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It should come as no surprise that a waterfront festival focused on the lives of fishermen and farmers should feature music, cooking demonstrations and traditional skills from Native American tribes who have harvested their food from the land, sea and river for generations.

The bulging schedule for this weekend’s Working Waterfront Festival includes a variety of opportunities to learn from Native American performers, among them: Inupiat whalemen from Barrow, Alaska; Choctaw fishermen and farmers from Mississippi; and native singers and drummers representing the Wampanoag, Chippewa and Abenaki native nations.

"These folks harvest from the water and they harvest from the land," said Bob Rocha of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. "They do their best to do it in the way that they have for a long, long time. Obviously they do it to provide for their needs and in a way that minimizes waste and shows a respect for the resources."

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

2009 Theme: Surf and Turf: Fishermen and Farmers Finding Common Ground.
Welcome aboard as New Bedford, America ’s largest commercial fishing port, hosts the 6th Working Waterfront Festival, a celebration of commercial fishing culture.

See also: Working Waterfront Festival will whet your appetite.

More than simply a celebration, the Working Waterfront Festival is a unique opportunity for the public to get a firsthand look at the culture of fishing and for the commercial fishing community to tell its own story. The event presents all that goes into bringing seafood from the ocean to the table in a way that is hands-on, educational and fun. Visitors are encouraged to listen and watch, but also to taste, touch and converse.  The FREE festival takes place Saturday and Sunday, September 26th and 27th on the working piers and waterfront parks of the Port of New Bedford .  Free parking is available at the City’s Elm Street Garage.  Complete information including directions, a festival map and a schedule of events is posted on the festival web site: www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org

FESTIVAL OVERVIEW
More than simply a celebration, the Working Waterfront Festival is a unique opportunity for the public to get a firsthand look at the culture of fishing and for the commercial fishing community to tell its own story. The event presents all that goes into bringing seafood from the ocean to the table in a way that is hands-on, educational and fun. Visitors are encouraged to listen and watch, but also to taste, touch and converse.  The FREE festival takes place Saturday and Sunday, September 26th and 27th on the working piers and waterfront parks of the Port of New Bedford.  Free parking is available at the City’s Elm Street Garage.  Complete information including directions, a festival map and a schedule of events is posted on the festival web site: www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org
 
2009 FESTIVAL THEME
SURF & TURF: FISHERMEN AND FARMERS FINDING COMMON GROUND

The 2009 Working Waterfront Festival considers connections between fishing and farming communities in a special program, “Surf and Turf: Fishermen and Farmers Finding Common Ground.” Farming, like fishing, is a way of life. Fishermen and farmers share a deep knowledge of, reverence for and dependence upon the natural world. Both groups pass traditional skills and knowledge from one generation to the next, often incorporating new technologies alongside traditional practices.  Both communities also face many of the same economic, environmental and political challenges.  Plans for this special program include an open air market featuring local produce and fresh seafood; cooking demonstrations highlighting traditional community recipes; panel discussions; author readings and film screenings which explore common issues; and occupational demonstrations of fishing and farming skills.

PERFORMERS
The Festival brings together a unique array of music presented on three stages.  Performances include traditional sea chanteys, music reflecting the industry’s ethnic diversity, music about commercial fishing often performed by musicians who work in the industry and music tied to this year’s farming theme.
 
Back by popular demand
The Johnson Girls: An all female a cappella quartet, present sea chanteys from around the globe
New Bedford Harbor Sea Chantey Chorus: Hosted and organized by the Schooner Ernestina, this 43-member chorus was created in 2001. The repertoire includes a variety of chanteys and songs that reflect the rich maritime heritage of New Bedford and the region
Sharks Come Cruisin’: a Providence-based band electrifies traditional chanteys in a sound that has been compared to the Drop Kick Murphys and Great Big Sea Souls of the Sea: a Gloucester based folk-rock trio perform original music about commercial fishing
Ana Vinagre: a local legend performs Portuguese fado with her ensemble
 
New this year
Barnacle: a high energy Celtic/nautical/folk group nominated as one of Motif Magazine’s top new acts of 2009
Grupo Fuerza Quichelence: a Guatemalan Mayan band plays Latin dance music reflecting the large community of Mayans living in New Bedford, many of whom were farmers in their homeland, but now work in the City’s fishing industry
Iron River Singers: will open the festival with a traditional Native American drum circle
 
Something Fishy
Several performers who write from personal experience working in the industry are also on tap for the weekend as part of Something Fishy, a song/poetry swap of material created and performed by fishermen.

