August 21, 2017 — Carlos Rafael’s challenge of the forfeiture of 13 permitted groundfish vessels stirs the concerns of hundreds — maybe thousands — of fishermen and fishing support workers, municipal officials from Rhode Island to Maine, and state and federal officials left with all the more uncertainty of the impact of his punishment once it’s finally handed down.
His guilty plea in March, to three decades of cheating in the groundfish fishery, hasn’t stopped his boats from fishing out of New Bedford, where they bring in 75 percent of the groundfish landed each year, representing 10 percent of all the landings in the nation’s richest port.
New Bedford’s mayor has argued convincingly that removing all 13 vessels from the Port of New Bedford would have an immediate, significant impact on the livelihoods of scores of workers and their families, and the court’s granting of postponements while a full exit from fishing (including nearly two dozen scallopers) is negotiated by Mr. Rafael and the government suggests official harmony on that point.