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One Square Mile FORUM: After the Codfather

February 14, 2018 — Before he pleaded guilty to flouting federal catch limits and smuggling money, Carlos Rafael, nicknamed “the Codfather,” controlled the largest groundfishing fleet that sailed out of New Bedford. How are the city’s fishing industries moving forward after the trial? What does the future hold for groundfishing and other fisheries? What are the biggest promises and challenges? What lessons can be learned from Carlos Rafael?

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Join Rhode Island Public Radio and UMass-Dartmouth for a public forum to discuss these and other topics related to New Bedford’s fishing industry.

WHEN: Wednesday, February 21st from 6:00 to 7:00 PM.

View the whole announcement at Rhode Island Public Radio

Massachusetts: Sunken boats owned by ‘Codfather’ now back on surface

February 14, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Two sunken fishing boats owned by the imprisoned “Codfather” have now been pulled back up to the surface in New Bedford.

Crews got the Dinah Jane afloat Monday, while the Nemesis was pulled up during the weekend.

The two scallop boats sank a week earlier as they were tied up together at Homer’s Wharf.

The salvage was made a little tricky because the boats got a little tangled up as they went down.

“It seems like it worked out pretty well, in terms of the salvage operation,” said Edward Anthes-Washburn, who is the executive director of the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission.

The Coast Guard is trying to determine why the boats sank, noting that not much fuel leaked into the water during the mishap.

Both boats are owned by Carlos Rafael, now infamously known as the “Codfather” after he was sent to prison in 2017 for falsifying fish catch records to evade quotas and smuggling cash to Portugal.

The two scallop boats that sank were working recently, but much of Rafael’s big fleet is not.

The government shut down more than a dozen of his groundfish boats as part of the punishment.

Read the full story at WJAR

Massachusetts: SMAST meeting brings fishing, offshore wind in same room

February 13, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Offshore wind developers spent the majority of a 3-hour meeting Monday attempting to win over the local commercial fishing industry.

For much of the meeting, the fishermen in attendance rolled their eyes, scoffed at various PowerPoint slides and even went as far as to say offshore wind is unwanted.

“Nobody wanted this,” one fisherman out of Point Judith said. “Nobody wanted the problems. We were assured there would be none. And here we are.”

Twenty members of the Fisheries Working Group on Offshore Wind Energy sat around a table at SMAST East hoping to solve various issues between the two ocean-based industries.

The meeting, which featured representatives from Deepwater Wind, Vineyard Wind, and Bay State Wind and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, was called to discuss a plan for an independent offshore wind and fisheries science advisory panel.

“It’s not too late,” said David Pierce of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. “As much as we’re working on, now, can be offered up to BOEM and to the different companies specific to the search of projects and specific search of scientific endeavors. We need the research. And we need research to help us address the questions that are being asked by the industry as well as ourselves.”

The science advisory panel would act independently to identify fishery-related scientific and technical gaps related to the future development of offshore wind projects. The panel could also identify offshore wind’s effects on the fishery within Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The panel’s members have yet to be comprised. Debate regarding who should be on the panel began Monday. Everyone agreed experts from all backgrounds should have a seat at the table.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Massachusetts: Local fishing stakeholders marshal opposition to drilling proposal

February 12, 2018 — So the Winter Olympics are rolling on the Korean peninsula and everybody seems to be on their best behavior and we’re all still alive to tell the tale. So that’s a good thing.

Here’s another good thing. You might have noticed we have coverage in today’s Gloucester Daily Times and on gloucestertimes.com of the double-showing Saturday of the fishing documentary “Dead in the Water” at the Cape Ann Museum.

Both screenings were sold out. But what was really interesting was the composition of the crowds. These weren’t the usual faces when it comes to Gloucester fishing. These weren’t the folks you see at the New England Fishery Management Council meetings or at other public forums. These weren’t permit holders and guys who work on boats.

The audiences for both screenings featured a cross-sampling of the Cape Ann community concerned enough about one of the region’s iconic-if-imperiled industries to give up a chunk of their Saturday to watch the film and begin to understand the withering complexities of the fishing crisis.

So, good for them. And good for the Cape Ann Museum for stepping up to host the screenings and subsequent panel discussions.

As an aside, we must concede we’re really not much for the Winter Games here at FishOn.

We like the skiing and love the hockey when the best players in the world are playing. But ixnay on the curling and skating and luge (Look, either sit down like a normal person or at least lay down so you know where you’re going.)

And don’t get us started on the biathalon. Ski for a while and then stop and shoot. Why? It all seems rather arbitrary. Why not have them ski for a while and then change a tire or grout some tile?

Willin’ to be drilling?

Things should get nice and toasty at the Hyatt Regency in Boston on the afternoon of Feb. 27 when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management hosts a public hearing on the Trump administration’s proposal to open the ocean floor off New England to potential drilling and exploration for gas, oil and, for all we know, wolfram.

It’s a sweeping proposal, potentially opening up more than 90 percent of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf to drilling and other invasive exploration.

