SEAFOOD.COM by John Sackton — December 12, 2013 — D.C. Air & Seafood Inc., a Maine wholesaler owned by Christopher Byers, pled guilty in federal court to a conspiracy to illegally harvest scallops from a closed area. In the plea, the Maine seafood wholesaler, provided documents showing it failed to report landings of about 79,666 pounds of scallops.
As part of its plea agreement, D.C. Air & Seafood agreed to pay $520,371 in restitution to the United States, and to be placed on probation for five years. The company will also be barred from the scallop industry during that time. This is the maximum penalty sought in the original indictment.
Also specific individuals were charged: Christopher Byers, 41, of Winter Harbor, Maine, the owner of D.C. Air & Seafood; fishermen George Bamford, 39, of Harrington, Maine; Robert E. Hersey Jr., 43, of Harpswell, Maine; Daniel Mahoney, 50, of Harrington, Maine; and Michael McKenna, 37, of Steuben, Maine.
Christopher Bays also pleaded guilty to separate charging documents alleging they’d conspired with each other and the six fishing boat operators to prepare false reports to hide the over-harvesting, said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman. Authorities said the six boat operators – several of whom are from Maine – have previously pleaded guilty to charges in the case and await sentencing.
According to the complaint, from March 2007 through March 2008, Byers owned a wholesale seafood business that purchased Atlantic Sea Scallops harvested by federally permitted vessels in the Elephant Trunk Access Area. The Elephant Trunk Access Area is a large sea scallop fishing ground off the mid-Atlantic coast, which is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and which was open to limited scallop fishing by federally permitted vessels for two-week periods in March of 2007 and 2008. During those periods, individual vessels were restricted to harvesting no more than 400 pounds of scallops per vessel per trip.
Vessels operated by Bamford, Hersey, Mahoney and McKenna harvested thousands of pounds of scallops over the legal limit during the two-week periods in 2007 and 2008 for purchase by D.C. Air & Seafood. The scallops were off-loaded in Atlantic City, N.J. from the fishing vessels to trucks used by Byers and D.C. Air & Seafood.
The conspirators filed false fishing vessel trip reports showing the amount of scallops harvested were 400 lbs or less. In addition, DC Air & Seafood had hidden compartments built into several of the scallop vessels to hide the thousands of pounds of additional scallops.
Under the conspiracy count Byers faces a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, when he is sentenced in March, authorities said.
The maximum penalty for the company is up to five years of probation and a fine in an amount that is the greater of $500,000 or twice the gross gain, which is what was agreed to in the guilty plea.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.
View the press release from the New Jersey District Attorney's office