Dartmouth Archives - Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Greater New Bedford Sees $2.3 Million in State Seaport Grants

December 15, 2022 — The Greater New Bedford area — including the towns of Dartmouth and Fairhaven — is set to receive more than $2.3 million in state Seaport Economic Council grants for projects relating to coastal access and the maritime industry.

According to an announcement from the outgoing Baker-Polito administration on Tuesday, New Bedford itself will see more than $1.2 million in funding for maritime projects.

These include $880,000 for the New Bedford Port Authority for design, engineering, and permitting to eventually replace Homer’s Wharf, as well as a $320,000 grant for the port authority to split with the town of Fairhaven to update the municipal harbor plan.

It also includes $50,000 in funding for a feasibility study on expanding the Community Boating Center of New Bedford.

Fairhaven is also set to receive a $1 million grant for the final phase of the 10-year effort to reconstruct Union Wharf to modern standards.

Read the full story at WBSM

How ocean mapping changed the way a seafood giant fishes

June 5, 2019 — North America’s largest shellfish company showcased some of its advanced ocean-mapping technology Tuesday at an Oceans Week conference in Dartmouth, N.S., illustrating how it is making the industry more efficient and sustainable.

Geographic information systems, or GIS, has transformed the way Clearwater Seafoods fishes, said Jim Mosher, the company’s director of harvest science.

Ocean mapping reduced the fuel bill in its offshore lobster fishery by shaving nearly 10,000 kilometres a year in vessel transiting, or movement in the fishing ground, he said.

In the scallop fishery, this technology reveals areas that should be closed because scallops are too young to harvest.

Read the full story at CBC

Dartmouth, MA is working with UMass Boston to map the future of Padanaram Harbor

April 4, 2018 — DARTMOUTH, Mass. — Several subcommittees studying a new harbor management plan being prepared for the town on Monday provided input to the consulting team from the Urban Harbors Institute at UMass Boston on issues dealing with docks, piers and seawalls, and the local, state and federal regulations of such waterfront structures.

The afternoon’s first discussion session dealt with the draft summary of communication and coordination issues between the various town boards, committees and appointed officials who exercise varying degrees of control over the public and private uses of Padanaram Harbor and its shoreline.

On the local level, those official entities include the Select Board, the Waterways Management Commission, the Harbormaster’s Office, the Shellfish Warden, the Conservation Commission, and the Planning Board. Representatives from many of those town departments and agencies were on hand to review draft portions of the plan.

Since the Parks & Recreation Department has two public parks on two different harbors, Parks Superintendent Tim Lancaster also attended the first review session. Lancaster noted that to complicate matters, both the town’s master plan and open space and recreation plan also address some harbor and waterways issues.

Marshall Marine Corp. owner Geoff Marshall was on hand to provide input from the waterfront business sector, and civil engineer Alan Heureux provided insights on use regulations from the perspective of a consultant who regularly deals with all town boards and departments involved in the oversight of waterfront development.

Consultant Steve Blevin told attendees that public input provided last year made it clear that there is no single agency or department in overall charge of harbor or waterfront uses. Survey results also pointed out that there is a public perception that all of the different entities involved in supervising or regulating those varied uses don’t always communicate with each other or coordinate their efforts.

At the state level, oversight over the harbor and coastal shoreline also comes from the Department of Environmental Protection and Division of Marine Fisheries. Federal government involvement sometimes includes the Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

UMass Dartmouth to study offshore wind and commercial fishing

November 27, 2017 — DARTMOUTH, Mass — What’s the best way for offshore wind and commercial fishing to coexist? Are there ways the two sectors can help each other? What are the challenges?

A new “blue economy” initiative will take a hard look at those questions.

The research will be conducted at the School for Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, through the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Institute.

Faculty and their students plan to focus on how offshore wind farms can coexist with other ocean-based industries, according to an announcement. The researchers will also look at wind resource assessment, energy forecasting, supply chain development, technological innovations, and the intersection of offshore wind and shipping.

Read the full story at The Republican

Timeline: Case of Carlos Rafael

September 26, 2017 — Feb. 26, 2016: Federal authorities raided Carlos Seafood on South Front Street in New Bedford, arresting owner Carlos Rafael, 64, and bookkeeper Debra Messier, 60, both of Dartmouth, on charges of conspiracy and falsifying records. Rafael was held without bail; Messier was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond.

March 2, 2016: Rafael is allowed to return home under strict conditions of a $1 million bond; he is allowed to continue working, too. Rafael and his wife, Conceicao, agree to place their Tucker Lane home in North Dartmouth and Carlos Seafood as collateral for the bond.

March 25, 2016: Prosecutors receive an extension of the deadline to indict Rafael. The length of the deadline’s extension is not disclosed.

May 4, 2016: Rafael has been indicted by federal prosecutors for lying about fish catches and smuggling cash to Portugal through Logan airport in Boston, in a multi-year scheme involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to court documents. The indictment lists 27 counts against Rafael, for charges including conspiracy, false entries and bulk cash smuggling. Rafael is alleged to have falsely reported the species of more than 815,000 pounds of fish to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) between 2012 and January 2016, according to the Office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz.

May 4, 2016: Antonio Freitas, 46, of Taunton is charged with using his special assignment status as a member of the Department of Homeland Security Task Force, which gave him access to restricted areas of Logan International Airport, to help Rafael smuggle cash out of the U.S. Freitas is a member of the Bristol County Sheriff’s Honor Guard.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

University scientists receive $1m grant for fisheries research

March 20, 2017 — Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST) have been awarded $1,049,044 in research funds through the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program.

Projects will address sea scallop research priorities established by the NEFMC for 2017 and 2018. Among these are resource surveys to estimate scallop biomass, projects addressing bycatch reduction, and work to improve understanding of scallop biology and recruitment.

