"Codfather" busted

[JBird]

http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20160509/carlos-rafael-new-bedfords-codfather-indicted-on-27-counts

[dakota560]

The tragic part of this story is this isn't even the tip of the iceberg of what's happening with fisheries in general. Illicit black market trawling, honor system reporting, unreported dead discard is a HUGE problem with the commercial fishing community. I would guess 90% of commercial guys abide by the rules and have the interests of the fishery in mind. The other 10% cause extensive amounts of damage which all of us pay for through reduced harvest limits and more stringent regulations. It took 5 years for the guy in the article to get caught, can only imagine how many others are doing it when you consider the money involved and never get caught. The ones who are should face significant jail time if enforcement wants to send a message. Confiscate all his equipment, take back permits and shut him down. Send a message and maybe people will start thinking twice before pillaging the ocean.

[EddieG]

I agreee... that's only one person who got caught. Think about how many people are out there that didn't get caught that are doing this, maybe not to this scale but still wrong and illegal. That's like a criminal that is brought to jail because he/ she was finally caught doing something wrong.. how many times did they commit offenses before they got caught that no one knows about.

[blindalfred]

Interesting article. I wonder how the fans of cutting funding for NOAA here will respond. Another thread that will need to be shut down?

[NoLimit]

Is there any doubt that the commercial fishing industry is ruining for everyone...under the guise of being legally permitted?

[AndyS]

Posted May 9. 2016

[Capt. Lou]

And they have the nerve to stop a sport boat , to check for compliance ! Yaaa they get a couple of fillets every so often while these commercials steal our quotas to the tune of millions 😡
And don't think it isn't going on every dam day somewhere , while we adhere to
stringent limits set by an agency that's out of touch with reality when it comes to fisheries management ! One needn't look any farther than a documentary on TV entitled Lawless Oceans ! Those guys really adhere to limits , just like all of us anglers ought to in the future . When are we going to realize the jokes on us !

[stevelikes2fish]

Interesting article. I wonder how the fans of cutting funding for NOAA here will respond. Another thread that will need to be shut down?
Sounds like the NOAA police have failed in as much letting this go on since 2012. I say fire all the top pencil pushers in this waste of taxpayer funded agency.......

[Capt Sal]

But we should work together for the common cause! NOT!!!!!!!!!!

[howarda780]

This article is from Friday.




Carlos Rafael to plead guilty to fish fraud charges By Samuel Hill March 10, 2017
Carlos “the Codfather” Rafael will plead guilty to evading fishing quotas and smuggling profits to Portugal as part of a settlement he reached with the government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Massachusetts.

Carlos Rafael owns Carlos Seafood in New Bedford, Mass.

Rafael, New Bedford’s king quota holder with investments in the New England groundfish and scallop fisheries, was arrested in February 2016 after a sting operation conducted by the the Internal Revenue Service uncovered an alleged bookkeeping scam. Rafael was accused of falsifying federal fish tickets by renaming valuable fish on tight quotas — like American plaice, yellowtail or gray sole — and selling them as more common species like haddock pollock.

“The thing is, when the guy (NMFS dockside inspector) disappears, that’s when we got a chance to make that fish disappear and the fish disappears under a different name,” Rafael told the agents, according to one IRS affidavit. “Becomes one of the names where we have a lot of quota, that doesn’t make a difference. I can call them haddock. This year I’ll have 15 million pounds of haddock (quota). So I can call any son of a bitch haddock if the bastards (inspectors) are not there. I rename them.”

Rafael was scheduled to appear in federal court on March 20, but is now scheduled to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston at 2 p.m. on March 16. He’s facing one count of conspiracy, 25 counts of lying to federal fishing regulators and one count of bulk cash smuggling.

According to the indictment, a conviction could have resulted in Rafael’s forfeiture of all boats and equipment used in the offenses, which included 13 boats.

The U.S. Attorney’s office has provided no further details regarding the plea deal.

[Capt Sal]

It happens in NJ also.Years ago the Belford pirates raped the bay and only got a slap on the wrist. We still have gill netters setting up on Shrewsbury Rocks killing stripers and throwing them back to float away. I wonder what the other commercial fishermen think of him????He got caught or what an *******

[blindalfred]

Sounds like the NOAA police have failed in as much letting this go on since 2012. I say fire all the top pencil pushers in this waste of taxpayer funded agency.......

I'm starting to understand. The answer is less enforcement. A bit counter-intuitive, but brilliant. Think of the tax money that will be saved. We can always find something to fish for somewhere.

