Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishing mogul’s arrest ripples across New Bedford waterfront

February 26, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD — Frustration and sadness moved across the waterfront Friday as news spread that Carlos Rafael and his bookkeeper had been arrested by the Justice Department and charged with making false filings to the government as a means of skirting fisheries laws.

One waterfront business manager who did not wish to be identified said that Friday was a “sad day” for the fishing industry, one that is going to hurt in a lot of ways.

“If his boats (there are 40) lay idle in the city there’s going to be a domino effect. It’s not just the fishermen, it’s the fuel contractors, the trailers carrying thousands of gallons of fuel a day, the ice house, the fish auction and all the people employed at processing plants and the fish auction, groceries from ship supply companies and all the people employed there,” he said.

Last winter was harsh and costly for the fishing industry, he said, but thankfully this year is milder, and boats can fish and most will survive with some loss of jobs. “If this happened last year forget it,” he said.

Seafood consultant James Kendall said he is worried about the effect Rafael’s arrest is going to have on the reputation of the city and its important fishing industry.

“The first effect is that unfortunately it’s going to cast a pall over the fishing industry at a time when we’re trying defend ourselves against what a lot of us feel is unwarranted monitoring and oversight,” he said. “They will point to this and say “this is why we need it’,” he said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

View a PDF of the affidavit of agent Ronald Mullet in support of a criminal complaint charging Carlos Raphael

Jack Spillane: Rafael’s fall puts New Bedford fishing on brink

February 26, 2016 — They called him “The Codfather” and like his namesake in the movies, everybody secretly loved him.

Sure, he was a rough, tough guy who said “mother——” every other sentence.

Sure, he liked to brag about how he got the money to buy his first boat might not have all been on the “up and up.”

But he was a big success.

Carlos Rafael parlayed one boat into two boats and then two boats into a fleet of boats and then the money from the boats into a seafood processing house.

On a waterfront where the once mighty groundfish industry has been slowly rotting to a sad shipwreck, we admired Carlos.

Like everybody on the waterfront, he made money on the scallopers but how the hell was he doing it on groundfish? Nobody else understood how to make money groundfishing anymore.

Now, we know how Carlos did.

Or at least how the feds say he did.

The rough, tough Codfather had fish that were on the books and fish that were off the books. He had low-priced haddock that was really higher priced dabs or gray sole. He had an elaborate scam he called “the dance” under which he and his bookkeeper had their boat captains bringing off-the-books fish down to another wise guy in New York.

The off-the books fish sold for cash in the big city and Carlos is said to have made a killing. More than $600K in just six months. Probably millions over time.

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

View a PDF of the affidavit of agent Ronald Mullet in support of a criminal complaint charging Carlos Rafael

MASSACHUSETTS: Man found dead on fishing boat in New Bedford

February 27, 2016 — The U.S. Coast Guard and police are investigating after a body was found on a New Bedford fishing boat. The boat belongs to the so-called “cod father” Carlos Rafael, who was arrested Friday after a lengthy federal investigation.

Emergency crews waited at the New Bedford State Pier Saturday afternoon for the arrival of Dinah Jane. The fishing boat was escorted by two Coast Guard boats as it came back to shore.

It had left New Bedford Friday night around 9:30 p.m. for a scalloping trip, but the trip was cut short when the captain tried to wake up another crew member but couldn’t. After trying to revive the reported 57-year-old man, they realized he was dead.

Read the full story at ABC News

Ocean study demands new approach to fishery regulation

February 11, 2016 — Complexity is the confounding principle in the process of fishery regulation. It has led to confusion, acrimony, litigation and fear among the myriad stakeholders in the Northeast Multi-Species Fishery.

A study released last week by NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole tackles complexity in a way that should empower regulators who are trying to balance conservation and economic goals, keeping the fishery profitable and preparing for an uncertain, changing ocean environment.

Regulators — the New England Fishery Management Council in the Northeast fishery — have been spinning their wheels until recently trying to respond to data about fish landings and species biomass without information that accurately depicts the changing environment.

Fish landings and biomass provide irreplaceable data for regulators to include in their decisions, but without scientific measurements on aspects of the broader environment — ocean temperatures, currents, salinity, acidity — it becomes less likely that prescriptions will be effective, and impossible to construct policies with any reach beyond a season or two of fishing. In other words, for fishing regulations to achieve intended goals, regulators cannot ignore the oceanic imbalance that has brought dramatic and rapid changes; their disruption of species’ behavior and biology is far beyond the limits of certainty, beyond the limits of traditional regulation.

Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard Times

WHSTEP Meeting Topic Is Human Influence On Fisheries

February 5, 2016 — “Human Influence on Fisheries in New England: Then and Now” is the topic of the winter meeting of the Woods Hole Science and Technology Education Partnership (WHSTEP) on Wednesday, February 10, at 4 PM.

