decades, Mr. Rafael, 65, was a blustery, polarizing figure along these piers. He called himself a pirate, and mocked smaller competitors as maggots or mosquitoes. When he wasn’t yelling into his phone in Portuguese, he held court around town, talking politics and fish. The authorities said he owned one of the country’s largest commercial fishing enterprises, and analysts estimate that he controlled about one-quarter of New England’s landings of groundfish. Mr. Rafael also had boats to harvest scallops, which now make up a much greater share of New Bedford’s total landings than groundfish do.

But Mr. Rafael also served as a dealer for the seafood that came off his boats, which prosecutors say made it easier for him to lie about what he was catching and how much he was getting for it.

“Carlos Rafael has been well known in the commercial fishing industry for 30 years,” said Andrew Lelling, the United States attorney for Massachusetts, who prosecuted the case. “And, for almost as long, federal law enforcement has heard rumors and concerns about Rafael acting illegally.”

Some people in New Bedford saw Mr. Rafael far differently — as a Robin Hood of sorts, with a pack of cigarettes and a dinged-up Silverado. He was a Portuguese immigrant who had started out cutting fish and eventually provided jobs for many people along a waterfront that has been bustling since Herman Melville immortalized its cobblestone streets and whaling ships in “Moby Dick.”

He saw an opportunity eight years ago when the government moved forward with a new regulatory system in New England, after Congress mandated that science-based limits be used to prevent overfishing. The cod catch, long a staple of New England’s economy, had fallen over the years.

Instead of the former approach of limiting how many days boats could spend at sea, the new regulations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration set specific ceilings on how many fish could be caught. The rules instantly were contentious, especially when regulators set low limits for dwindling species like cod to help them rebound.

Read the full story at the New York Times 

One Square Mile in Massachusetts: Tail-to-Scales, Using The Whole Fish In New Bedford

February 12, 2018 — Every day on New Bedford’s docks, fish processing plants toss thousands of pounds of fish scraps — or “trash” — into buckets, and sell them to pet food makers for pennies-on-the-pound.

New Bedford officials are looking for ways to turn that “trash” into something more valuable. As part of our One Square Mile: New Bedford series, Rhode Island Public Radio’s Lynn Arditi has the story.

Larry and Loretta are my neighbor’s cats. And they love their canned cat food. To understand why just read the ingredients on the label. Ocean white fish. Fish broth. Tuna. Those ingredients are actually fish by-products. Fish guts. Fish  livers. Fish intestines. Fish skins. They’re what fish processors like Bergie’s Seafood in call “trash.”

Inside Bergie’s process plant one January morning, a conveyor belt moved  freshly caught grey sole to the filet tables.

“The skeletons are going to go the lobstermen,’’ David Stanley, vice president of operations, explained. “Now, the meat is gonna to us the consumer….All the trimmings all go down for cat food and animal pet food and things to that nature.”

Those “trimmings” include fish heads, skin and any of the innards not sold for human consumption.

On this day, the filet machines were turned off;the catch was smaller so the workers were doing all the deboning by hand. A worker coming off a shift break paused to sharpen his knife.

The next stop: a table lit from underneath. “See these lights right here?” Stanely said. “This is called a candling table. Every piece of fish here goes across the candling table.”

A half-dozen women wearing hair nets and rubber gloves lay the filets, one by one, on the candling table and examine them. The light underneath the table illuminates the flesh, allowing them to remove any impurities.

The processing plant usually produces anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 pounds a day of “chowder” or trash, Celestino Cacaj, a Bergie’s supervisor, said. “We have all the trash from the fish after we clean them we sell to the customer who make pet food,’’ he said. “They pay some money for that so we keep it for them. We try to make a little money. ”

They make a little money. But could they make more?

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio 

 

EPA: New Bedford Harbor among top opportunities in New England

January 18, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — New Bedford Harbor has been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection agency as one of two Superfund sites in New England with the greatest potential for redevelopment and commercial use.

No funding comes with the designation, but additional staff time and attention could be devoted to the sites, EPA spokeswoman Kelsey Dumville said in an interview.

No. 1 on the Port of New Bedford’s priority list is extending North Terminal by 800 feet, Port Director Edward Anthes-Washburn said. The space would add more room to dock commercial fishing boats, and it could serve other purposes in the future, he said. Boats are rafted three and four deep on the docks in the central waterfront.

“We definitely have a small supply and high demand for dockage,” he said.

The city could also use the space for cargo or offshore wind-related operations, he said.

The New Bedford Harbor Development Commission has applied for a $15 million federal grant for the North Terminal bulkhead and dredging.