[NoLimit]

I'm starting to understand. The answer is less enforcement. A bit counter-intuitive, but brilliant. Think of the tax money that will be saved. We can always find something to fish for somewhere.

The issue is that there is no enforcement of millions of pounds killed by commercial boats and an absurd amount vs hundreds of pounds killed by recreational fisherman

[JBird]

It's estimated that over 25% of seafood imports in the US are illegally caught or unreported catches.

[Capt. Debbie]

I doubt. Not all commercial guys are scum bags. No more than the gaggles of Asians who keep everything their hooks bring in off a dock representative of recreational guys.

It's just one POS



Is there any doubt that the commercial fishing industry is ruining for everyone...under the guise of being legally permitted?

[Capt. Lou]

Ya one of many , time to wake up , the commercials are dictating are seasons , limits etc . They have clout and finances to push the sport angler out of the picture !
How can you say just one , we didn't create these shortages by hook and line fishing , they did by netting everything in site when regulations didn't restrict them one dam bit !! They didn't care about you and me , now we're forced to align ourselves with the same group that painted us into this corner .
I'm personally sick of this scenario in which we have to fight for a shared resource that was decimated by literally one group . We better wake up or it'll be over shortly , look at GOM how's that our fault yet we can't even catch cod up there , the home of our cod fishery !

[shrimpman steve]

Here is a good read:

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/01/kingpins_of_the_gulf_make_mill.html

Talk about greedy commercials

[Capt Sal]

I doubt. Not all commercial guys are scum bags. No more than the gaggles of Asians who keep everything their hooks bring in off a dock representative of recreational guys.

It's just one POS

Not all but alot. They think they own the ocean. There is no way we can work together they want it all and they are the reason for decimating the stock. Look at our home state of NJ for example. The commercial draggers wiped out the whiting and most of the ling. It is the same with every fish that has a price on it's head. I know there are some hard working law abiding commercial guys and i wish they were all that way but there not. My opinion is from what i have seen with my own two eyes not what the media puts out.

[blindalfred]

The issue is that there is no enforcement of millions of pounds killed by commercial boats and an absurd amount vs hundreds of pounds killed by recreational fisherman

Now I'm confused again. Are we in favor of less enforcement by cutting funds for the enforcement agencies, as many on this board seem to be? Or do we just want the reduced funding dedicated to enforcement only of the commercial sector? If there is "no enforcement" now of the commercial sector how to explain the "Codfather" bust?

[Billfish715]

If I read the original article correctly, I noticed something about the bust. I realize that cases have to be built with evidence and that it takes awhile to bring them to court. What caught my attention was that the investigation seemed to follow the money and that it was more about illegal money transactions than the fact that he and his company violated the fishing regulations.

I'm glad he was found out and tried but it seems that law enforcement is more concerned with making corporate busts. The small fry pirates don't seem to matter as much.

[teddysclaw]

I doubt. Not all commercial guys are scum bags. No more than the gaggles of Asians who keep everything their hooks bring in off a dock representative of recreational guys.

It's just one POS

Much like you don't want the "gaggles of Asians" to be representative of the entire recreational sector..... I think that most Asian fishermen who follow the rules don't want the poachers("gaggles of Asians") to be representative for all Asian fishermen...

The blatant hypocrisy in this statement was just something I had to point out xD

I know plenty of poachers that are white, black, asian, latino, etc. I also know plenty of Asian, White, Black, Latino fishermen that adhere to the rules and only keep legal catch. It was just curious that you didn't want a small group of poachers to be the face of the recreational fishery, but had no problem judging an entire ethnic group based on a few poachers of similar ethnicity.

Food for thought

[Capt Sal]

Much like you don't want the "gaggles of Asians" to be representative of the entire recreational sector..... I think that most Asian fishermen who follow the rules don't want the poachers("gaggles of Asians") to be representative for all Asian fishermen...

The blatant hypocrisy in this statement was just something I had to point out xD

I know plenty of poachers that are white, black, asian, latino, etc. I also know plenty of Asian, White, Black, Latino fishermen that adhere to the rules and only keep legal catch. It was just curious that you didn't want a small group of poachers to be the face of the recreational fishery, but had no problem judging an entire ethnic group based on a few poachers of similar ethnicity.

Food for thought
If you"know'' them that you should turn them in???

[bowhunter]

If you"know'' them that you should turn them in???

Yes He should. But Capt Frank should also turn in the gaggles of Asians that He knows about.

[Capt. Debbie]

I did turn them in.

They had two 5 gallon buckets full of way short fluke. The Asian food stores in Fort Lee, River Edge, Bergenfield ALL have undersized crabs and fish for sale.

