His fraud in mislabeling nearly 800,000 pounds of fish to evade quotas on cod, flounder and sole was so massive that scientific studies using the misreported landings may have to be scrapped, adding additional uncertainty to a fishery that has been teetering on the edge of complete collapse for decades. The people hurt most by this, of course, are the fishermen who played by the rules and struggled to make ends meet while this unscrupulous mogul squeezed smaller operators out of the industry.
To prevent future abuses, the National Marine Fisheries Service must use its authority under the Magnuson-Stevens Act to impose stiff civil penalties and strip all of Rafael’s fishing permits, including his scallop permits worth millions of dollars. The Fisheries Service must revoke these permits and use them to support law-abiding, conservation-minded fishermen – of which there are many throughout New England – who are critical to the future of the region’s fisheries.
We have an opportunity to chart a new course for the beleaguered New England groundfish fleet, from Maine to Rhode Island, but only if the agency responsible for managing the fishery - the fleet working the waters of Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine, among others - takes strong and decisive enforcement action. To this point, though, the Fisheries Service has done nothing, even allowing the boats Rafael agreed to forfeit to continue fishing. Allowing Rafael’s family or another owner to keep his business running will only perpetuate the unacceptable status quo and continue rewarding criminal behavior.
The Fisheries Service needs to deploy innovative solutions, such as permit banks, to allow people who want to fish responsibly to expand and diversify their holdings. This model has worked well in other fisheries and has the backing of industry experts like National Fisherman’s Jessica Hathaway. The Fisheries Service must also enact structural reforms to limit consolidation, improve data collection, and ensure accountability and compliance. Never again should one man control so much quota and be allowed to fish with such blatant disregard for the law.
Measures to promote fairness and make enforcement easier – like enhanced electronic monitoring, full retention requirements, and area-based management that keeps larger vessels off the grounds that day-boat fishermen can access – deserve equally strong consideration.
The Council’s unwillingness to face reality helped destroy this fishery. Its refusal to institute meaningful caps on quota consolidation allowed Rafael to push players weakened by fish stock declines off the waterfront.
As another sad chapter in the saga of New England groundfish comes to an end, we cannot simply turn the page. We need to be honest about the impacts of legacy overfishing, the depleted state of the resource and the challenges and uncertainty presented by climate change. It’s time to end the convenient and false narratives that blame science-based fisheries regulations and ocean conservation initiatives, such as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument on the edge of the continental shelf off Cape Cod, for problems they did not create.
The happy ending that everyone wants for this fishery – the most iconic on the planet – will only come with real change, not excuses. Everyone from the Council to the agency to Congress must summon the courage to make that a reality.