groundfishing

AIS Inc. of Marion, has been awarded a five-year, $50 million contract to provide fisheries observers for federal monitoring programs in the Northeast.

Some relief may be coming for the fishermen of New Bedford. In his weekly appearance on WBSM, U.S. Congressman William Keating shared some details from his conversation with Wednesday with NOAA Regional Administrator Michael Pentony, and said he expects fishermen to at least have some answers "in the next two to three weeks...

The Massachusetts Congressman says he had a "great meeting" with new NOAA Regional Administrator Michael Pentony to discuss ending the Sector IX groundfishing ban.

NOAA regional administrator John Bullard tells WBSM News that shutting down Sector IX isn't about any kind of sanctions or punitive actions for Carlos Rafael's overfishing scheme, but rather for cleaning up the mess he left behind.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell says as many as 80 fishermen could be affected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's decision to withdraw the operations plan for Sector IX earlier this week and halt all groundfishing in that sector immediately.

Judge William Young has ordered "Codfather" Carlos Rafael to forfeit four of his groundfishing vessels as well as 34 permits associated with those vessels.

Carlos Rafael was sentenced to 46 months in prison Monday afternoon by U.S. District Court Judge William Young, but no immediate decision was made regarding his groundfishing permits.

A sparse crowd filled the Waypoint Event Center in downtown New Bedford for a public discussion on how to spend nearly $7 million in federal relief aid for local commercial groundfishermen.

More bleak news for the groundfishing industry. NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard announced Monday the Atlantic cod stock is in a free-fall, and more proposed cuts to the quota are on the table. Bullard says stock abundance is just 3-4% of levels deemed sustainable...