Another was in Sandy Hook bay side a two family picnic, 4 rods dead sticked and a bucket of flounder.

I keep them (NJ Fish & Game) in my address book 800.432.4263 for such occasions. All you can do is call them. Both groups left with their fish. No enforcement occurred.

When the flounder clan was told ( by me and at least one other) their fish are too small, they smiled, thank me and kept fishing.

YOU MISS THE POINT, and make it again in your answer. This is isolated guys like the commercial guy(topic of this string) or Asian families. One is NOT ALL. PLEASE RE-READ.




If you"know'' them that you should turn them in???

[Honger]

Funny, i was on a sponsor partyboat for fluking out of AH few summers ago, the mates were cutting short fluke for customers and kept the racks in a separate bucket from the keepers and dumped them over the side on the ride in. If i recall correctly, i was the only person with yellow face that day.

Even funnier how a certain sponsor partyboat from belmar probably did more damage to the short fluke population over the course of couple years than the entire yellow fishermen combined in the state of NJ. I am hard time trying to remember but if i recall correctly, the owner, the mate, and majority of customers on that sponsor boat has white face.

Oh the hypocricy of some of you white folks, some of you must think you still live in the era of Rosa Parks.

[reason162]

The category under discussion, previous to Capt. Frank's contribution to the thread, was "commercial captains." Capt Frank then used the category of "Asians" to make a (rather unnecessary) point that not all commercial captains are villains.

As an Asian dude...I don't think Capt. Frank meant any harm, and if he did, I don't waste any time in my life being "offended." But do recognize that "Asian" is a racial category, while "commercial captain" is not.

[Capt Sal]

The category under discussion, previous to Capt. Frank's contribution to the thread, was "commercial captains." Capt Frank then used the category of "Asians" to make a (rather unnecessary) point that not all commercial captains are villains.

As an Asian dude...I don't think Capt. Frank meant any harm, and if he did, I don't waste any time in my life being "offended." But do recognize that "Asian" is a racial category, while "commercial captain" is not.
Poacher come in all colors.You Asians are getting a bad rep because of the shark fin thing.Once you are here and are familiar with the law and our bag lomits there is no excuse for anyone to keep buckets of tiny fish. This thread is supposed to be about commercial guys and there greed.

[Gerry Zagorski]

This thing reads like a spy novel
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/03/codfather-carlos-rafael-fish-fraud-catchshares

[bowhunter]

This thing reads like a spy novel
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/03/codfather-carlos-rafael-fish-fraud-catchshares

Good read.

[Capt. Lou]

Maybe from a commercials point of view the cod is in serious trouble in the GOM , however many of my rod n reel friends fish up there for other species & seem at times to be overwhelmed by cod throwbacks in some locations .
Even when I fished up there regularly cod fish were present , however unlike years back 20# fish would be huge ! Big ones tough !
So we as Rod n reel anglers caused this lack of fish , or did commercials that can now conveniently say it's a climate change issue . I'm not discounting this theory at all but to what degree when southern locations are producing decent catches of school cod , not like 30yrs ago but fairly steady ! Something to think about I guess ! Along with doggies , lack of bait mackerel - herring commercially harvested this all effects cod & how they reproduce at solid levels !

[Capt Sal]

Maybe from a commercials point of view the cod is in serious trouble in the GOM , however many of my rod n reel friends fish up there for other species & seem at times to be overwhelmed by cod throwbacks in some locations .
Even when I fished up there regularly cod fish were present , however unlike years back 20# fish would be huge ! Big ones tough !
So we as Rod n reel anglers caused this lack of fish , or did commercials that can now conveniently say it's a climate change issue . I'm not discounting this theory at all but to what degree when southern locations are producing decent catches of school cod , not like 30yrs ago but fairly steady ! Something to think about I guess ! Along with doggies , lack of bait mackerel - herring commercially harvested this all effects cod & how they reproduce at solid levels !
When they wiped out the herring up north the purse sieners came to Jersey and crushed our bunker!

[mako28]

All the theories, all the non sense. The solution is simple. We are only a few years away to the return of full buckets and burlap sacks of fish. Take the draggers out of the equation for a few years and reopen the endangered trash shark market. You cant keep taking good fish out without taking junk fish out. This is another man made imbalance. Rod and reel will NEVER hurt a river, bay or ocean fishery. Enough with recreational guys giving up their share. Take a look at the new Bluefish quota and how they raised it for commercials. Give me back a share of my rebuilt winter flounder fishery. Oh wait, how can I say its rebuilt. Nobody really targets them like we did. But a 2 fish limit is a joke. Tight lines