Sector IX Archives - Saving Seafood

New Bedford Standard-Times: groundfishermen need to get back to work

May 14, 2018 — It was a bittersweet start to the fishing season on May 1.

Bittersweet because much of New Bedford’s already battered groundfish fleet could not go to sea.

Nearly 60 permits in Sectors VII and IX did not receive quota allocations from NOAA. The federal government withheld their quota because of overages accumulated by fleet owner Carlos Rafael when he admitted last year that he had falsified the numbers of fish he had taken, substituting valuable species subject to quotas for ones that were not so.

Rafael is in prison now but the results of his misdeeds continue to be paid by the community that made him rich. About 80 fishermen have been out of work since November when NOAA first instituted its groundfish ban for the sector in which Rafael perpetuated his fraud. Shoreside businesses, including the ones that manufacture nets and ice and repair boats, have also been greatly affected by the cut to New Bedford’s groundfish effort.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Massachusetts: Federal delegation ‘solidly behind’ New Bedford in fishing fight

May 14, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Prior to a town hall-style meeting in New Bedford on Saturday, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren quietly gathered with fellow senator Ed Markey and Congressman William Keating in the Wharfinger Building on Pier 3. Inside, the three legislators sat for more than an hour, listening to representatives of the fishing community relay their present and future concerns facing the industry.

About 80 fishermen out of New Bedford have been unable to fish or lease their quotas since NOAA shut down Sector IX in November. The shutdown remains in effect until the feds can estimate how much quota convicted “Codfather” Carlos Rafael depleted in his overfishing scheme.

Massachusetts’ two senators have been all but crucified for what many see as inaction on the Sector IX closure. Following Saturday’s meeting, Senator Warren told WBSM News what appears to some as inaction is, in fact, a more tactful approach in discussions with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“There are a lot of steps to go through to get Sector IX back up,” said Warren. “And NOAA seems committed to move forward on those. Senator Markey and I are pushing. We don’t want to turn this into politics. We want to facilitate this. We want to make it move forward.”

“But we have made it very clear that both of us and Congressman Keating are deeply committed to getting a fast process so that the innocent people that have been harmed by what’s happened here can get back out on the water and fish,” she said.

Read the full story at WBSM

Rep. Bill Keating: End in sight for groundfishing ban in New Bedford

May 10, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Bill Keating sees a finish line in sight to get New Bedford’s groundfishing boats back to work.

The Democratic U.S. representative spoke with NOAA’s regional administrator Mike Pentony on Wednesday and came away with the belief that the operational plans in Sectors VII and IX would be approved soon, potentially as soon as a few weeks.

“There’s great progress now on the road to beginning to fish,” Keating said. “And that’s good news.”

Keating said the rule-making process would be finalized for each sector by the end of the month. NOAA released its final rule allotting quota to sectors or fishing divisions at the end of April for the start of the 2018 fishing season. Sectors VII and IX were not provided quota.

After the rule is finalized, a comment period is required.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Massachusetts: Fishing season begins, but New Bedford still on sidelines

May 3, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The 2018 fishing season began Tuesday with nearly 60 permits aligned in Sectors VII and IX not receiving quota allocation from NOAA.

The oceanic governing agency announced the measure a day prior to the opening of the fishing season. It leaves the two sectors on the sidelines as groundfishing begins and continues the ban that was installed in November.

The announcement wasn’t surprising after NOAA attended a New England Fishery Management Council meeting in Mystic, Connecticut, last month to discuss the ban as well as the restructured enrollment in Sectors VII, VIII and IX.

Fifty-five permits stationed in Sector IX in 2017 relocated to Sector VII at the end of March. The move was done to potentially allow those permits to lease quota despite not being able to fish.

The meeting extinguished those hopes revealing neither sector would be allowed to lease or fish when the season began.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Frozen fish: NMFS approves Sector IX management plan

April 25, 2018 — Fishing boats in New England’s Sector IX groundfish fleet that were in danger of being barred from leasing groundfish quota moved into Sector VII in late March in order to recoup losses from a post-Carlos Rafael trip shutdown of the New Bedford groundfish industry. But the process of approving new operating plans will keep that quota frozen until midsummer at the latest.

NMFS reported that Sector IX was shut down completely in order to determine how much of the sector’s quota was illegaly used to cover Rafael’s quota evasion scheme.

Under a new plan operating plan put forward by the sector, which was narrowly recommended for approval by the New England Fishery Management Council with a 7-5-5 vote, NMFS will treat illegal catch in each fishing year as if it was known immediately after the end of the season, eliminating any carryover of unused quota into the next fishing season if there was any illegal fishing.

The council recommended that that NMFS authorize the “lease only” operations plan “with the condition that all overages attributable to the known misreporting are paid in full.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Massachusetts: New Bedford fishermen docked for season’s start

April 23, 2018 — The New Bedford groundfishing fleet will remain at dock — and without the ability to lease quota to other fishing entities — when the 2018 fishing season dawns on May 1. What happens after that is anybody’s guess.

