December 28, 2017 — When the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration closed down Sector IX to groundfishing back on November 20, many felt the organization was punishing New Bedford fishermen for the actions of “The Codfather” Carlos Rafael. It was Rafael’s vessels that went over catch limits as part of his overfishing scheme that sent him to federal prison.
NOAA regional administrator John Bullard told WBSM News that shutting down the sector isn’t about any kind of sanctions or punitive actions for Rafael’s scheme, but rather for cleaning up the mess he left behind.
“The basic responsibility of a sector is to report the catch, and to keep vessels within the limits for that sector for all the species of groundfish,” Bullard said. “To this date, we don’t know how many fish the vessels in Sector IX have caught. We don’t know how much they have exceeded the limits on some of their catch, and we think some of those overages are significant.”
Bullard said that since 2012, when NOAA went to the quota-based system, it has been each sector’s responsibility to keep track of its own catch.
“They can lease back and forth within a sector, they can lease fish from one sector to another,” he said. “That’s all designed to maximize efficiency and keep government kind of out of it, and allow the efficiency of the private sector to work. Mr. Rafael misused that system, and until we understand how much they went over and what species, we’re not about to let the boats go fishing again.”
Bullard said NOAA initially reviewed the sector’s operation plan back in May along with those of all the other sectors, as the fishing year begins on May 1.
“I decided at that time, that even though there were problems with Sector IX last May, we would allow them to continue operating because the trial had not taken place. We felt we should let them operate until the trial concluded,” he said. “We faced a lot of criticism for that decision.”
But once the trial was completed and Rafael was sentenced to about four years in prison, the decision was made to halt operations in Sector IX until the extent of the overfishing could be determined. As part of the shut down, the Sector IX vessels cannot join other sectors, or the common pool.