NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — September 13, 2013 — In two weeks, the harbor will swarm with locals and tourists alike hoping to learn more about the fishing industry. They will see life rafts inflated in an instant, watch scallopers shucking and touch whole, live monkfish for the first time with their bare hands.
The Working Waterfront Festival is expected to be a weekend of fun for the whole family, but local fishermen say it is also their annual opportunity to show non-fishermen what they're made of.
One of the key priorities of the festival is to act as an ambassador between the fishing culture — which can, at times, be insular — and other SouthCoast residents, Waterfront Festival Director Laura Orleans said.
“The goal is that we give people access to that,” she said. “It's a window into the world that, if you are not in the industry, you won't have a lot of access to.”
The Festival, being held this year on Sept. 27-29, will be the 10th held in the city. For Orleans, the decade of festivals could not have been better timed.
The past 10 years have not been kind to local groundfishermen. A surge in regulation and smaller catch shares means that the 100 active groundfishing boats in the harbor in 2004 has been quartered to just 25 in 2010, Orleans said.