SMAST received three awards to conduct surveys using its drop-camera array. High resolution surveys of Closed Area I, Closed II, and the Elephant Trunk will be completed, as well as a broad-scale survey in the Mid-Atlantic Bight and Georges Bank. The scallop survey research is led by Dr. Kevin Stokesbury.

Expanding on previous sea scallop gray-meat research, SMAST will attempt to delineate the southern range of gray-meat occurrences and assess the growth, meat weights, and reproductive potential of animals found with gray meat in scallop populations. This project, led by Dr. Daniel Georgiana, will complement ongoing lab-based research funded last year, university officials said.

Read the full story at Dartmouth Week

Dartmouth attorney, former legislator voted chair of New England Fishery Management Council

September 21, 2016 — A member for four years, John F. Quinn of Dartmouth has been elected chairman of the New England Fishery Management Council, a quasi-government group that develops rules for fisheries operating in federal waters.

Attorney Quinn, 53, ran his first council meeting as chairman in Danvers on Tuesday after the vote. He had been vice chairman for the last three years and switched positions with former chairman E.F. “Terry” Stockwell III of Maine. The two have led the council since 2014, according to a news release.

“I am honored that my colleagues from across New England elevated me to this position,” Quinn said. “It’s a great opportunity.”

The director of public interest law programs at the UMass Dartmouth law school, Quinn said he signed up for the council because of his experience as a lawyer and litigator on SouthCoast. Having worked with fishing issues in the region, it seemed fitting to be on the regulation side, he said.

“I understand the waterfront and some of the challenges the industry is facing,” said Quinn, who married into a fishing family.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: UMass Dartmouth, Iceland sign partnership to maintain fishery

August 9, 2016 — DARTMOUTH, Mass. — UMass Dartmouth has established a new partnership with the Republic of Iceland intended to advance marine science and marine-related biotech research and commercialization, the university announced Monday.

Representatives of Iceland visited SouthCoast in 2015 to display and demonstrate some of the products Iceland is making utilizing the parts of fish that might typically be discarded in New England.

The result is 95 percent utilization of cod, said the announcement. Cod are abundant in Icelandic and Norwegian waters.

According to Dr. Brian Rothschild, dean emeritus of the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), the products being manufactured can be something as familiar as cod fish oil to leather pocketbooks made with fish skin.

He said the method is similar to the old expression about Russia, “that they used to process everything in the pig except the squeal.”

Utilization of fish waste in New Bedford to make fish meal was curtailed decades ago after complaints about odor; Rothschild said today’s technology almost eliminates that.

UMass Dartmouth spokesman John Hoey said that the collaborations with Iceland, including faculty and student exchanges, will be mainly with the College of Engineering, concentrating on biofuels for example, and SMAST, the School for Marine Science and Technology, which is more oriented toward fisheries management and surveys.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Prosecutors dismiss charges against bookkeeper for indicted fishing magnate Carlos Rafael

July 26, 2016 — BOSTON — Federal prosecutors moved Monday to dismiss the charges against Dartmouth resident Debra Messier, the longtime bookkeeper for indicted fishing magnate Carlos Rafael, after her case had sat largely idle since her February arrest.

The motion likely clears Messier of potential penalties — pending a judge’s ruling — ahead of Rafael’s federal trial, slated for January 2017 at U.S. District Court in Boston.

Rafael and Messier were arrested Feb. 26 on charges of conspiracy and submitting falsified records to the government, after federal authorities raided the Carlos Seafood building on New Bedford’s waterfront.

Messier was released from custody the same day on a $10,000 bond. Prosecutors said Monday’s dismissal motion was filed “in the interests of justice.”

Prosecutors allege that Rafael, for years and with Messier’s help, lied to federal authorities about the amount and kinds of fish caught by his New Bedford-based fleet, in order to evade federal fishing quotas.

Rafael, a 64-year-old North Dartmouth resident, remains released on bond totaling $2 million. Collateral includes his home; his Carlos Seafood building; and one of his fishing vessels, the Dinah Jane, along with its attached fishing permit. Prosecutors have said Rafael has citizenship both in the U.S. and his native Portugal. His bond conditions require him to wear electronic monitoring equipment and to return home by 8:30 p.m. nightly, while he continues to work on the docks.

He faces 27 counts of federal charges, including conspiracy, false entries and bulk cash smuggling. Also facing trial then is alleged smuggling accomplice Antonio M. Freitas, a 46-year-old Taunton resident and Bristol County Sheriff’s Office deputy, suspended without pay. Freitas faces two federal counts, one for bulk cash smuggling and one for international structuring.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Carlos Rafael trial set for January 2017

June 23, 2016 — BOSTON — The trial of indicted fishing magnate Carlos Rafael and alleged smuggling accomplice Antonio M. Freitas is scheduled for January 2017, which would be nearly a year after federal authorities raided Rafael’s seafood business on New Bedford’s waterfront.

The two defendants’ cases have progressed side by side so far. Neither appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday in Boston, where District Court Judge William G. Young scheduled their trial to begin on Jan. 9, 2017, in a brief status conference.

Neither a federal prosecutor nor lawyers for Rafael and Freitas commented afterward.

Rafael, a 64-year-old Dartmouth resident who owns one of the largest commercial fishing operations in the U.S., including scores of New Bedford-based vessels, faces 27 counts on federal charges including conspiracy, false entries and bulk cash smuggling, according to the indictment filed last month.

Freitas is a 46-year-old Taunton resident and Bristol County Sheriff’s Office deputy, suspended without pay. He faces two federal counts, one for bulk cash smuggling and one for international structuring.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times