Saving Seafood

‘Codfather’ pleads not guilty to fish conspiracy

May 13, 2016 — New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Worcester to conspiracy, lying to NOAA Fisheries about the exact species of fish he landed through a four-year span, and illegally smuggling cash out of the country.

Rafael, know widely as “The Codfather,” remains free on the $1 million bond set after his February arrest for conspiracy and submitting falsified records. The arrests of Rafael and his bookkeeper Debra Messier capped an undercover sting operation by federal authorities, some of whom posed as Russian mobsters looking to buy his business.

The 64-year-old Rafael, who appeared before Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy, controls one of the largest commercial fishing fleets in the United States and has been a powerful force in Northeast commercial fishing circles through his ownership of 32 fishing vessels and a block of 44 federal fishing permits with a value estimated in the tens of millions of dollars.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Water rescue needed during at-sea training

May 13, 2016 — Almost 40 fishermen and others who work on the water participated in safety and survival training Thursday at the Coast Guard’s Station Gloucester. Little did they know that session would provide a real-life safety incident.

According to Nina Groppo of the Fishing Partnership and Support Services, one of the participants encountered a problem during an in-water drill when his survival suit inadvertently opened as he was trying to get into a life raft and instructors had to fetch him out of the water.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

The boats that land the fish

May 11, 2016 — To ask the question “what boat landed this fish?” may be one of the most important environmental, social and political acts of 2016.

These are some names of Gloucester day boats, boats that make short trips to Jeffreys Ledge, Ipswich Bay and Middle Bank: the Maria GS, the Santo Pio, the Angela & Rose, the Janaya & Joseph, and Cat Eyes. And there are more. These boats land a mix of species that call the Gulf of Maine home, but they are primarily landing codfish, dab flounder, blackback flounder, yellowtail flounder, gray sole and some whiting.

These are some of the offshore Gloucester boats currently fishing the northern edge of George’s Bank: The Miss Trish, The Midnight Sun, the Teresa Marie III, the Harmony, the Teresa Marie IV and the Lady Jane. Again, there are more boats than this. Right now, they are landing haddock, redfish, pollock, codfish, dab flounder, gray sole and some hake.

In port, these boats, and others, can be seen tied up at Felicia Oil, Rose Marine, Gloucester Marine Railways and the State Fish Pier, wharfs along the Inner Harbor, many in clear sight of some Gloucester restaurants.

In an effort to celebrate and promote the quality seafood that these boats land, Gloucester Seafood Processing in Blackburn Circle stamps every issue of fish with the name of the fishing vessel that landed it. They are hoping other processors will, too. Restaurants — particularly in Gloucester — should proudly be announcing to their guests, “This pollock was landed yesterday on the Angela & Rose!” — or the Janaya & Joseph, or the Santo Pio.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Prosecutors in Rafael case: Carlos Seafood’s transaction reports didn’t match up

May 11, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The FV Hera II, a boat that prosecutors said fishing fleet owner Carlos Rafael owned through a shell corporation, reported catching 4,595 pounds of haddock on Jan. 25, then selling it to Rafael’s Carlos Seafood business, a registered dealer, according to the indictment of Rafael that was unsealed Monday.

Carlos Seafood also recorded acquiring 840 pounds of American plaice, or “dabs,” from the Hera II that day, prosecutors said.

But here’s the rub: Records of Carlos Seafood’s third-party sales Jan. 25, according to the indictment, cite about 200 pounds of haddock and 5,200 pounds of dabs.

In other words, prosecutors allege, a lot of the fish caught by the Hera II on Jan. 25 and reported as “haddock” actually were dabs, which are subject to stricter regulatory quotas. Those quotas are administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and limit how much of certain species commercial fishermen can catch.

Catching more of a protected species than allowed can bring significant value on the black market.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA Fisheries Hosts Thorny Skate Extinction Risk Workshop

May 10, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries is hosting a Thorny Skate Extinction Risk Workshop to discuss the threats to thorny skates and their risk of extinction.

We are currently evaluating whether thorny skates should be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Where: Maritime Gloucester, 23 Harbor Loop Road, Gloucester, MA.

When: May 19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Goals and objectives:

An extinction risk analysis (ERA) can be used to help evaluate the known or perceived risk to the continued persistence of a species. At the ERA Workshop, participants will review and discuss the information on the threats to thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata) noted in the petition and in the literature, available data sets and models regarding status; and types of ERAs that have been used for other species. A summary of the workshop will be prepared for use by the ERA working group and NOAA Fisheries.

Following the workshop, an ERA working group comprised of invited participants with expertise in thorny skates or other elasmobranchs will review data and analysis on thorny skates and select a method to use to develop an extinction risk assessment for the species. Following the discussion and results of the extinction risk assessment, the ERA working group will document their individual expert opinions and findings related to extinction risk for the species in a report. Both the workshop summary and the ERA working group’s report will be independently peer reviewed and will be used to help inform the listing determination for the species.

