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.
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.
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.
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.
December 6, 2019 — Three companies involved in the Mexican bay scallop fishery have launched a collaborative effort to create a fishery improvement project (FIP) in the hopes of securing Marine Stewardship Council certification of the fishery.
Atlantic Capes Fisheries, of Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S.A., Northern Wind of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Don’s Gulf Select of Louisiana have announced a joint FIP to bring the fishery into line with international standards and move toward MSC certification.
November 29, 2019 — The next New Bedford Science Café will examine how the changing climate affects marine life.
During “Changing Oceans, Moving Fish: How Can the Science that Informs Fisheries Management Keep Up?” science café guests will be three marine scientists, Mitchelle Agonsi, Ashleigh Novak, and Amanda Hart, graduate students and researchers from UMass-Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST).
Science Café will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at Greasy Luck Brewpub, 791 Purchase St., New Bedford. The event is open to everyone.
The public is invited to come a little early at 5:45 p.m. for the first annual holiday BioMixology Party. Celebrate science and mix-and-mingle with other Science Café goers. Cash bar, free appetizers.
November 29, 2019 — Vineyard Wind will provide agencies in New Bedford and Fall River with $50,000 apiece with an eye toward developing property to support land-based operations for the offshore wind industry.
The company has announced a grant to the New Bedford Port Authority to develop publicly owned port facilities. The grant would go toward consultants for engineering studies on ways to develop the city’s waterfront.
Vineyard Wind also will provide the Fall River Redevelopment Authority with money as part of an agreement to prepare an analysis of potential uses of a parcel that lies within the city’s Water Urban Renewal Plan area and to redevelop a pier.
November 29, 2019 — A fisherman who survived a shipwreck off Martha’s Vineyard spoke Tuesday from his hospital bed about the harrowing ordeal, one day after the United States Coast Guard suspended its search for three of his fellow crewmates.
Ernesto Garcia, 50, was aboard the Leonardo — a 56-foot scallop boat — that capsized and sank on Sunday afternoon as nine-foot swells and gusty winds battered the area. He was later rescued by a helicopter crew.
“We caught a rogue sea,” Garcia told 7’s Jonathan Hall. “A wave came across in the opposite direction in which the waves were running.”
Garcia says the boat was equipped with a device that automatically sends an emergency distress signal when it strikes the water but that three survival suits onboard sunk with the boat.
“We had no time. Half the port side of the boat was down in the water,” Garcia recalled. “We were past the point of no return.”
Crewmate Mark Cormier, 35, was with Garcia when the wave hit.
“The boat took a nice roll and flipped,” Garcia said. “He [Cormier] broke away from me and I ended up in some kind of air pocket.”
November 29, 2019 — Three Fishermen were killed at sea this week in a tragedy that will be long remembered by their families and others in New Bedford.
A fourth man survived, and told his harrowing tale to WHDH reporter Jonathan Hall, who interviewed him in his hospital room where he was recovering from hypothermia.
“We took one over the stern,” said 50-year-old Ernesto Garcia, recounting how a “rogue sea” – a big wave moving in a different direction from the others – capsized the 56-foot F/V Leonardo during rough weather on Sunday.
Garcia described how he and his crewmate, 35-year-old Mark Cormier Jr., were plunged into the chilly water. Garcia swam up towards the light, and reached the surface where he found a floatation ring. He and Cormier held onto the ring and swam towards a life raft, but after about 20 minutes Cormier was “face down in the water” and he slipped off the ring, Garcia said.
A signal from the overturned scallop boat had alerted the Coast Guard, and Garcia was pulled out of the water by a helicopter with the help of a rescue swimmer.
The loss is compounded for the family of the boat’s skipper, 51-year-old Jerry Bretal and his 29-year-old stepson Xavier Vega. Those two were near the bridge of the vessel went it went over, according to Garcia, who believes they may still be inside the Leonardo, on the seafloor 250 feet below the surface.
November 29, 2019 — The highly-anticipated forced sell-off of “Codfather” Carlos Rafael’s fishing fleet appears to be near completion, only months after the convicted criminal unloaded his scallop boats.
Undercurrent News reports that Blue Harvest Fisheries has inked a $25 million deal to buy at least 35 vessels and skiffs from Rafael along with their permits and fishing quotas. Blue Harvest maintains fleets in Fairhaven and in Newport News, Virginia. It is backed by Bregal Partners, a New York City-based private equity firm.
The pending deal with Blue Harvest – which still must survive a “right of first refusal” where other harvesters could step forward – comes as Rafael remains behind bars.
Rafael was arrested in 2016 following a federal sting, and was convicted on 28 criminal counts in 2017. Rafael admitted to raking in illegal profits and gaming the system by mislabeling 700,000 pounds of harvested fish over four years. He also illegally avoided paying taxes. Rafael was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison. To settle a separate civil suit with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, he was forced to sell his fishing fleet, pay $3 million in penalties, and never engage in the world of commercial fishing again.