Hello Niaz,, 

It's been a packed month! Our Aquaculture Visioning Report is here, Blue Harvest has shut down and filed for bankruptcy, NFFC's 2023 Farm Bill platform is here, and more! Read on to dive deep into this month's happenings!

Stay well, 

Jen Halstead

Outreach Organizer

Check out NAMA’s Aquaculture Visioning Report! After the release of the FoodPrint of Farmed Seafood, network members expressed a need for proactive values and member vision-driven reports describing the types of aquaculture NAMA’s network participants supported. As a result of the network survey and research, eight main aquaculture values were identified: 

• Food - Aquaculture is essential to the overall seafood supply and is vital for healthy and culturally appropriate food systems. 

• Stewardship - Aquaculture production should protect and honor every watershed and ecosystem’s intrinsic ecological value and environmental rhythms on land and at sea. 

• Community-Based - Community-based aquaculture enhances the social, ecological, economic, and cultural fabric of our communities and integrates with existing fisheries. 

• Access - Aquaculture should provide equitable opportunities for new and diverse participants of all ages, genders, races, cultures, and incomes. 

• Equitable Supply Chains - All workers along the seafood supply chain deserve fair living wages, safe working conditions, and work with dignity. 

• Place-Based Knowledge - Local and place-based knowledge is necessary to steward aquaculture operations in harmony with the surrounding ecosystems on both land and sea. 

• Public Resource - We affirm the public trust doctrine and the unique rights of tribal nations in their traditional homelands. 

• Accountability - Fair, transparent, clear, and adequate regulatory planning and enforcement are critical to values-based aquaculture. 

These shared values can help guide aquaculture toward practices and regulatory structures that protect ecosystems, provide new opportunities, and integrate into our shared lands and waters. And while it does not provide all of the answers, the Aquaculture Visioning Report may serve as a roadmap that helps us combat false narratives by “uplifting the stories of small-scale growers who care about finding balance in coastal waters and working within their communities.”

A tale as old as time: consolidation of the industry is bad for business, the environment, and the list goes on. It’s been 13 years since NAMA and New England fishermen warned decision makers that Catch Share policy would result in the fisheries equivalent of swapping out Main Street for Wall Street. 13 years since small-scale New England fishermen and NAMA offered safeguard solutions such as consolidation caps and owner-operator incentives - and been repeatedly and actively ignored. 

Now we’re witnessing the results of fisheries decision-makers’ decisions when last week Blue Harvest - a vertically integrated seafood company controlled by billion-dollar private equity firm, Bregal - filed for bankruptcy and left millions in unpaid debt to local businesses.

The warning signs were there when in May 2016, Carlos Rafael was indicted on 27 counts of fraud and other charges covering more than 800,000 pounds of fish. Failed New England Catch Share policies enabled his manipulation and monopolization of the supply chain. Despite the compounding evidence that the system was broken, nothing changed. In 2020, 12 of Rafael’s boats, and 27 associated fishing permits, were sold to Blue Harvest, simply transferring the monopoly to another name. 

Blue Harvest is the largest quota share owner in the Northeast, and with their bankruptcy filing, their 12% quota holdings have been locked up. It is unknown when that quota might become available. In addition to this, Blue Harvest is leaving millions in unpaid debt to local businesses. According to their filings, Blue Harvest’s debts total over $100 million to more than 1,000 independent contractors and companies. 

As addressed in our media statement, along with the slew of economic consequences of the closure, Blue Harvest is leaving lasting ecological impacts. After their 2020 purchase of the Carlos Rafael quota, Blue Harvest heavily practiced pulse fishing on species like haddock. The added pressure on haddock from larger-scale vessels “contributed toward NMFS’s announcement the stock had become overfished and in 2023 the Council approved an 84% cut.” The impacts to haddock populations will ripple throughout the marine ecosystem. 

Blue Harvest’s fishing practices, closure, and bankruptcy will leave independent fishing businesses and their communities devastated. Yet again, Catch Share management has fostered a monopolistic consolidation of the industry, leading to less resilient fishing communities whose well-beings are tied to the successes and failures of one major player. 

To learn more about the Catch Share system, visit our Catch Shares 101 page.

As a member of the National Family Farm Coalition, NAMA endorses NFFC’s NEW 2023 Farm Bill Platform. The platform includes top policy priorities that underscore our shared dedication to family farmers, ranchers, and their communities, NOT corporate profits. The 2023 Farm Bill is a key opportunity to level the playing field for family farmers, creating a path to more resilient communities. Together, we call on legislators to pass a just Farm Bill that removes barriers to accessing land, credit, and debt relief for young and historically underserved farmers, while supporting fair prices for all family farmers. Click here to read the full platform.

Recently, NAMA submitted comments to NOAA on the Implementation Guidelines of National Standards 4, 8, and 9. Overall, we believe NMFS must be far more prescriptive and aggressive in its implementation guidelines for all the National Standards to ensure that Councils actually comply with the spirit and intent of the MSA. The significant amount of discretion given to the Councils has resulted in negative outcomes for the very fishing grounds they are to protect and fishing communities nationwide – as demonstrated in the Gulf of Mexico, where intimidation and threats from quotaholders have silenced fishermen speaking out against unfair quota leasing practices, or in New England where a single corporation, Blue Harvest, can impoverish working fishermen by leveraging their ability to control a significant portion of quota across multiple species and exploit that quota by pulse-fishing on species like haddock that result in significant stock decline.

Meet Captain Charlie Abner. This up close and personal interview of Captain Charlie is a dedication to aspiring young fishers - especially Black young fishers - to fight for their future at the docks! This 13-minute Fisher Story gets into the racism that minority fishers face in the industry and highlights Captain Charlie's goal to train the next generation of Black commercial fishers. His personal experience with discrimination that shows how far he's gone should lift all of us up.