Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Black sea bass poachers on Buzzards Bay return with the season

May 28, 2017 — Harbormaster and shellfish employees waded knee-deep in the Wareham River last weekend, fetching dead, floating fish and dropping them into black plastic trash bags.

Each fish would serve as evidence. An angler had spied Environmental Police seizing 225 black sea bass from another boat and dumped his own illegal catch to avoid arrest.

On the same sunny Sunday, beach-goers snapped cellphone pictures of boats that buzzed to the shoreline to drop off coolers, which Wareham Harbormaster Garry Buckminster believes were filled with illegal fish. The boats then motored back offshore to catch more.

“It’s really a wild west in some of these areas,” Buckminster said.

Black sea bass season had officially begun.

Hundreds of anglers converged on Wareham, Mattapoisett and other SouthCoast communities to take advantage of the pristine fishing conditions and haul sea bass from close-to-shore shallow waters. Most began the recreational season bagging the limit of five per person. But others hauled in 30 times that much, likely with their eyes on the black market, where black sea bass can sell for $5 a pound.

“As long as you have people buying the stuff, people are going to poach it,” Maj. Pat Moran of the Environmental Police said.

Smugglers stow the bass in hidden compartments within their boats, using false bottoms, plastic bags and beer coolers to collect their catch. Then it’s a rush to shore and out of town before they’re spotted by environmental police.

“They’ve really got their racket put together,” Buckminster said. “They’d going to do whatever they can. They’ve got a plan in place and they’re trying to make it happen.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishermen lost at sea remembered at Seaman’s Bethel

People filled the newly-restored Seamen’s Bethel to the rafters Monday to pay their respects to fishermen who have lost their lives at sea and to pray for the safe return of the men who currently fish the Atlantic.

Retired Probate Court Judge Armand Fernandes and Bruce Oliveira took turns reading nearly 300 names of local fishermen who have been lost at sea. Each time a name was read from the bow of the ship, which is the pulpit at the Bethel, a solitary bell was struck, resonating throughout the confines of the chapel.

Both Fernandes and Oliveira are members of the New Bedford Port Society’s Executive Board. Fernandes is the first vice president and Oliveira is the assistant treasurer and was the chairman of the Development Committee of the more than $3 million restoration of the Seamen’s Bethel and Mariners’ Home on Johnny Cake Hill.

Monday’s event was sponsored by the Offshore Mariners Wives’ Association and the New Bedford Port Society.

As Fernandes and Oliveira read the names, spectators read along with the names of the deceased fishermen listed in their programs.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said for most people the commute to work is pretty routine compared to a commercial fisherman. Their commute could be “a life or death event,” he said.

“It is dangerous out there, very dangerous,” and the stress and uncertainty weighs heavily on the families in the fishing community, he said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Seafood Coalition planning gala

May 30, 2017 — The Northeast Seafood Coalition will hold its annual fundraiser in July, but with a twist: This year’s event has a specific theme tied to elevating the group’s role in improving groundfish stock assessments.

The Gloucester-based fishing advocate’s gala, set for July 27 at The Gloucester House restaurant, is flying under the banner of “Know Fish: Better Science” and will include big-money raffles, a celebrity seafood cooking demonstration, an auction, live music and a seafood buffet.

Beyond the festivities, the event will underscore the need to improve the science that serves as the foundation for the stock assessments and potentially bridge the discrepancies between what the current science shows and what the fishermen are seeing on the water. 

“We decided to do a larger theme this year than just center the event around fundraising,” said Jackie Odell, NSC executive director. “We’re raising money from the event to allow us to better engage in the scientific process and better engage in the science of assessments.”

The coalition has established several levels of financial support. The event, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., will be limited to 500 attendees.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Great White Shark Numbers Increasing On Cape Cod

May 26, 2017 — We’re getting close to that time of year, when the great white sharks make their annual visit to the waters of Cape Cod. Cape Cod is the only known aggregating site for white sharks in the North Atlantic.

According to the latest study by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the number of great white sharks vacationing there appears to be rising. That’s a public safety issue for towns, according to the state’s top shark expert.

Guest

Gregory Skomal, program manager and senior marine fisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. His research group tweets @a_whiteshark.

