“The most powerful way to think about what happened with Carlos Rafael is to think of him as a symptom that the system is broken and not operating properly,” said Peter Shelley, senior counsel for the Foundation.
For more than two decades, Carlos “The Codfather” Rafael dominated the New England groundfishery. He made millions from his criminal activities before a sting operation shut him down and forced him into prison.
CLF’s latest publication offers guidance to improve the current management system and avoid another scandal like Rafael’s.
CLF examined the fishery management system that Carlos “the Codfather” Rafael exploited so successfully – a system that seems to have increasingly benefitted the wealthiest, most politically powerful fishing operations at the expense of traditional community-based fishermen.
If we consider the facts, adapt to changing conditions and avoid polarizing this issue, we can find ways to develop and bring to market innovative fishing systems that allow a healthy right whale population and a healthy lobster fishery to coexist.
“Today’s decision proves that the Council has completely abandoned its duty to develop catch limits that rebuild Atlantic cod to sustainable levels,” said Allison Lorenc, Senior Policy Analyst at CLF. “It is devastating to see this iconic species inch closer to complete collapse, and today’s decision does nothing to prevent that. It’s past time for NOAA Fisheries to disapprove these risky catch limits that don’t comply with the law.”
We must learn as a people to protect not only ourselves and the environment but also to fight another form of systemic and institutional racism that is killing us all – environmental racism.
Our comic dives into the depths of New England’s own Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
Learn how transitioning to ropeless fishing gear offers an alternative that could recover right whales and preserve the livelihood of New England’s iconic lobstermen and women.
“Reducing entanglements by prohibiting fishing in this area is critical to ensuring the survival of right whales,” said Erica Fuller, a senior attorney at Conservation Law Foundation. “This decision affirms that science matters. The First Circuit got it right: entanglements often can’t be traced, so where whales, lots of lines, and heavy fishing lines coincide, we need fishing restrictions now.”
A federal appeals court is reinstating restrictions on fishing gear in a nearly 1,000-square-mile swathe of ocean off Maine’s coast. It’s a blow to Maine’s lobstermen and a victory for advocates for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
