Saving Seafood

NOAA seeks $3 million in fines from Carlos Rafael

September 24, 2018 — Carlos Rafael sits in federal prison, nearing the end of the first year of his 46-month sentence for bulk smuggling and lying for at least four years about the nature and value of his landings.

But that doesn’t mean NOAA is done with the man known as “The Codfather” or many of his vessel captains.

The federal fisheries regulator has updated the civil case against the convicted fishing mogul, more than doubling the number of violations to 88, seeking to revoke 42 of Rafael’s federal fishing permits and increasing the total amount of civil penalties against Rafael, his partners and some of his captains to $3,356,269 from the $983,528 contained in the original charging document.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also said it will seek to prevent “Rafael or his agents” from applying for any NOAA permits in the future.

The new charging document also takes aim at the vessel captains that ran Rafael’s fleet throughout his era of malfeasance.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NEW BEDFORD STANDARD-TIMES: BOEM should do ocean study before awarding NY wind leases

September 24, 2018 — Sometimes big issues seem to appear as if out of nowhere.

Residents of SouthCoast may have been feeling that way this week upon learning that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is about to decide on the future of some of the New Bedford scallop fleet’s prime fishing grounds just next month, in October.

Mayor Jon Mitchell and others gave their testimony to BOEM Tuesday about the plans of New York state to award wind turbine leases in a 2,300-square-mile section of ocean known as the New York Bight. The area just happens to be the spot where 40 to 50 percent of the scalloping grounds fished by New Bedford’s fleet are, according to scalloper Eric Hansen.

The federal agency has indicated to developers that 80,000 of the 1.5 million acres contained in the region would be a reasonable turbine size but local officials are worried.

Mitchell called for a scientific study and analysis of where the turbines should go, and recommended against a hasty awarding of leases.

“These decisions are permanent,” he said, explaining that the North Atlantic is far larger and more complex than the areas of Northwest Europe where previous wind turbine studies have been done. There needs to be a hard assessment of the cumulative effects of the wind farms and the locations of the scallops, squid and other species.

In just one area where a lease is being considered, over the last five years New Bedford has taken an annual average of 56 million scallops. That’s a good chunk of the 354 million scallops the city fleet has taken on average over the last five years.

“This is a big deal,” Mitchell told the BOEM officials.

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

NOAA seeks $3 million in civil fines against Carlos Rafael

September 21, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — NOAA hasn’t removed Carlos Rafael from its crosshairs. It’s requesting more than $3 million from the fishing tycoon and also took aim at 20 additional Rafael captains in a civil action filed last week, the governing agency told The Standard-Times on Thursday.

NOAA issued superseding charging documents in its civil administrative case involving Rafael on Sept. 10, which added charges and included more respondents than the original document NOAA issued Jan. 10.

The new document seeks to revoke 42 of Rafael’s federal fishing permits, prevent Rafael or his agents from applying for NOAA permits in the future, and increase the total monetary penalties sought from $983,528 to $3,356,269.

NOAA said Thursday that it does not comment on ongoing litigation.

The documents, which are non-criminal, also increased the number of alleged violations of federal fishery laws from 35 to 88 in addition to lassoing 20 of Rafael’s captains into the civil action. The original documents included only two captains. NOAA also is seeking to revoke operator permits of 17 fishing vessel captains for Rafael.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Standard-Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Public Meeting Scheduled to Discuss Cape Cod Shark Issues

September 21, 2018 — A community meeting has been scheduled for next week on the Outer Cape to discuss the recent fatal shark attack in Wellfleet.

Officials will also address the larger issue of how to best manage the increasing numbers of great white sharks off local beaches.

Wellfleet Town Administrator Dan Hoort said the meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on September 27 at the Wellfleet Council on Aging.

Hoort said everything will be on the table in terms of discussion points as they want to see what we can do to protect beachgoers.

“We hope to bring in a couple of experts in shark activity to help facilitate the conversation,” Hoort said.

“We want to hear from them and we want to hear from the community.”

Representatives from the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and many local lawmakers and town officials are being invited.

Hoort is also hoping Dr. Greg Skomal, the state’s shark expert and senior fisheries scientist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, will be able to attend.

Arthur Medici, of Revere, was fatally wounded by a shark bite on Saturday while boogie boarding at Newcomb Hollow Beach.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Ex-fish exec’s fraud sentence: 2 years in prison, $1.2M restitution

September 21, 2018 — Another former National Fish & Seafood executive is on his way to federal prison. But not for anything he did while director of sales at National Fish.

James R. Faro, 62, who worked at Gloucester-based National Fish from 2012 until approximately January, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to two years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.21 million in restitution.

Faro was convicted of conspiring to commit bank fraud at Marlborough-based Sea Star Seafood Corp., the frozen seafood distributor he founded in 1983.

As part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Faro admitted that he and John Crowley, the chief financial officer at Sea Star, conspired to defraud the Commerce Bank & Trust Company of Worcester by lying about the value of Sea Star’s outstanding accounts receivable to increase its borrowing limits.

Jack Ventola, the founder and president of National Fish, currently is serving a two-year sentence at the minimum-security Federal Medical Center, Devens in central Massachusetts after pleading guilty to failure to pay taxes on $2.9 million he “fraudulently diverted” from National Fish’s majority owners.

Ventola also was ordered to pay $1.07 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Ventola admitted to conspiring with two other National Fish executives — senior sales executive Richard J. Pandolfo and an unnamed head of operations — and National Fish accountant and director Michael Bruno to defraud the IRS and Pacific Andes in a scheme involving a temporary labor company.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

WHOI Center for Oceans and Human Health to Receive $6.9M in Grant Funding

September 19, 2018 — WOODS HOLE, Mass. — The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will receive nearly $7 million in grant funding to continue the operation of its Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health.