Interview Highlights

On their survey of the numbers of great white sharks

“We are right in the middle of a 5-year population study … what I can tell you … is how many individuals we’ve tabulated year for the last couple of years. In 2016 for example, we identified 147 individual white sharks along the Eastern shoreline of Cape Cod. The year prior to that, it was 141 and the year prior to that in 2014, it was about 80. So we’re seeing that subtle increase from year to year. And as tempted as I am to say that it’s actually an increase in the population size, it’s more likely a shift in the distribution of sharks in response to the growing seal population.”

On how the seals are attracting sharks

“Most people don’t realize the interesting history of the seal populations on the Northeastern coast of the U.S. They had been all but drive to extinction a couple of hundred years ago. And now, with protection that was put in place in the early 1970s, we’ve seen the slow growth in the population that has now resulted in literally tens of thousands of seals along our coastline. And that has drawn the attention of one of their predators, the white shark.”

Read and listen to the full story at WBUR

Nantucket Lightship Access Area Closing on May 30 for Scallop LAGC-IFQ Permit Holders

May 26, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

We are closing the Nantucket Lightship Access Area to the limited access general category (LAGC) individual fishing quota (IFQ) fleet on May 30, 2017. The area will remain closed to the LAGC IFQ fleet for the remainder of the 2017 fishing year through March 31, 2018.

Under the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan, once the LAGC IFQ fleet reaches its annual limit on the number of trips into the Nantucket Lightship Access Area (837 trips in 2017), we are required to close the area to the LAGC IFQ fleet for the remainder of the 2017 fishing year to prevent overharvest. We project that the LAGC IFQ fleet has reached its 2017 limit of 837 trips allocated for the Nantucket Lightship Access Area. 

Vessels that have complied with the observer notification requirements, declared a trip into the Nantucket Lightship Scallop Access Area using the correct Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) code, and crossed the VMS demarcation line before 0001, May 30, 2017, may complete their trip and retain and land scallops caught from the Nantucket Lightship Access Area.

For more information, read the notice as filed in the Federal Register this afternoon and the permit holder bulletin on our website.

Questions? Contact Shannah Jaburek at 978-282-8456 or shannah.jaburek@noaa.gov

MASSACHUSETTS: West Tisbury School students learn about sustainable seafood

May 25, 2017 — West Tisbury School students enjoyed clam chowder and a lobster boil for lunch on a recent Friday, part of their “local catch of the day” program, and learned from local experts how choosing sustainable seafood supports New England fishermen.

The event on May 19 at the West Tisbury School gave students the opportunity to learn firsthand what the ocean has to offer. It was part of a celebration of Island Grown Schools’ “harvest of the month.” The organization brings garden-based learning and locally sourced food to Island schoolchildren, and seafood was the local harvest for the month of May.

Jared Auerbach, the founder of Boston-based regional seafood purveyor Red’s Best, which supplies seafood to the school, shared with students the importance of eating locally-sourced and sustainably-harvested fish.

“Let mother nature dictate what you’re going to eat,” Mr. Auerbach said.

Read the full story at The Martha’s Vineyard Times

Barnegat Light Scalloper ‘Apparently Fell Overboard’ and Dies in Massachusetts

May 24, 2017 — The Fishermen’s Story Memorial at the tip of Barnegat Light will have another name engraved in memory of commercial fishermen who died in their line of work, this one Pete Benya.

“Barnegat Light is again mourning the loss of one of our own,” says the Facebook page of the Fishermen’s Story Memorial Fund.

Capt. Pete Benya, 59, died the weekend of Sunday, May 14, when his body was found floating in Saquatucket Harbor, Mass., and later identified, according to the Cape and Islands district attorney’s office.

Benya owned the Resolute and had been scalloping out of Barnegat Light for several years.

“Pete was making a few trips out of Harwich, Mass., and apparently fell overboard while at the dock,” said representatives from Lighthouse Marina, his home port in Barnegat Light.

“He will be sorely missed.”

Beth Mears, on behalf of the marina and the Fisherman’s Story Memorial, said having Benya’s name engraved on the monument  is “in the works.” She said she hopes to have it done in time for the Blessing of the Fleet on June 19 but is not sure if the work will be completed by then. The monument was erected in 2013 after Mears’ brother, Jimmy, was lost at sea.

Read the full story at The Sandpaper

Carlos Rafael wins sentencing delay

May 24, 2017 — The sentencing of New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael has been moved off another month and he now is expected to hear his fate on July 28 in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Rafael, who pleaded guilty in late March to falsifying fish quotas, conspiracy and tax evasion, requested the extension. He said he needs more time gather and provide the relevant — and voluminous — financial records that are the center of the federal government’s case against him.