Jim McGrath: Jim McGrath has been performing for over 30 years. His repertoire includes original songs as well as sea chanteys, Irish and British Isles Ballads, and American traditional and contemporary songs he has performed on ships and in concert halls and saloons in Ireland, Germany and across the Eastern seaboard.

Jon Campbell: For the past 25 years, Jon has been writing and performing music based on the wide range of experience available to those people living in coastal regions, the tourists, the cuisine, the fisheries, cranky Yankees and an assortment of humorous and poignant characters.

Dave Densmore of Kodiak, AK is a lifelong fisherman, earning a full share on a Kodiak seiner by the time he was twelve and purchasing his first boat soon after. Dave started writing poetry in the late 70’s.  He was featured in the documentary Fisherpoets and on Good Morning America.                      

Bob Quinn: of Eagle Island, ME lobsterman and mail boat driver carries on his Uncle’s recitation tradition.

Farm related performers
This year we also have several performers who present music related to the culture of farming.
Joel Nelson: A cowboy poet and Texas rancher is the recipient of a 2009 National Heritage Award, the highest honor bestowed on traditional artists.
Three Cats and a Dog: play contra dance & swing music with caller/cranberry farmer John Alden.
The Good Old Plough: sharing songs from New Hampshire’s farming legacy dating back to the 18th century.
 
FESTIVAL FOOD
We are pleased to announce the expansion of food offerings at this year’s event.  The Oxford Creamery will continue to serve up a full menu of the finest local seafood including fish and chips, fried scallops, lobster rolls and quahog chowder. M&C Café will offer grilled scallops, chourico, beef and veggies. Cuttyhunk Shellfish Farms will provide a raw bar and the Waterfront Grille will have several varieties of sushi. Other food vendors this year include: Café Arpeggio serving its own Home Made Ice Cream, Del’s Lemonade and The Veteran’s Transition House providing hotdogs and hamburgers.
 
COOKING DEMONSTRATIONS
The Foodways Area (Pier 3) features cooking demonstrations by galley cooks, ethnic cooks and celebrity chefs.  Here visitors are invited to learn the basics of preparing fresh seafood at home as well as ethnic approaches to seafood cooking and galley fare.  This year’s demonstrations feature locally grown produce with several demonstrations on putting foods by.  Recipe cards will be available and the raw ingredients for most recipes will be available for sale at the festival farmer’s market.
 
FARMERS’ MARKET
A festival about fishing and farming would not be complete without a farmers’ market.  Ours is located on State Pier and features produce and specialty items from a number of local farms as well as informational booths from producers of grass fed beef, raw milk and several area farm organizations.  In addition, The Big Fish Company will be selling fresh, local fish and lobsters. Lees’ Market in Westport has generously donated re-usable cloth bags to be given to the first 250 people who make a purchase at the farmers’ market.
 
FILMS
The Dock-U-Mentary Film Area (Pier 3) screens historic and contemporary footage taken at sea and on shore, chronicling the history and experiences of the working waterfront and the commercial fishing industry.  Many presentations feature live narration by fishermen, filmmakers and others. Several short documentary films will also be shown including several programs on farming. 
 
PANEL DISCUSSIONS
Our Narrative Stage (Pier 3) brings the stories of the fishing industry to life with interactive panel discussions. Many of this year’s topics reflect the festival theme including: Fishing Families and Family Farm, Watching the Weather and Saving the Farm, Preserving the Port. These discussions are recorded and archived as part of our ongoing Working Waterfront Documentation Project.
 