Mayor Jon Mitchell’s office has said the project would not only finalize cleanup of the harbor and create more dockage, but also create at least 900 new jobs and spur millions of dollars in private investment.

“The purpose of this project is to promote growth in the Port of New Bedford across multiple industries: fishing, offshore wind, cargo, and island freight,” Mitchell said in a press release in October.

The New England regional EPA office in Boston made recommendations about sites to be named among the 31 nationally with the most redevelopment potential, EPA spokeswoman Emily Bender said. The other New England site is Raymark Industries Inc., a former manufacturer of automobile brakes, clutches and other parts in Stratford, Conn.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

‘The government is what created Carlos Rafael’

January 18, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Bill Straus saw the writing on the wall years ago.

In 2009 — eight years before Carlos Rafael went to prison — the representative of Bristol’s 10th District spoke out during the establishment of the current catch-share system in the Northeast fishery. And even with Rafael behind bars, Straus says the threat of another Codfather emerging is ever present.

“The risk is still there,” Straus said. “And that’s why what comes out of the different remedies is so important.”

NOAA defines catch shares as a portion of catch for a species that is allocated to individual fishermen or groups. Each holder of a catch share must stop fishing when his/her specific share of the quota is reached. It’s often also looked at as quota. Fishermen and organizations can buy and sell quota.

Like any industry, the largest organization buys the smaller entities, whether it’s Disney purchasing Fox, AT&T attempting to acquire Time Warner or Rafael acquiring more quota.

“Catch shares are complicated things; there’s pluses and minuses,” SMAST Professor Dan Georgianna said. “Almost every study of catch shares shows decline in employment.”

Straus echoed that in a letter to the editor published in 2009 and in a conversation with The Standard-Times on Wednesday.

“The system encourages one owner or permit holder to gobble up the permits, and that it really works to that effect in a stressed fishery like New England groundfish,” Straus said. “What Rafael was able to do was approach people who had tiny bits of shares, and say, ‘I’ll just take it off your hands because you can’t afford to be sending your boat off to get that tiny amount.’”

In buying permits from across the Northeast, Rafael became one of the biggest organizations on the East Coast, not only catching the fish but also using Carlos Seafood Inc. as the landing’s dealer, which masked the act of misreporting.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Study: 300 jobs lost in first month of NOAA groundfishing ban

January 17, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Nearly two months have passed since NOAA imposed a groundfishing ban on Carlos Rafael’s fleet. Those within the Port of New Bedford estimate it’s put upward of 80 fishermen out of work.

That number only scratches the surface according to a study done by SMAST professor Dan Georgianna.

Within the first 30 days of the ban, Georgianna estimates that across the Northeast 300 jobs were lost, with an income loss of about $5.7 million. When including the retail loss, the number surges to $12 million.

“They’re estimates, but I think they’re pretty good estimates,” Georgianna said.

The numbers include all those linked to Rafael’s vessels: fishermen, those working at the port handling Rafael’s landings, like lumpers or cutters, restaurants that once served Rafael’s fish and even the grocery stores that supplied his vessels with food for trips.

Georgianna performed the study at the request of Mayor Jon Mitchell, after NOAA banned groundfishing for Sector IX in November. Sector IX is comprised of Rafael fishing vessels. The ban represented NOAA’s penalties lobbied against Rafael.

Georgiana said he was not compensated for the study.

He used a model developed by NOAA to estimate the economic effects on harvesting grounfish, including supplying and maintaining the vessels, processing and wholesaling. He also used a model developed by Michigan State University to estimate the retail effects.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Massachusetts: SouthCoast fishermen call NOAA’s civil action against Carlos Rafael ‘overkill’

January 12, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Current and former area fishermen balked at NOAA’s reach in its civil action against Carlos Rafael.

“It’s total overkill,” said Stephen Lozinak, captain of fishing vessel Marsheen Venture and who has been fishing for more than five decades. “The whole thing is overkill. All it’s doing is hurting the workers in the city of New Bedford.”

On Wednesday, NOAA laid out its civil case against Rafael, including revoking 38 commercial fishing permits and the operator permits of two scallop vessel captains. Other aspects include a $983,528 penalty, denying any future application by Rafael for a permit issued by NOAA, and revoking the seafood dealer permit issued to Carlos Seafood Inc.

Most of the allegations surround Rafael’s criminal activity, which he pleaded guilty to in March. However, NOAA also included allegations surrounding mislabeling scallops harvested in 2013 and misreported yellowtail flounder in 2012.

“It seems to be a much more severe penalty than the crimes called for,” Executive Director of New Bedford Seafood Consulting Jim Kendall said.

The sentiments echoed those of Mayor Jon Mitchell.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times