Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: US auction owners seek to spoil Blue Harvest’s deal for Rafael groundfish vessels

December 26, 2019 — Carlos Rafael’s remaining fleet of as many as 35 groundfish vessels and skiffs in the US port city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, may not be under Blue Harvest Fisheries’ Christmas tree after all.

Richard and Raymond Canastra, the founders and owners of the Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE), a nearly 26-year-old seafood auction house, also in New Bedford,  informed the members of New England fishing sector 7 on Friday that they are taking advantage of the group’s right of first refusal (ROFR) rules to seek acquisition of the vessels and their related permits, Undercurrent News has learned from its sources.

Additionally, the Canastras have filed another challenge to Rafaels’ earlier sale of six scallop boats and their related permits to Quinn Fisheries, a longtime New Bedford-based scalloping company, this time in federal court.

Undercurrent reported late last month how documents showed Blue Harvest, a US scallop and groundfish supplier backed by New York City-based private equity Bregal Partners, had signed a purchase agreement to buy the Rafael fleet and all of their associated permits for nearly $25 million. The deal includes millions of pounds of quota for at least eight types of fish in the northeast multispecies fishery, including cod, haddock, American plaice, witch flounder, yellowtail flounder, redfish, white hake and pollock.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

US auction owners seek to spoil Blue Harvest’s deal for Rafael groundfish vessels

December 23, 2019 — Carlos Rafael’s remaining fleet of as many as 35 groundfish vessels and skiffs in the US port city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, may not be under Blue Harvest Fisheries’ Christmas tree after all.

Richard and Raymond Canastra, the founders and owners of the Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE), a nearly 26-year-old seafood auction house in New Bedford, Massachusetts, informed the members of New England fishing sector 7 on Friday that they are taking advantage of the group’s right of first refusal (ROFR) rules to seek acquisition of the vessels and their related permits, Undercurrent News has learned from its sources.

Additionally, the Canastras have filed another challenge to Rafaels’ earlier sale of six scallop boats and their related permits to Quinn Fisheries, a longtime New Bedford-based scalloping company, this time in federal court.

Undercurrent reported late last month how documents showed Blue Harvest, a US scallop and groundfish supplier backed by New York City-based private equity Bregal Partners, had signed a purchase agreement to buy the Rafael fleet and all of their associated permits for nearly $25 million. The deal includes millions of pounds of quota for at least eight types of fish in the northeast multispecies fishery, including cod, haddock, American plaice, witch flounder, yellowtail flounder, redfish, white hake and pollock.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Viking Power: New Bedford scallop boat launches in Alabama with a ‘positive energy bow’

December 23, 2019 — Lars Vinjerud II can’t stop growing his fisheries and seafood business. “I’m lucky,” he says. “I’ve got a lot of good people working for me.”

Vinjerud’s company Fleet Fisheries in New Bedford, Mass., has 14 boats in the scallop, lobster and longline fisheries, and branches in the seafood marketing, a machine shop and more boats scheduled for construction. “Ya just keep rolling,” he says.
Vinjerud’s newest contribution to the New Bedford waterfront is the Viking Power, a vessel that is definitely outside the box. The Viking Power is 106 feet long, has a beam of 30 feet and draws around 14 feet, and catches the eye immediately because of its unique bow shape, which slants down forward into the water.

“I’ve been drawing this boat for 20 years,” says Vinjerud. “I took the design to Williams Fabrication [in Bayou La Batre, Ala.]and we took it to a company called C. Fly Marine. And they modeled it going 6 or 8 knots in 15-foot seas.” According to Vinjerud, the bow cuts through waves and reduces the motion of the vessel, giving the crew a safer more comfortable work platform.

“I call it the positive energy bow,” says Vinjerud. “Like how in judo you use the other person’s energy in your favor.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Northern Wind’s $12m plant expansion makes room for more scallops, other products

December 19, 2019 — Northern Wind is already one of the three largest processors, distributors and direct offloaders of fresh and frozen scallops in North America, but its recently announced $12 million plant expansion in New Bedford, Massachusetts, promises to also make it an even larger player in both the scallop and overall seafood space, CEO George Kouri tells Undercurrent News.

The 32-year-old company revealed this week that it is in the process of completing construction on what will be a 38,000 square foot processing facility with a 21,600 square foot freezer capable of holding up to 5.5m pounds of seafood. That’s 11 times the company’s previous freezer holding capacity.

The new freezer is already up and running, and the rest of the facility could be ready to roll shortly after New Year’s Day, Kouri said.

Northern Wind, which opened some 32 years ago, is already processing some 18m lbs of scallops annually, buying all of the scallops produced by some 70 vessels with which the company has 30+ year agreements. Though imports account for between 25% and 30% of annual scallop sales.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Fishing companies fined $1M for dumping oil into New Bedford harbor

December 17, 2019 — Two fishing companies will pay a combined $1 million in fines and face five years of probation for two separate oil spills in the busy New Bedford harbor, a federal judge ruled Monday as he admonished the company’s owner at the hearing.

“Let me make myself clear — it is not enough to come in here and plead guilty and then go out and say, ‘the government is big and strong and we had to do this as a cost of doing business,’” federal Judge William Young told owner Barry Cohen at U.S. District Court. “These are crimes — they were meant by Congress to be crimes.”