Invited Expert Participant Selection Criteria:

Invited working group participants were identified based on their working knowledge and recent experience with one or more of the following: 1) expertise in extinction risk analysis and/or population modeling; and/or 2) expertise in fisheries population dynamics, stock assessments and life history of elasmobranchs; and/or 3) advanced working knowledge of and recent experience developing and running population models with the available thorny skate data. 

Working Group Invited Expert Participants:

  • Tobey Curtis- Greater Atlantic Regional Office
  • Sonja Fordham- Shark Advocates International
  • Jon Hare- Northeast Fisheries Science Center
  • Fiona Hogan- New England Fisheries Management Council
  • John Mandelman- New England Aquarium
  • Katherine Sosebee- Northeast Fisheries Science Center


Webinar:  https://noaaevents.webex.com/noaaevents/onstage/g.php?MTID=e69a831a994ec9befe124bbef780a95d7
Conference Line: 877-710-3752

Participant Code: 7867681

Endangered Right Whale Season Winds Down in Cape Cod Bay

May 10, 2016 — PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — The 2016 North Atlantic right whale season is winding down and researchers from the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown are reporting a large turnout in the area.

The center conducts multiple aerial surveys each week from December through May to provide data to local, state and federal managers of the critically endangered species which population is estimated to be around 500.

More than 25 percent of the species estimate population visited Cape Cod Bay this season, including six mothers and their newborn calves.

“It’s once again an indication that Cape Cod Bay is central to the future of the species,” said Charles “Stormy” Mayo with the Center for Coastal Studies.

The whales come to the bay during this time as there is an abundance of food.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Carlos Rafael, New Bedford’s ‘Codfather’, indicted on 27 counts

May 9, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Local fishing magnate Carlos Rafael has been indicted by federal prosecutors for lying about fish catches and smuggling cash to Portugal through Logan airport in Boston, in a multi-year scheme involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to records filed last week and unsealed Monday.

The indictment lists 27 counts against Rafael, for charges including conspiracy, false entries and bulk cash smuggling. Rafael is alleged to have falsely reported the species of more than 815,000 pounds of fish to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) between 2012 and January of this year, according to the Office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz.

“On a yearly basis, Rafael’s routine falsification of dealer reports he submitted to NOAA created substantial discrepancies between the fishing activity he reported and the fish caught by his fishing vessels and acquired by Carlos Seafood,” the indictment states.

Bristol County Sheriff’s Office deputy Antonio M. Freitas, a Taunton resident, also is named in the indictment. Freitas is charged with two counts, one for bulk cash smuggling and one for international structuring.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

SMAST Fisheries scientists to present current cooperative research projects at Dock-u-mentaries program

May 9, 2016 — The Dock-U-Mentaries Film Series continues on Friday, May 20th at 7:00 PM with Fishing for Knowledge: Cooperative Research for Sustainable Fisheries in New England. Dock-u-entaries is a co-production of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, and the Working Waterfront Festival. Films about the working waterfront are screened on the third Friday of each month beginning at 7:00 PM in the theater of the Corson Maritime Learning Center, located at 33 William Street in downtown New Bedford. All programs are open to the public and presented free of charge.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Guide

SALEM NEWS: A small victory for at-sea monitoring

May 9, 2016 — New England fishermen got some good news last week when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced plans to scale back the amount of on-board monitoring required of the commercial fleet. However, there is still work to be done.

Late last week, NOAA said it will cut monitoring to 14 percent of all vessel trips for the season that began May 1. That’s down from about 24 percent of trips in 2015.

“Fishermen appreciate the changes and the evolution of the at-sea monitoring program,” Jackie Odell, executive director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, told reporter Sean Horgan. “We think what they’ve done is prudent and responsible.”

Read the full opinion piece at The Salem News

Maine lobster suppliers strategize to foil EU ban

May 9, 2016 — Maine lobster suppliers met behind closed doors with dealers from some of Europe’s biggest lobster importing countries in Brussels last week to discuss a pending ban on importing live North American lobsters into Europe.

The six Maine companies joined their Massachusetts and Canadian peers, as well as national trade officials, to discuss the proposed ban with buyers and trade officials from eight European countries, including the three biggest importers of Homarus americanus: France, Italy and Spain. The meeting occurred at the world’s largest seafood industry trade show, said spokesman Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, an American seafood industry trade group.

About 75 people met for 90 minutes to talk about how to avoid the all-out ban that Sweden asked the European Union to adopt in March after finding North American lobsters in European waters.

“Brussels was productive,” Gibbons said. “Unnecessarily excluding live North American lobsters from that market would have real impacts on both sides of the Atlantic, sales and jobs. So, no one is taking this lightly.”

In March, Sweden petitioned the European Union to declare the North American lobster an invasive species, which would ban live imports to the EU’s 28 member states. It based its petition on an 85-page risk assessment that claims the discovery of a small number of North American lobsters in the waters off Great Britain, Norway and Sweden over the last 30 years, including one female lobster carrying hybrid eggs, proved cross-breeding had taken place. The Swedish scientists say a ban would protect the European lobster from cross-breeding and diseases carried by the North American lobster.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald