Saving Seafood

Lawmakers demand accounting for shortchanged Blue Harvest fishermen, vendors

February 15, 2024 — Massachusetts members of Congress are demanding an explanation of Bregal Partners’ liquidation of Blue Harvest Fisheries in New Bedford, Mass., in a letter listing how the international investment firm walked away from an estimated $100 million in debts.

The Feb. 12 letter from Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey and Rep. William Keating, all D-Mass., presented a list of itemized questions to Charles Yoon, a managing partner at Bregal’s New York City office.

“After years of putting private equity profits ahead of workers and small businesses, Bregal Partners – which owned and stripped Blue Harvest of its assets – owes the community an explanation,” the lawmakers wrote. “Your actions have harmed New England’s fishing industry and left over 1,000 independent contractors, businesses, and other creditors saddled with debt.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

C&P Trawlers to buy Blue Harvest vessels, permits for $12 million

November 9, 2023 — A judge Wednesday approved a new venture’s $12 million offer to buy eight vessels and 48 federal and state fishing permits from bankrupt Blue Harvest Fisheries.

C&P Trawlers, a Massachusetts limited liability corporation by Cassie Canastra of New Bedford, Mass. and Charles “Butch” Payne of Montauk, N.Y., won approval of the deal from federal District Court Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein who is overseeing Blue Harvests’ Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings in Delaware, according to a statement from C&P Trawlers.

Canastra, now manager of C&P Trawlers, has been director of operations at the Whaling City auction Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE) which her family has operated for 29 years. Payne owns vessels based in Montauk that fish for New England species including squid and whiting.

Blue Harvest’s sudden declaration of bankruptcy shook the groundfish industry and New Bedford, where Blue Harvest had acquired many local vessels and promised a revitalization of the groundfish business. Local business and political leaders have long feared a loss of vessels and permits from the port.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

C&P Trawlers submits highest bid for Blue Harvest’s fishing vessels

November 8, 2023 — New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based C&P Trawlers has won the bankruptcy auction for Blue Harvest’s fishing vessels, officially bringing Blue Harvest’s bid to be a dominating force in the region’s groundfish industry to a close.

According to a court transcript, C&P Trawlers, represented by Cassie Canastra – who according to LinkedIn also serves as the director of operations for New Bedford’s Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE) auction house – submitted the winning bid of USD 12 million (EUR 11.2 million) for the vessels. C&P Trawlers, a company incorporated on 26 October 2023, beat out multiple other bidders for the property, with the O’Hara Corporation submitting the second-place bid of USD 11.25 million (EUR 10.5 million).

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trustee overseeing Blue Harvest bankruptcy planning auction of vessels, permits on 6 November

October 18, 2023 — The trustee overseeing Blue Harvest Fisheries’ Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings has filed a motion to proceed with an auction of all the company’s remaining assets on 6 November, as some of the company’s fleet is reportedly already being scrapped.

Blue Harvest filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on 8 September, soon after the company shut down all of its operations. Chapter 7 bankruptcy means the company has officially ceased all of its operations and will be sold off to pay creditors, many of whom will likely see little compensation after what is left of Blue Harvest’s property is sold.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MASSACHUSETTS: Blue Harvest Fisheries files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

September 12, 2023 — New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Blue Harvest Fisheries has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

A Chapter 7 filing means the company has officially ceased all operations and its assets will be sold off in order to compensate its creditors. Blue Harvest’s fishing partners in New Bedford reported in late August the firm planned to terminate operations imminently.

Read the full articles SeafoodSource

Scott Perekslis pursuing takeover of American Seafoods, Blue Harvest as Bregal announces selloff

May 17, 2023 — Bregal Investments Co-Founder Scott Perekslis is leaving the firm to make a bid to purchase its seafood holdings.

On 16 May, the New York City-based private equity fund announced Perekslis will leave his role as the fund’s managing partner effective 8 October, 2023. As a result, Bregal Investments will divest from its Bregal Partners Fund I portfolio companies, which include Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based pollock- and hake-fishing firm American Seafoods, New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based groundfish fishing firm Blue Harvest Fisheries, and West Coast Salmon, a land-based salmon farm under development in the U.S. state of Nevada.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

American Aquafarms names Keith Decker as new CEO

October 27, 2021 — American Aquafarms, which announced a plan to build a new salmon-aquaculture facility in the U.S. state of Maine a year ago – has hired Keith Decker as its new CEO.

Decker has been CEO of New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Blue Harvest Fisheries since January 2018, when he replaced Jeff Davis, who retired. Decker previously served as the CEO of High Liner Foods from 2015 to 2017.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Blue Harvest finalizes acquisition of portion of Carlos Rafael fleet

February 20, 2020 — Last year in New England, U.S.A., 90 percent of the haddock quota and 92 percent of the pollock quota was left in the water.

Blue Harvest, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, is aiming to change those numbers and the company’s recent acquisition of 12 groundfish vessels and 27 fishing permits is a part of its efforts to begin utilizing the resource. The vessels, and permits, were formerly part of the fleet of Carlos Rafael – a.k.a. “The Codfather” – who pleaded guilty in 2017 to falsifying fish quotas, tax evasion, and conspiracy and then subsequently settled a civil case with NOAA that forced him to permanently stop all commercial fishing by 31 March, 2020.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Blue Harvest CEO expects 15 Rafael vessel deal to close within weeks

January 14, 2020 — Now that their only competitor has dropped out of the bidding, Keith Decker, the CEO of Blue Harvest Fisheries, expects to close his company’s deal for 15 of Carlos Rafael’s groundfish vessels in the US port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, within the next few weeks, The Standard-Times, the community’s local newspaper, reported Friday.

“At this time, no, I don’t see any further impediments to closing the transaction,” he reportedly told the newspaper, adding that Blue Harvest plans to keep the vessels in New Bedford.

Undercurrent News broke the news on Jan. 8 that Richard and Raymond Canastra, the founders and owners of the Buyers and Sellers Exchange, New Bedford’s main seafood auction, have withdrawn their offer to acquire the vessels and their related permits.

The Canastras, back on Dec. 20, attempted to use a “right of first refusal” rule in New England’s Sector VII, which gives members of the greater  Northeast Sector Service Network — including BASE — 30 days to match any offer for vessels by companies or persons from outside the network, jumping ahead of Blue Harvest and its $19.3 million bid made on Nov. 21. The Canastras said they planned to sell the boats and their permits to individual harvesters in New Bedford. However, the two brothers said they lost their financial backers when Blue Harvest filed a lawsuit, on Dec. 23, in a Massachusetts state court.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Blue Harvest inks deal to acquire 35 Rafael groundfish vessels for $25m

November 26, 2019 — One of the most anticipated forced sell-offs in the history of US commercial fishing – the unloading of Carlos Rafael’s fleet in New Bedford, Massachusetts — looks to be on the verge of completion.

Blue Harvest Fisheries, a US scallop and groundfish supplier backed by New York City-based private equity Bregal Partners, has signed a purchase agreement to buy at least 35 vessels and skiffs and all of their associated permits from Carlos Rafael for nearly $25 million, documents obtained by Undercurrent News confirm.

The deal includes millions of pounds of quota for at least eight types of fish in the Northeast multispecies fishery, including cod, haddock, American plaice, witch flounder, yellowtail flounder, redfish, white hake, and pollock.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News