Saving Seafood

Quinn Fisheries, Blue Harvest sue Rafael trustee for blocking vessel sale, lawsuit says

April 28, 2021 — Quinn Fisheries and Blue Harvest Fisheries filed a lawsuit last week against Carlos Rafael’s trustee and three arbitrators, alleging they are blocking a multimillion-dollar transaction of vessels and permits that was scheduled to happen April 16.

The permits are for scallops and multi-species fish. The fishing seasons have already started or will soon start and because the transaction cannot be finalized, Quinn Fisheries and Blue Harvest state they will experience serious and irreparable financial harm.

According to the 19-page complaint, Quinn Fisheries planned to transfer certain vessels and permits to Blue Harvest, and then purchase vessels and permits from Blue Harvest.

The companies state the transaction will not “significantly dilute or otherwise jeopardize” the Rafael trust. The trust was established in 2019 to hold certain assets that, if not for a settlement agreement, would be held by Rafael, according to a document.

Rafael was convicted in 2017 for conspiracy and falsifying federal records, but was recently released from prison. As part of his settlement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), he was required to leave the fishing industry and sell his commercial fleet and permits.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Carlos Rafael scallop boats to stay in New Bedford

September 26, 2019 — Eleven scallop boats from the fleet of convicted fisheries violator Carlos Rafael will keep working out of New Bedford under local ownership, a victory for industry advocates.

Charlie and Michael Quinn, the father and son co-owners of Quinn Fisheries, appeared at the docks Tuesday afternoon with New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell to announce they had closed on a deal to buy six of the boats.

The Quinns paid about $40 million, said Michael Quinn. Mitchell, who with other Massachusetts political and industry leaders pushed to keep the boats in New Bedford, said the other five vessels and their permits are also now going to new owners based in the city.

Rafael is serving a 46-month federal prison sentence for tax evasion, falsifying fisheries landing reports and related offenses. The so-called “Codfather” controlled a large share of the groundfish and scallop fleets, until he was brought down by undercover federal agents.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Quinn Fisheries finalizes deal for six Rafael scallop vessels

September 24, 2019 — The following is an excerpt from a story originally published by Undercurrent News:

Quinn Fisheries, a 33-year-old, New Bedford, Massachusetts-based scallop operation, has closed its deal to purchase six of Carlos Rafael’s 11 scallop vessels and their related permits, sources told Undercurrent News.

The acquisition, which was confirmed by Michael Quinn, the operations manager and co-owner of the company with his father and founder Charlie Quinn, doubles the size of the Quinn Fisheries scallop fleet to 12 total vessels and will cost the company about $40 million.

The new vessels acquired include the Acores, Athena, Apollo, Gypsy Girl, Hera II and the Villa Nova Do II, Michael Quinn said.

Undercurrent News had earlier reported how the Quinns had a deal to buy seven of Rafael’s vessels for nearly $46 million, per an Aug. 29 purchase agreement. The deal later was confirmed by court documents related to a lawsuit filed against Rafael by the Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE), the New Bedford, Massachusetts-based seafood auction.

BASE’s owners Richie and Raymond Canastra attempted to block the agreement as part of an apparent attempt to acquire the same vessels, which also possess several groundfish permits. They argued unsuccessfully that Rafael violated the rules of groundfish sector 7 related to offering other sector members the right of first refusal.

However, Merita Hopkins, an associate judge in Bristol County, Massachusetts, blocked the temporary restraining order requested by BASE, freeing up the Quinns and Rafael to complete their agreement.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

State judge’s order thwarts auction owners’ apparent last stab at buying Rafael vessels

September 19, 2019 — Raymond and Richie Canastra, the long-time owners of the Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE), the New Bedford, Massachusetts-based seafood auction, have made another apparent attempt to purchase some of Carlos Rafael’s commercial fishing vessels and again have been thwarted, Undercurrent News has learned.

This time the two brothers’ effort, which involved stepping in front of another buyer, has been done in by a state judge’s order.

Merita Hopkins, an associate judge in the Bristol County, Massachusetts, Superior Court, on Friday vacated her approval, given two days earlier, of a request by BASE for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that would have stopped Rafael from selling seven of his 11 scallop vessels to Charlie and Michael Quinn, the father-and-son owners of Quinn Fisheries, a 33-year-old, New Bedford-based scallop operation with six vessels already harvesting, for nearly $46 million.

The move by the Canastras, whose auction handles roughly half of all the Atlantic scallops caught in New England as well as a considerable amount of groundfish, seems to have been a prelude to them making an offer themselves for the boats, which also come with some groundfishing quota.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MASSACHUSETTS: Aging New Bedford fleet helped drive purchase of former copper mill property

July 24, 2019 — The logic behind the decision by Charlie and Michael Quinn, the father and son owners of Quinn Fisheries, to buy the former Revere Copper and Brass property in New Bedford, Massachusetts, was not unlike that of a physician specializing in geriatric care setting up an office somewhere in the state of Florida.