More to the point, the plan is extraordinary iffy for only two reasons:

Most people — you know, everybody not scurrying around to scoop up mineral rights and leases — hate it and it has the superhero power of uniting the commercial fishing industry, environmentalists, the management councils and the recreational fishing industry in the same fight. On the same side.

Local fishing stakeholders, including the omnipresent Angela Sanfilippo of the Fishing Partnership and Support Services (as well as the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association) are calling out the hordes to attend the hearing and marshal opposition.

So go, make thy own self heard.

Ornery down below the border line

Heading to Myrtle Beach soon for a little break in the action? Nice. Believe it or not there’s one restaurant named Mrs. Fish and another named Mr. Fish. They’re unaffiliated and they’re both really good.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Massachusetts: Rep. Keating Looking to ‘Speed Up’ Ending of NOAA Fishing Ban

February 12, 2018 — U.S. Representative William Keating recently met with new NOAA Regional Administrator Michael Pentony, and the congressman said he’s optimistic that the Sector IX groundfishing ban could soon come to an end.

“It was a great meeting,” Keating said. “There’s no learning curve with him in terms of what the issues are, and that’s an important thing.”

Keating met with Pentony on Tuesday night, just a few weeks after he was appointed the new regional administrator following the retirement of John Bullard.

“I requested, as soon as he was appointed, the opportunity to sit down with him,” Keating said. “He was great. He came to (Washington) D.C., sat down, and we talked for over an hour. We talked about general issues, but I also wanted to focus on what was going on in New Bedford in particular.”

The biggest issue, of course, is the groundfishing ban NOAA placed on Sector IX back in November. The ban is directly related to convicted “Codfather” Carlos Rafael, who owns 22 of the boats in Sector IX and whose illegal overfishing scheme has kept the sector from putting forth an operations plan acceptable to NOAA. Bullard said before his retirement that the ban cannot be lifted until the sector can accurately determine how much and what stocks Rafael overfished, and how the sector plans to go about making up for that number of lost fish.

Congressman Keating said his office has been in weekly contact with NOAA since the criminal proceedings against Rafael began last spring, because he said he knew then there would be repercussions that would reverberate through New Bedford and beyond.

Read the full story at WBSM

Massachusetts: ‘We knew it was bad, but we had no idea how bad’

February 12, 2018 — There have been almost a half-dozen screenings now of the “Dead in the Water” documentary on the commercial fishing crisis and one things is clear: Most people who don’t fish for a living have no real grasp of the complexities and challenges that fishermen face every day just to keep fishing.

That, of course, was one of the motivating forces in the making of the film, both for director David Wittkower, a Rockport native, and stakeholder producers John Bell and Angela Sanfilippo.

For Wittkower, the film is a chance to tell the story of the virtual disappearance of an industry rooted in his Cape Ann childhood. For the producers, particularly Sanfilippo, it is a chance to not only set the fishermen’s side of the debate, but to frame and personalize the issue in ways the industry has been unable to do before.

The film, already shown in Rockport and New Bedford, was privately screened in Gloucester last year.

So Saturday’s twin-bill was the first public screening in America’s oldest commercial seaport, the first true home game for the film whose sweeping cinematography features Gloucester as the centerpiece and its fishermen as the core characters.

“I thought it was amazing,” said Peggy Matlow of Gloucester, following the morning screening in the museum’s auditorium and Granite Gallery. “It was enlightening and so well done.”

But like many before her, Matlow left the screening with a gnawing sense of frustration at the uneven financial and regulatory playing field portrayed in the film.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Massachusetts: Carlos Rafael’s Nemesis pulled from water in New Bedford

February 12, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Crews managed to lift the fishing vessel Nemesis out of about 20 feet of water on Friday.

The Dinah Jane remained submerged but will be pulled from the water soon. It has yet to be determined when exactly.

The two Carlos Rafael scallopers sank around 1:30 a.m. Monday at Homer’s Wharf.

On Friday, crews blew air into the sunken vessel and used a crane to stabilize it. After examination, the Nemesis will likely remain docked off Homer’s Wharf, according to the Harbor Development Commission.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Free safety training workshop for fishermen in New Bedford

February 12, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — In attempting to spread awareness for a fishermen’s safety seminar on Monday, Fishing Partnership Support Services included two case reports with its press release.

The first documented the case of the fishing vessel Katmai that sank in 2008. The other disclosed information surrounding the sinking of the fishing vessel Lydia & Maya.

Seven members of the Katmai never returned home. Fortunately, every member of the Lydia & Maya survived.

Each incident involved stability issues with the vessels.

Ed Dennehy, a retired Coast Guard captain and safety training director for Fishing Partnership Support Services, hopes Monday’s free seminar can prevent future accidents.

“Oh, absolutely (it could save lives,)” Dennehy said. “If they have stability problems, we cover some of the things that they need to address those problems especially if they’re taking on water.”

The safety training is scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center at 38 Bethel St.

The program will include PowerPoint presentations and hands-on training. The first part of the day will act as the informational portion while the second half will allow the participants to implement what they learned.

“It’s important that they understand some of the physics first and then we talk to the practical, how does that practically apply to your boat?” Dennehy said.

The training will include stability principles and stability curve as well as understanding stability reports.

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