Rafael, 65, initially was set to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young on June 27.

“The short continuance requested in this motion will allow Mr. Rafael to complete this process such that the information can be presented in the pre-sentence report and considered at sentencing,” William H. Kettlewell, Rafael’s attorney, wrote in his motion for the extension.

Prosecutors did not oppose the extension.

Under his plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Rafael may have to surrender up to 13 of his groundfishing vessels and must pay almost $109,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Rafael, known throughout New England as the “Codfather” because of his vast vessel and permit holdings, could face up to 76 months in prison on the three charges — far less than the up to 20 years he would have faced under the original 27-count indictment.

Federal prosecutors have recommended a prison sentence of 46 months and a significant period of supervised release.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

How Maine came to play a central role in an international eel smuggling scheme

May 23, 2017 — Years after officials launched an investigation into baby eel poaching on the East Coast, the first of several men to plead guilty to participating in the wildlife trafficking ring was sentenced last week in a federal courtroom in Maine.

Michael Bryant, 40, a former Baileyville resident who now lives in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, is one of more than a dozen men who the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service says poached thousands of pounds of the baby eels, also known as elvers or “glass” eels, from 2011 through 2014. Since 2011, elvers on average have fetched around $1,500 per pound for fishermen, and netted more than $4 million total for the 12 convicted poachers who have pleaded guilty to federal charges in South Carolina, Virginia and Maine.

Maine found itself at the center of a criminal enterprise that illegally netted elvers along the Atlantic seaboard, where most states ban their harvesting, and then shipped the eels overseas to feed East Asia’s voracious seafood appetite, according to investigators.

Bryant and other poachers benefitted from a combination of environmental, economic and regulatory factors earlier this decade that created an unexpected boon for elver fishermen in Maine, where the vast majority of the country’s legal elver harvest occurs. Maine, one of only two states with legal elver fisheries, has approximately 1,000 licensed elver fishermen who over the past seven years have caught 81,000 pounds of elvers valued at more than $126 million. South Carolina, the other state, issues only 10 licenses each year and has much smaller harvests.

Last October, Bryant was one of seven men who pleaded guilty in federal court in Maine to trafficking in poached elvers. According court documents, Bryant did not have a fishing license but caught 207 pounds of elvers in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia over four consecutive springs, from 2011 through 2014. He sold them to unscrupulous dealers or middlemen, with roughly half his catch being funneled through Maine, for an average of $1,600 per pound, netting a total of $331,084, according to authorities.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

EDF proposes steep fines on Rafael to create ‘Groundfish Monitoring Fund’

May 23, 2017 — Carlos Rafael can do some good for the fishing industry, fishermen and fish stocks he so badly damaged during his decades of fraud, argue Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) leaders Matt Tinning and Johanna Thomas in a recent opinion piece in South Coast Today. 

“Leaders in the fishing industry have made two demands that we support: Carlos Rafael should never again be allowed to fish, and his groundfish quota should be redistributed to other participants in the fishery who were among his victims. We propose a third remedy: He should face steep fines and asset seizures proportionate to his crimes, and the proceeds should be used to fix system failures that allowed his criminality to flourish.”

Specifically, they call for the creation of a a Groundfish Monitoring Fund. Tinning is senior director of the EDF’s US oceans program; and Thomas is the New England regional director for EDF.

They argue, “One of the major causes of the New England cod crisis, and a key enabler of Rafael’s crimes, is inadequate monitoring of the groundfish fleet,” they state in the article. “Only one out of 10 groundfish boats carries an at-sea observer, and there are no monitors to document catch when fishermen bring their harvest to land. As a result, participants in the fishery can’t have confidence that all are abiding by fishing rules, and little accurate information on fishing activity exists upon which to base harvest limits. It is no wonder that Rafael’s massive fraud went undetected for so long, or that this fishery has one of the worst records of stock recovery in the country.

“A Groundfish Monitoring Fund could turn this fishery around. In other places, like the U.S. Pacific and British Columbia, successful groundfish monitoring programs have helped resuscitate stocks and put fishermen on a level playing field. There are growing calls for New England to adopt similar innovations, and the Fishery Management Council recently kicked off an amendment process that could get this done. A major remaining challenge, however, is the cost burden of effective monitoring. If a Groundfish Monitoring Fund could overcome that hurdle by helping underwrite costs, it could be a historic breakthrough.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News