Sea Harvest Inc. and Fishing Vessel Enterprises, Inc., the operators and owners of the two commercial fishing boats, respectively, which spilled the oil, pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the Clean Water Act, which criminalizes oil spills in U.S. waters and shorelines.

Crew members for the fishing vessel Enterprise, which fished for surf clams, pumped out water, putrid clam juice and “some amount” of oil from the boat’s engine room in September 2017, lawyers for the companies wrote in a filing earlier this month. The dumping created a sheen on the water in the New Bedford Harbor, which was noticed by local authorities immediately, the filing said.

Read the full story at The Boston Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: Scallops and Beer Fundraiser

December 13, 2019 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is partnering with Moby Dick Brewing Co. for a Scallops and Beer Fundraiser on Thursday, December 19th. Enjoy a variety of scallop specials and suggested beer pairings at Moby Dick Brewing Co. (16 S. Water Street) from 4:00pm to close. 15% of the sales from these scallop specials will go towards the Fishing Heritage Center.

This event was inspired by the discovery of an archival image (below) that is captioned, “Dawson’s Brewery of New Bedford, Mass unites with the fishermen’s Union to promote sea scallops across the land using the phrase, “Beer and New Bedford Sea Scallops are made for each other.” Dawson’s Brewery opened in 1889 and remained a local institution in New Bedford through the mid- 1970s.

Stop by Moby Dick Brewing Co. on December 19th to see why beer and sea scallops were made for each other and to support the Fishing Heritage Center.

MASSACHUSETTS: Authorities locate boat that sunk with 4 fishermen aboard

December 11, 2019 — A fishing vessel that capsized and sank miles off Martha’s Vineyard with four fishermen aboard has been found.

The Leonardo, a 57-foot scalloper based out of New Bedford, was located and identified Sunday morning, according to Massachusetts Environmental Police.

Only one of the four fishermen aboard the Leonardo was rescued since the boat went down on Nov. 24. The other three men, Capt. Gerald Bretal, Mark Cormier and Xavier Vega, are considered lost at sea.

Read the full story at Boston.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Missing New Bedford Fishing Boat Found Submerged Off Martha’s Vineyard

December 10, 2019 — A fishing boat that sunk in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard last month was located Sunday. Massachusetts Environmental Police confirmed the Leonardo was found at the bottom of the ocean using sonar and a remote operated camera.

Three New Bedford based fishermen were lost at sea when the boat was hit by rogue waves on November 24.

“We had no time to get survival gear on, not even a life vest,” lone survivor Ernesto Garcia told WBZ-TV days after he was rescued. “It just happened in a split of a second. There was no chance for nothing except holding your breath.”

Boat captain Gerry Bretal, and fishermen Mark Cormier Jr. and Xavier Vega are presumed dead. Rescue crews suspended the search for the men about 24 hours after the accident.

Read the full story at WBZ

NOAA: Rafael’s misreported fish ‘disappeared’ at Whaling City auction

December 10, 2019 — A NOAA official has charged that if federal officials were not watching when Carlos Rafael offloaded fish at the Whaling City Display Auction, the catch simply “disappeared.”

“If there was no observer on the boat, no dockside monitor, no state environmental police, no NOAA law enforcement officer, the fish would just simply disappear,” NOAA Special Agent Troy Audyatis said, “Thousands upon thousands of fish would simply disappear.”

Audyatis made the charge at a Dec. 3 meeting of the New England Fisheries Management Council while making the presentation “Catching the Codfather,” and said the New Bedford display auction was the location where Rafael offloaded much of the thousands of pounds of fish that were either under or misreported.

“Any given day fish would just disappear. There’s fish that he sold [that] he didn’t report having available for sale to NOAA and he didn’t buy from a third party, but yet he sold thousands of pounds of fish that day,” Audyatis said.

If fishing boat owners don’t report their catch to NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), there is no way for the federal government to know how much of a given species is in the ocean. Federal regulations designed to save fish stocks are dependent on knowing how much of a species is present.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

New rule allows New Bedford fishermen to stop throwing away fish

December 9, 2019 — A regulatory change long sought by groundfishermen — which will lessen the dangers of working at sea, reduce fuel costs and stabilize fishing stocks — is expected to go into effect Jan. 1 in the Bay State for the start of the winter fluke season, officials said.

The change, which is also expected to be made in Rhode Island and Connecticut, will allow fishermen to make one trip and then return to the three states and offload their catches without going back to sea after every offload, officials and fishermen said. The conditions are that they must have licenses to catch fluke in the states where they offload, and the states must be open for catching fluke.

Currently, fishermen go to sea, come back to a port in Massachusetts and offload their catch, discarding fish that are over their quota. Then they return to sea for a second time, offload a second catch in Rhode Island, if they have a license there, and again discard fish that are over the limit. Finally, they make a third trip to sea, offload their catch in Connecticut, if they have a license there, and again discard any fish beyond their quota.

“We just want to go from state to state and not kill fish unnecessarily. Anyone who thinks fishermen don’t care about fish is wrong,” said Tony Borges, owner and captain of Sao Paulo, an 87-foot dragger out of New Bedford. “We want to catch all the limits (in one fishing trip) and deliver it.

“It is so much better than going out and unload, and going out and unload, and going out and unload, if they (the states) are open (for catching fluke),” he said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times