Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: Carlos Rafaelโ€™s Nemesis pulled from water in New Bedford

February 12, 2018 โ€” NEW BEDFORD, Mass. โ€” Crews managed to lift the fishing vessel Nemesis out of about 20 feet of water on Friday.

The Dinah Jane remained submerged but will be pulled from the water soon. It has yet to be determined when exactly.

The two Carlos Rafael scallopers sank around 1:30 a.m. Monday at Homerโ€™s Wharf.

On Friday, crews blew air into the sunken vessel and used a crane to stabilize it. After examination, the Nemesis will likely remain docked off Homerโ€™s Wharf, according to the Harbor Development Commission.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Another New Bedford Scallop Boat Affiliated with Carlos Rafael Caught Cheating on Scallop Landings

January 30, 2018 โ€” SEAFOOD NEWS โ€” According to information posted by the Massachusetts environmental police, on Sunday January 28, they conducted a marine fisheries inspection aboard a federally permitted scallop vessel in New Bedford.  After observing the offload of the permitted limit of scallops, the police confirmed with the captain and crew that all sea scallops had been offloaded from the vessel.

During a subsequent inspection, police located five additional bags of shucked sea scallops hidden below a foot of ice and food stores.  The violation was documented and forwarded to NMFS.  The illegal sea scallops were held for disposition by NMFS.

Subsequent reporting was that the vessel in question was the FV Dinah Jane, permit #320244, owned by Leeanne & Noah Fishing LLC.  This permit was ordered revoked by NOAA on January 10th, with a 30 day deadline for the owners to appeal the notice of violation.

The owners of the F/V Dinah Jane also owned the F/V Hercules together with Carlos Rafael, and were cited for filing false landing reports.

The vessel Dinah Jane and its permit was cited in count 15 of the NOVA sent by NMFS to Carlos Rafael, for filing false records with Sector IX, which was cited in count 20.  Sector IX is currently under suspension by NOAA for failing to properly account for catch overages and false reporting.  However, scallop fishing is not subject to the sector allocations under the New England multi-species groundfish management plan, so the vessel was able to continue to fish.

The proposed permit revocation would take effect on February 10th at the earliest.  The vessel was still legally able to harvest scallops until then.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.