Carlos Rafael in talks to sell scallop vessels to Canadian Cooke Aquaculture
In a deal put together by Sam Daniels, currently president of Wanchese and one of the owning families, Canadian salmon farmer Cooke is also in talks to buy Rafael’s 12 New Bedford-based scallop vessels, sources said. For Rafael, part of the deal is that the vessels leave Massachusetts. “I don’t want them to bring in $1 for this state again.” He then plans to sell his fleet of 37 working groundfish vessels, he said. This would leave only 11 left in the port. What a guy! Read the rest here 17:46
Good for you Carlos,last time I checked it was still free enterprise. I applaud you for first of all having the guts to “do it your way” and secondly for having built a business of this magnitude to sell.
Carlos for President !! he’s got more balls than the rest of them put together.
True the Government put him in this position. Yet Catch Shares enabled him to build his Business up quickly. Is it a House of Cards now? The Commerce Department is the Parent Agency of NOAA/NMFS. The appointment of Dr. Jane Lubechenco PhD. after slithering by the Senate Investigating Committee without a peep about Her Agenda of “Catch Shares” which she learned while living in N.Z. killed “Traditional Fisheries”. So here we hang high above the Ground on a WIRE without a SAFETY NET. WHAT DO WE DO? That is the $ 64,000 question and close to what the Bailout Funds that will ease COMMERCE’S conscience will amount too. Yet they all have their Fat Salaries, Pensions, and Health Insurance.
There was an Agency that worked within COMMERCE years ago. They are supposedly a STAND ALONE AGENCY now. That would be “THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION” maybe this is where we should start. They work for the PEOPLE, let’s engage them. Maybe they can LIGHT A FIRE under OUR SENATORS AND REP.S collective ASSES. Magnuson must be rolling in his GRAVE.
WE SHOULD NOT BE IN THIS POSITION. The CONSERVATION induced CATCH SHARE PROGRAM was just FORE PLAY now just like Teenagers they’ve gone too FAR. No one got KNOCKED-UP but a SIGNIFICANT FRACTION got KNOCKED DOWN and the SURVIVORS are going to sell their legally gained ASSETS. That were once spread out over a large SPECTRUM supporting many many many AMERICANS. This should’ve been nipped in the Bud YEARS AGO.
Well let’s start calling THE F.T.C. and tell them “AMERICA IS NOT FOR SALE” and we need your help to stop this.
After that start writing to the U.S. D.O.J. and ask how did this happen? Would you please INVESTIGATE THIS? There is more then just a little bit of wrong doing already recorded, some of it was supposedly SHREDDED by a Man with a lot of ANSWERS isn’t that right DALE JONES? There’s your “DEEP THROAT” DOJ…
I always thought that fishing industry in New England was one of the few remaining vestiges of wholly-American owned industry. Even if it was only just a facade…
I’m sorry, Ed – but I have to disagree with your congratulatory comment towards Carlos. Sure, he built an empire – but success is a relative term. Everyone’s judgement of self-worth is relative.
Sure, he is the owner of a large fishing company and a fleet of boats. And he built it through keen navigation of a seemingly complex string of political game playing and covert deals…
Does that make him honorable?
I can understand the desire to protest heavy handed government legislation. As New Englanders, it’s bred into us.
But, to sell out your empire to a Canadian (foreign) based aquacultural conglomerate… That’s the ultimate sign that you could care less about the industry that made you millions.
Might as well sell out to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Let’s just hope that Carlos is merely playing a bluff, and trying to get all of us talking while he counts the hundred dollar bills in his bank account…
Divide and conquer.
Maybe we can all go fracking….
I applaud Carlos on his ability to having built his “Empire”, whatever his motivation for cashing out is, that is not the point that I was trying to make.
The “Fleet” is his to keep or sell, this is his option and his alone and who he sells it to is his choice.
In a perfect world, yes I agree that it would be better to keep the boats under domestic ownership, but it is still his choice.
Carlos is a business man in a very volatile industry. Is it a bluff or is it a valid financial decision ??
His business is his business, kind of a “rock and a hard spot” situation.
If he went bankrupt I’m sure that some people would be saying ” serves him right, we didn’t like him anyway”.
If he sells to the out to Cooke Aquaculture people will complain about that !!
I don’t think that the real issue here should be about Carlos, the focus should be on the regulatory groups that have put the industry in its present state of disfunction and what can be done to get things back on course.
I don’t think that the real issue here should be about Carlos, the focus should be on the regulatory groups that have put the industry in its present state of disfunction and what can be done to get things back on course.
ED YOU ARE RIGHT. As I have said before we are loosing sight of the real enemy of this industry. Whether you like Carlos or not is a moot point. He is not the enemy. And the sooner people realize this the better. This industry is being played by profesional liars, namely politicians and enviornmental groups. While we continue to fight amongst ourselves they continue to throw us the rope we continue to use to hang ourselves. Efforts should be concentrated on those who continue to push for the fishing industries destruction.
Time has come to fight back. Playing nice and abiding by the rules has gotten us where? To the abismal state we are in today, that´s where.
I suggest we organize a civil disobediance campaign. STARTING WIUTH TURNING OFF ALL GOVERNMENT SURVELIANCE DEVICES. NAMELY VMS.
This should be our first shot over the bow.