AUTHORS
A number of well-known authors read from and sign their books on commercial fishing, the marine environment, food and farming.  Baker Books, an independent bookseller, operates an on-site Festival Bookstore (located adjacent to the Narrative Stage on Pier 3) hosting author signings and selling titles of participating authors including Dedee Shattuck (Farmers), Randy Peffer (Bangkok Dragons, Cape Cod Tears), Kathy Neustadt (Clambake), and Casey Sherman (The Finest Hours).
 
CONTESTS & DEMONSTRATIONS OF INDUSTRY SKILLS
Contests offer a unique opportunity to watch those who work in the commercial fishing industry show off the skills of their trade. All contests will take place on the Contest Stage (located at Steamship Pier).  This stage will also be the site for presentations featuring the latest in safety related gear and demonstrating the “tools of the trade” associated with various types of inshore fishing and both inshore and off-shore lobstering.  This year’s contests include:  Scallop Shucking, Fish Filleting, Net Mending, Link Squeezing, Splicing and Survival Suit Races.  In addition, visitors can watch whaleboat races and a tugboat muster from the On Water Activities Viewing Area at the head of State Pier.  Learn first hand about historic and contemporary skills of the industry by visiting the industry skills demonstration booths (Steamship Pier) including: net making, knot tying, rigging, scallop dredge making, inshore fishing and more.
 
NATIVE FISHERMEN AND FARMERS
This year, the Working Waterfront Festival welcomes several new participants, brought to the festival through the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s participation in a program called ECHO.  ECHO (Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations) is a federally funded project, directed by the Department of Education that connects cultures in Massachusetts, Alaska, Hawaii and Mississippi.  Many of these connections were created by the whaling industry in the 1800s.  Sharing the Harvest brings to New Bedford two traditional subsistence whalers and hunters from Barrow, Alaska, and two subsistence farmer/fisherfolk from Choctaw, Mississippi to share their stories of harvest, their traditions of bead and clothing making and their tales of survival.  Jonathan Perry, Senior Tribal Cultural Resource Monitor for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, will demonstrate traditional maritime skills
 
TOURS
Vessel Tours
Don’t miss the opportunity to learn about the different types of fishing vessels first-hand by getting on board one or more of the vessels offering dockside tours and talking with the crew. Vessels offering dockside tours include: a trawler, a deep-sea clammer, a scalloper, an off-shore lobster boat and a tug boat.  In addition, a Coast Guard lifeboat and a Coast Guard Patrol Boat will be available for tours as well as Schooner Ernestina, a 108’ traditional schooner, the official vessel of the Commonwealth.
 
Harbor Tours
Whaling City Expeditions offers 55-minute harbor tours departing hourly on both Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
 
UNITED STATES COAST GUARD
The U.S. Coast Guard presents a number of activities from their location at State Pier.  A Coast Guard lifeboat (south side of Pier 3) and patrol boat (east side of State Pier) are available for dockside tours both Saturday and Sunday.  Please visit the Coast Guard booth located at Coast Guard Park.
 
ON THE WATER ACTIVITIES
Whaleboat Races – The Buzzards Bay Rowing Club presents whaleboat races from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 26th.  Come cheer on your favorite team.  Best viewing: head of State Pier.
 
Whaleboat Rides – Try your hand at rowing a replica whaleboat.  Buzzards Bay rowers will be on hand to provide instruction at Tonnessen Park on Saturday from 2-5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
 
Tugboat Muster – Watch tugboats at work as they compete for bragging rights in hawser tossing and pushing contests on Saturday from 3-5 p.m. Best viewing: head of State Pier.
 
BLESSING OF THE FLEET
On Sunday, September 27th the 40th Annual Blessing of the Fleet takes place on State Pier beginning at 1:00 p.m. A time-honored tradition, the Blessing gives the fishing community an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the successes of the past year and to ask that the Lord’s good blessing continue in the following year to keep each vessel and its crew safe during each voyage.
 