The collaborative award from the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences will be dispersed over 5 years.

The funding will benefit three centers and four projects aimed at improving public health by investigating the ways oceanic processes affect the distribution and persistence of human pathogens or the products of toxin-producing algae.

“These projects bring together scientists doing basic research on the oceans and Great Lakes with those in biology and human health to study processes that affect millions of people,” said Hedy Edmonds, a program director in NSF’s Division of Ocean Sciences, which co-funded the awards.

Read the full story at CapCod.com

 

Cape leaders look for solution to increased shark sightings

September 19, 2018 — CAPE COD, Mass. — We’ve seen them through out the summer; Video after video of shark encounters off the Massachusetts and Rhode Island coasts.

But this weekend, a deadly encounter occurred off the Cape – the first in the Bay State in over 80 years.

“This is a horrible tragedy,” said Dr. Greg Skomal, a shark expert with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

 “No one wants a shark attack of any kind,” said Skomal, “and a fatal attack is the worst kind.”

After studying the case, Dr. Skomal thinks he knows the culprit in last weekend’s deadly attack.

Read the full story at WLNE

 

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Trimester 3 Effort Controls

September 19, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section (Section) members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts met via conference call on Tuesday, September 18th to discuss Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) effort control measures for Trimester 3 (October 1 – December 31). Section members agreed to five consecutive landing days until 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL is projected to be harvested, or until further notice. Vessels may only land once every 24-hour period.

  • For the first week of October, beginning on October 1, 2018: Vessels in the States of Maine and New Hampshire, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may possess and land herring from Area 1A starting at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, October 1st up to 11:59 p.m. on Friday, October 5th.
  • Beginning on October 7, 2018: Vessels in the State of Maine may land herring starting at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays up to 5:59 p.m. on Fridays. Beginning October 8, 2018, vessels in the State of New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may land herring starting at 12:01 a.m. on Mondays up to 11:59 p.m. on Fridays.

The Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are scheduled to reconvene via conference call to review fishing effort on:

  • Friday, October 12 at 1:00 p.m.

To join the call, please dial 888.585.9008 and enter conference room number 502-884-672 when prompted.

Trimester 3 landings will be closely monitored and the directed fishery will close when 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL is projected to be reached. Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A until the start of Trimester 3.

For more information, please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or mware@asmfc.org.

A PDF of the announcement can be found here –http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/5ba145f1AtlHerringDaysOutTri3_Sept2018.pdf.

‘You’re impacting the whole resource’

September 19, 2018 — Fishermen and city officials raised the alarm Tuesday about potential wind turbines in prime fishing and scalloping grounds south of Long Island.

About 55 people attended a meeting with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to discuss the agency’s evaluation of possible offshore wind locations within a 2,300-square-mile portion of the New York Bight, between Long Island and New Jersey.

Scalloper Eric Hansen said 40 to 50 percent of the scalloping grounds fished by New Bedford scallopers is within the area the federal government is considering leasing to wind developers, and if fishing there becomes dangerous, people will fish harder in the remaining places.

“You’re impacting the whole resource,” he said.

Bureau staff said they want to narrow down the areas to be leased for wind turbines, not use the entire space.

“We have no intention of leasing that whole area,” BOEM spokesman Stephen Boutwell said in an interview before the meeting.

But fishermen were skeptical.

“That’s a hope and not a promise right now, from our perspective,” David Frulla, a scallop industry attorney, said in an interview. “We think this is way overboard and needs to be reconsidered. And we’re actively opposing it.”

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell addressed the meeting, calling the potential effect on fishing “very alarming.”

“There’s a right way and there’s a wrong way to allow for the development of offshore wind,” he said.

The federal agency has indicated to developers that 80,000 acres would be a reasonable project size — compared to the nearly 1.5 million acres contained within the four areas under consideration: Fairways North, Fairways South, Hudson North and Hudson South.

The mayor cited government data showing a quarter-billion dollars’ worth of scallops were harvested in the four areas over a five-year period ending in 2016. He said a small fraction of the total acreage would satisfy New York’s renewable energy goals, and that those goals could be satisfied by unused areas off Massachusetts that have already been through this process.

Amy Stillings, an economist with BOEM, said Mitchell framed the conversation well, and research does show a lot of fishing happens in the New York Bight.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Officials to Discuss Shark Safety Following Fatal Attack

September 18, 2018 — The Outer Cape continues to mourn the loss of Arthur Medici after Saturday’s fatal shark attack off Wellfleet and local and Cape Cod National Seashore officials are looking to see what should be done in the future to keep people safe.

They are also looking to see what, if anything, could have been done to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening.

Medici, the 26-year-old from Revere, was attacked by a shark while on a boogie board at Newcomb Hollow Beach around noon on Saturday. He was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital.

The attack was the first fatality by shark in Massachusetts since 1936.

It was the second shark attack on Cape Cod as a man from Scarsdale, New York was bitten off Truro last month. He survived the attack and is recovering from the injuries suffered.

National Seashore Superintendent Brian Carlstrom said they will continue to consult with the White Shark Working Group which is a collaboration between several Cape Cod and Southcoast communities, and shark experts and researchers with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

“Anytime you have an incident like this you want to evaluate how you are doing things and see if there are areas where you can improve,” Carlstrom said. “Maybe some things with communications, maybe some applications with technologies – we are going to have to look at that very closely and see what we might be able to implement.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com