NOAA Fisheries staffers informed the New England Fishery Management Council earlier this week that operations plans for New Bedford-based Northeast Fishing Sectors VII and IX will not be completed in time for the opening of the 2018 fishing season.

But the discussion following the briefing, as well as the council’s widely split vote on a draft recommendation to NOAA Fisheries, reflected stark divisions within the council and the Northeast groundfish fishery at large over how NOAA should resolve the issues borne from the long-standing catch misreporting and conviction last year of New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael.

It also recommended that, following full repayment of the overages associated with Rafael’s cheating, NOAA Fisheries work with Sector VII “to ensure that the 2018 sector operation plan and associated conditions” are fully implemented.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

NE Fishery Management Council Divided Over New Plan For Rafael’s Fishing Sector

April 20, 2018 — In a divided vote, the New England Fishery Management Council is backing a new operations plan for a sector of New Bedford boats that have been prohibited from fishing. However, the council said the plan should only be approved if certain conditions are met.

The sector of boats, called Sector IX, has been banned from catching groundfish, such as cod and haddock, for the past five months. Federal regulators from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made the decision to prohibit all sector activity after fishing mogul Carlos Rafael, who has also been referred to as “The Codfather,” pleaded guilty to misreporting the numbers of fish his boats were catching.

Now, Sector IX wants to be operational again as a “lease-only” sector, which means the boats would remain docked but could still make money by leasing their fishing allocation to other fishermen.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio

Massachusetts: NOAA Plans Keep Sector IX Boats Moored

April 19, 2018 — MYSTIC, Conn. — Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say fishing vessels that transferred to Sector VII from Sector IX in New Bedford may have to wait until mid-summer to begin leasing quotas.

NOAA closed down fishing out of Sector IX in order to assess just how much quota was illegally used up by fishing magnate and now convicted “Codfather,” Carlos Rafael.

At a meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council on Wednesday, NOAA proposed a plan for Sector IX that would treat illegal catch in each fishing year as if it was known immediately after the end of the season, eliminating any carryover of unused quota into the next fishing season if there was any illegal fishing.

Read the full story at WBSM

Massachusetts: Despite sector shuffle, New Bedford fishermen will still be on sidelines in May

April 19, 2018 — MYSTIC, Conn. — Whispers filled the convention room at the Hilton Wednesday as the dozens in attendance attempted to count the raised hands, which signified votes of the New England Fishery Management Council.

The three attempts to accurately tally the votes only added to the drama of a discussion that involved a groundfishing ban that’s affected New Bedford since November.

In the end, the vote didn’t provide a resolution for those fishermen out of work and the shoreside businesses affected by the ban.

The final count was 7 yes votes, 5 no votes and 5 abstaining. The motion approved recommendations of a Sector IX lease-only plan and authorization of Sector VII’s full operational plan after repayment of overages.

While the motion was approved, it is only a recommendation to NOAA. The meeting and discussion, which are parts of an overall larger process, acted as a procedural matter to allow the NMFC an opportunity to express its opinion on the issue. NOAA is not obligated to follow the recommendation.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA Tells NE Management Council That Sectors 7 and 9 Plans May Not be Approved Until Mid-Summer

April 18, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — NOAA is discussing the fate of the vessels in sectors 7 and 9 with the New England Fishery Management Council this morning.

This has been the subject of a stand-off in which NOAA has demanded the illegal fishing is sector 9 due to Carlos Rafael be accounted for before vessels, including those formerly in the sector, will be allowed to lease quota or operate.

Meanwhile, players in New Bedford who have been hurt by the enforcement action have been trying everything possible to start fishing operations again without any final decision by NOAA.

In their presentation which will be given to the Council this morning, NOAA lays out their plan and invites comments.

Their Sector 9 proposal is to treat illegal catch in each fishing year as if it was known immediately after the end of the season. This would eliminate carryover of unused quota into the next season when illegal catch was involved.

Once the illegal catch was identified by year, and allocated, then the sector could repay that out of 2017 lease quota. After the repayment, the sector would be free to lease its remaining quotas.

NOAA anticipates that if they conduct rulemaking this would happen by ‘mid-summer’.

Regarding sector 7, all of whose current roster transferred from sector 9, NOAA says they will not be allowed to start fishing on May 1^st.

Instead, sector 7 allocations will be made through separate rule making. This is because sector 7 is proposing substantive changes in their operational plans, including prohibiting any vessel owned by Carlos Rafael from fishing or leasing quota until it has ownership transferred.

NOAA will be holding meetings with the sectors to discuss the apportionment of overages.

This plan does not address the issue of whether these permits should have restrictions or even be allowed to be transferred. The argument between New Bedford and some of the other New England Ports is whether the permits that are sanctioned should remain in New Bedford, be sold to the highest bidder no matter where they may operate, or be deactivated and the representative quota returned proportionally to all remaining quota holders.

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it it republished here with permission.