KIDS ACTIVITIES
Be sure to visit the Kid’s Activity Tent located on Steamship Pier on Saturday and Sunday from 11 to 5  for a boatload of make and take art activities including fish prints, shell decorating, paper boat making and more.  Hands-on marine and fisheries science activities are presented by the Ocean Explorium’s WOW Mobile and SMAST (School for Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth) (Steamship Pier).  The Kid’s Area also features family friendly performances by Sue and April Grant and Good Old Plough.  Cartoonist Steve Brosnihan (author of Cartoonagrams) will teach kids to create cartoons of sea creatures using the letters of the alphabet.  Children’s author Martha Zschock will read and sign her book Journey to Cape Cod.  Additional Kids Activities organized by the Sharing the Harvest Farm at the Dartmouth YMCA will be presented at the State Pier Farmers Market from 11am to 5pm.
 
SPONSORS
The Working Waterfront Festival is supported by a diverse coalition of individuals, businesses and educational and cultural organizations.  Producing Partners of the 2009 Festival are National Endowment for the Arts, Island Foundation and Whaling City Seafood Display Auction.  Major support is also provided by The City of New Bedford, Harbor Development Commission, Community Foundation of Southeastern Massachusetts SEEAL Fund, United States Coast Guard, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, National Council for the Traditional Arts and Massachusetts Cultural Council. The Festival is a project of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts.
 
The Working Waterfront Festival is a project of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern MA, a non-profit organization. The FREE festival, a family friendly, educational celebration of New England’s commercial fishing industry, features live maritime and ethnic music, fishermen’s contests, fresh seafood, vessel tours, author readings, cooking demonstrations, kid’s activities and more.  It all takes place in New Bedford, MA, America’s #1 fishing port, on the fourth full weekend of September.  Navigate to us at www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org.
 
 

Office Phone: 508-993-8894
 
Working Waterfront Festival
Port of New Bedford
 
Celebrating Commercial Fishing, America’s Oldest Industry
Navigate to us on the web at www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org

 

With surf and turf as the key ingredients of the 2009 Working Waterfront Festival, you can expect to find enough seafood and produce — and entertainment related to growing, catching and cooking it — to keep your stomach satisfied throughout this weekend’s two-day festival.

To ensure that residents will continue to feast on local seafood and produce after the festival, area fishermen and farmers are invited to join a roundtable discussion about Community Supported Fisheries programs that are popping up around New England. The programs, which are modeled after Community Supported Agriculture, allow people to buy a weekly share of fish caught by local fishermen.

"With Community Supported Agriculture, shareholders pay in advance to farmers, and in this case, to fishermen, so they can have a weekly delivery of that week’s fresh catch," said Andrianna Natsoulas, campaigns coordinator for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, a Maine-based advocacy group for sustainable fishing.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

The future of the fishing industry is in jeopardy.  Fishermen struggle with a host of challenges including government regulations, waterfront access and rising prices for everything from fuel and ice to insurance and gear.

Fishermen and business owners from Alaska, New Bedford and Chatham discuss the bleak future of the fishing industry.

Fishermen these days commonly fish alone or with a small crew when they would have been able to employ many people (all making a good living) a few years ago, simply because government intervention seems to make the fishing industry impossible to be involved with first hand. Because of this, it seems that the fishing industry is not a lucrative business for young people and therefore there really is no new generation being recruited for the industry.

Listen to the commentary here [mp3]

The number of over-80-foot-long groundfish draggers — the big boats — in the Gloucester fleet has just grown by one to six.

Local vessel owner and shore captain Joe DiMaio was responsible again.

Economics, fish regulations, sales and sinkings have down-sized the big-boat dragger fleet component, which once numbered over 30 vessels in the 1980s to its current number.

"You got to take chances in this business," said DiMaio, a gutsy fifth-generation fisherman turned shore captain and vessel owner, who emigrated from Porticello, Sicily, to Gloucester in 1973. Since then, during groundfishing’s many flows and ebbs, especially when other boat owners have either talked about or gotten out of fishing, he’s owned 14 medium- to large-size draggers, including the fleet’s last three new stern trawlers — the 92-foot Italian Princess in 1989, the 92-foot Princess Diana in 2000, and the 99-foot Princess Laura in 2003.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

For the last decade, the Northwest has been embroiled in a contentious legal dispute over the fate of fish in the Columbia and Snake river basins.