New Bedford has an aging population, too, though it’s the commercial fishing vessels in this case that are elderly.

Undercurrent News confirmed Monday that the Quinns, who have been in the scallop harvesting business since at least 1986, purchased the 14-acre property at 24 North Front Street after it sat idle for about a decade. They plan to convert it into a shipyard, both repairing existing commercial fishing vessels and barges and also building new ones, Michael Quinn, operations manager for the six-vessel commercial scallop harvesting company, told Undercurrent.

The Quinns should have plenty of ships to work with, confirms a review by Undercurrent of the port’s roster of 338 commercial vessels maintained on a database. More than half — 180 scallop and groundfish vessels (53%) — were built before 1980 and another 38 were built between 1980 and 1985.

“We’ve been trying to grow our business here for a while and we see a need so we did our due diligence and everything seems to make sense for us,” Michael Quinn told Undercurrent.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MASSACHUSETTS: US scallop harvester Quinn Fisheries to convert former copper mill into shipyard

July 23, 2019 — Charlie and Michael Quinn, father and son owners of Quinn Fisheries — a six-vessel  harvesting operation in the US’s scallop landing capitol of New Bedford, Massachusetts — have purchased a historical 14-acre waterfront property once dedicated to metal works and plan to convert it into a shipyard, the New Bedford port authority confirms.

Edward Anthes-Washburn, director of the Port of New Bedford, told Undercurrent Newsthat he has been working for several years to redevelop the property owned by the Revere Copper and Brass complex, on North Front Street, since it opened in 1861. The more than 400,000 square feet worth of structures on the property largely have been dormant since Revere closed the plant in 2008 and shipped much of its equipment to South Korea a year later, according to South Coast Today, the local newspaper.

New Bedford mayor Jon Mitchell told the radio station WBSM 1420 over the weekend that it was his understanding that most of the complex will be brought down to make room for vessel work, though he said he was hopeful that an icehouse, built out of granite that played a role in the city’s history whaling history, would be restored.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Fishing company to pay $400,000 penalty following 4,200 gallon fuel spill into New Bedford Harbor

May 8, 2018 — A fishing company will pay $400,000 in penalties after spilling thousands of gallons of fuel into New Bedford Harbor and routinely dumping oily waste overboard, in violation of the Clean Water Act.

In August of 2017, the Challenge — a fishing boat owned by the New Bedford company Quinn Fisheries — sunk while docked on the city’s waterfront, causing a fuel spill that spread over a mile and killed at least five ducks.

The Coast Guard and the U.S. Department of Justice launched an inquiry, and found that the ship sunk when its captain failed to shut off a valve after illegally dumping bilge into the harbor and leaving the boat for the day, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

“Discharges of fuel and oily bilge wastes into our nation’s waters have long been prohibited and will not be condoned,” Captain Richard J. Schultz, Commander of the Coast Guard’s Sector Southeastern New England, said in a statement. “These defendants will pay significant penalties and conduct fleet-wide corrective measures for their discharges of oil into New Bedford Harbor and the ocean.”

Quinn Fisheries signed a consent decree agreeing to pay the penalties and correct violations, but did not admit liability for the discharges. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Read the full story at MassLive

 

MASSACHUSETTS: US’ most valuable fishing port seeks $15m grant, wants to get bigger

October 16, 2017 — Ed Anthes-Washburn wants to make what is already the United States’ most valuable commercial fishing port even larger.

For the second consecutive year the director of the Port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, has submitted an application for a grant from the US Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program to add 600-feet of bulkhead and dredge areas that are now unusable at only three- to four-feet deep.

The changes, which would increase depths in those areas to 18- to 30-feet, would grow the number of berthing areas, allowing the port to expand from about 300 fishing vessels to more than 360. It would invite fishing companies that currently operate outside of New Bedford to make it their new base of operation or to simply offload there, and harvesters already using the port could overcome some frustrations and even grow their fleets, Anthes-Washburn told Undercurrent News.

“There are a minimum of three boats [rafted next to each other] at every dock, and in some cases there are five,” Michael Quinn, operations manager for Quinn Fisheries, said of the crowded situation in New Bedford. “When you have to climb across five boats, it takes all day to get [a boat] out.”

Quinn believes his family’s scallop fishing operation, which keeps six vessels at the port, would benefit by as much as $160,000 per year by the reduced costs and added efficiencies and revenue that could be created.

Having expanded dock space would allow Quinn Fisheries and others to bring in mobile cranes to load and unload, he said. Excess dock space also could be rented to a number of other vessel owners who are clamoring to get in.

Additionally, the changes – which also would include the expansion of roadways and connections to rail lines — would eliminate congestion and allow for direct vessel to truck and rail transfers of fresh seafood, Anthes-Washburn said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News