The Maine-based seafood wholesaler handed over documents showing it failed to report about 79,666 pounds of scallops that were harvested off the New Jersey coast and Cape Cod in Massachusetts, authorities said.
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Scallop boats, unrelated to this case, sit off the coast of Cape May in this 2010 file photo. A Maine seafood company and one of its owners admitted in federal court in Newark today to conspiring to falsify records and obstruct justice in an effort to conceal overfishing of Atlantic sea scallops in 2007 and 2008, authorities said.
In admitting its guilt, D.C. Air & Seafood Inc., the Maine seafood wholesaler, handed over documents showing it failed to report about 79,666 pounds of scallops that were harvested off the New Jersey coast and Cape Cod in Massachusetts, authorities said.
Six fishing boat operators who conspired with D.C. Air & Seafood, authorities said, hauled in the scallops from a fishing ground off the mid-Atlantic Coast that was regulated in order to help keep its scallop population at proper levels.
Today, D.C. Air & Seafood and owner, Christopher Byers, 41, of Maine, pleaded guilty to separate charging documents alleging they’d conspired with each other and the six fishing boat operators to prepare false reports to hide the over-harvesting, said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman. Authorities said the six boat operators – several of whom are from Maine – have previously pleaded guilty to charges in the case and await sentencing.
An attorney for D.C. Air & Seafood did not return a telephone call this evening seeking comment.
Authorities, citing case documents and court statements, said D.C. Air & Seafood purchased Atlantic sea scallops harvested by federally permitted vessels in the Elephant Trunk Access Area. The area, authorities said, had once been closed, but was opened to scallop fishing for two-week periods in March 2007, July 2007 and March 2008, with restrictions that no more than 400 pounds of scallops could be harvested per vessel per trip.
According to a charging document, the company was alleged to have gone to the extent, in 2008, of constructing hidden compartments in boating vessels to hide over-harvested scallops.
As part of its plea agreement, D.C. Air & Seafood agreed to pay $520,371 in restitution to the United States, and to be placed on probation for five years. The company has also agreed not to participate in the scallop industry during that time.
Byers faces a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, when he is sentenced in March, authorities said.