The meeting will be held at the Woods Hole Science Aquarium conference room and is free and open to the public.

Michael Fogarty of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center will present “At the Epicenter: Climate Change in the Western North Atlantic.” Robert Rocha of the New Bedford Whaling Museum will talk about “Whales: Yesterday, Today, and in the Classroom.”

Read the full story at The Enterprise

 

Massachusetts sector managers detail fishing costs

January 29, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD — Managers of area fishery sectors on Friday said many local groundfish boats could face daily charges of $125 or less-frequent charges of about $500, to pay for government-mandated monitoring of their catches.

Sector 9 manager Stephanie Rafael-DeMello and Sector 13 manager John Haran both said they negotiated with East West Technical Services, which has an office in Narragansett, R.I., for catch-monitoring services for which fishermen expect to begin paying around March 1.

Rafael-DeMello said the negotiated price was “just under $500 a day,” per boat. But because regulators randomly select boats for monitoring, she said, Sector 9 will spread the cost evenly, charging boats a flat rate of $125 per sea day in order to foot the overall costs of monitoring, which will apply only to about 20 percent of trips.

“We figured it will kind of ease the blow,” Rafael-DeMello said. “It will be a fair way for all of the vessels to share that cost.”

Sector 9 has about 21 groundfishing boats, nearly all of which operate out of New Bedford.

“We’re looking to see if we can afford to keep them all fishing, with the (quota) cuts and the costs that are coming next year,” Rafael-DeMello said. “It’s definitely going to be a struggle, to say the least.”

Read the full story at New Bedford Standard Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: State meets fluke fishermen halfway after barring offload of entire catch

January 15, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — All but one of the seven fishing boats that were barred from offloading their catch of fluke, or summer flounder, earlier this week are back fishing, according to Dr. David Pierce, head of Massachusetts fisheries.

After fishing on North Carolina permits for the fluke, four boats from North Carolina and three from New Bedford (two owned by Carlos Rafael and one by Mark Bergeron) sought shelter in New Bedford during strong storms of the past week.

But Massachusetts’ fluke season doesn’t start until Feb. 1, and the regulations do not allow transfer of fluke quota from another port unless there is a crew injury or illness, or the boat has mechanical problems. The latter applied in the case of the one boat that had to double back to New Bedford with mechanical trouble.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

New Bedford Standard Times: One more fault with fishing rules

January 15, 2016 — Fishing vessels tied up in New Bedford but not allowed to unload part of their catch this week suggest one more weakness in our fishing regulations that is ripe for remedy.

State environmental regulations allow a boat carrying fish to an out-of-state port to land fish in Massachusetts when injured crew or severe mechanical issues force the decision. Foul weather, apparently, is not part of the equation.

Unfortunately for seven vessels — three home-ported here and four from North Carolina — foul weather this week chased them to New Bedford, though they were all fishing on North Carolina permits. The state regulators have allowed the boats to land the portion of the catch classified as “incidental,” but the main target, fluke, as of Thursday afternoon, were still aboard at least two of the vessels because the fluke season doesn’t open in the local fishery until February.

The decision to allow the landing of the incidental catch is somewhat encouraging, as it suggests the Environmental Police tackling this interstate fish story can be flexible.

The fact that the fluke was still aboard yesterday, however, means there’s room for improvement among the rules concerned with quotas, sectors and neighboring regional Fishery Management Councils.

Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Regulations bar three boats from unloading catch in New Bedford

January 13, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Three New Bedford-based fishing boats were barred from unloading their catch in the city Wednesday because the fish were caught on North Carolina quota that cannot be transferred to New Bedford.

Two boats owned by Carlos Rafael and one owned by Mark Bergeron of Bergie’s Seafood Inc. of New Bedford idled at the dock while they tried to budge state environmental police, who are following the regulations that say only a vessel breakdown or crew injury qualify a boat to go to an alternative harbor and unload.

At press time, Major Patrick Moran of the Environmental Police said the “incidental catch” (all the fish except fluke) for the local boats can be unloaded. Fluke by regulation cannot be landed in Massachusetts until February.

“We are trying to work together on this for a solution that is satisfactory to everyone,” Moran said. “This is a good start.”

Rafael and Bergeron had feared that they would have had to allow an entire catch to rot and be thrown overboard because of the strictness of the rules.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Coast Guard tows fishing boat over violations

January 8, 2016 — A New Bedford fishing vessel’s voyage was cut short Thursday after the Coast Guard found multiple safety violations, according to a statement from the Coast Guard.

The 83-foot Amber Nicole did not have a life raft, had improperly marked survival suits, and no record of performing mandatory monthly drills, all serious safety deficiencies, according to the Coast Guard statement. The boat was operating about 44 nautical miles off Nantucket with a crew of seven.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times