In the 1990s, 13 species of Columbia basin salmon and steelhead were given protection under the Endangered Species Act, which compelled the federal government to take aggressive action to restore these populations to health. But an ongoing lawsuit claims that the government has not done enough.

Public debate has centered around four hydroelectric dams in the lower Snake River basin that provide 5 percent of the region’s energy needs. Some want to see those dams breached because they believe the fish cannot recover with the dams in place. Others are adamantly opposed to breaching as unnecessary, harmful to the region’s economy and of dubious benefit to salmon.

Read the complete story at Oregon Live.

By the end of this year, the world is projected to reach an unheralded but historic milestone: Half of the fish and shellfish we consume will be raised by humans, rather than caught in the wild.

Reaching this tipping point is reshaping everything from our oceans to the livelihoods and diets of people across the globe. It has also prompted a new round of scientific and political scrutiny, as researchers and public officials examine how aquaculture is affecting the world’s environment and seafood supply.

"Hunting and gathering has reached its maximum," said Ronald W. Hardy, who directs the University of Idaho’s Aquaculture Research Institute and co-authored a study on the subject in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We’ve got to grow more."

Read the complete story at The Washington Post.

The Obama adminstration announced it will largely continue the Bush administration’s plans for salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin, with the addition of an "insurance policy" for the fish that could include breaching dams on the Snake River.

Federal agencies have been reviewing the Bush administration’s plan to manage the network of hydroelectric dams on the river, known as the 2008 Biological Opinion, for the past five months. The review was in response to litigation by several parties, including the state of Oregon and the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho, that claimed the plan was inadequate to recover the basin’s 13 endangered species of salmon and steelhead.

The new amendment – called the adaptive management implementation plan – addresses the concerns the litigating parties raised and provides a roadmap in the case of a dramatic drop in salmon numbers, said Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Lubchenco and other regional federal executives announced their plan during a conference call with reporters on the morning of Tuesday, Sept 15.

Read the complete story at The East Oregonian.

Commercial fishing is one of the worlds’ most dangerous occupations in part because contending with unpredictable weather, frigid temperatures, icy waters and high winds are a part of the job description.

Listen as a fisherman talks about how fishing is a lifestyle more than just a job. One year around Thanksgiving he and some other fishermen decided that rather than spend the holidays with their families, they’d go fishing. However a monstrous storm came through, knocking out their radio, and they had to “lay” (stay tied to the boat lying down) for four days, while 5-6 story waves came crashing down on them. This storm caused the men to realize how their careers truly affect their lives.

Regulations have also made winter fishing more dangerous by having a smaller allotment of time in which one may fish. When the fishermen face a storm in the winter, and had to "lay", they would have to do their best to chip off the ice that would be accumulating on the boat.

Listen to the commentary about storms at sea.

See also: Working Waterfront Series – Immigration and Ethnicity,

        and Working Waterfront Series – Longshoremen,

        and Working Waterfront Series – Lumpers,

        and Working Waterfront Series – Changes in Technology.

 

Lumpers unload the fish from the boats.  Hear from two New Bedford lumpers talk about how their work has changed over the years.

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In this commentary, they talk about how the auction would start around 7am, and at the end of the auction the lumpers would take the scalloper out. They would finish this task around 10am, and directly afterwards get onto a dragger (and sometimes another dragger right after that), because there was so much work to constantly do.

Newer regulations have meant fewer boats being able to catch fewer fish, and for lumpers it has been tough to sustain a work force with such unpredictable work. Because the work is more seldom, when a lumper gets a call (they are on call 24hrs a day), they HAVE to drop everything and answer the call of duty, also regardless of the weather.

Listen to the commentary about "Lumpers" here.

See also: Working Waterfront Series – Immigration and Ethnicity,

        and Working Waterfront Series – Longshoremen,

        and Working Waterfront Series – Storms at Sea,

        and Working Waterfront Series – Changes in Technology.