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.
