A New Bedford fishing company, one of the largest open-sea operations in the U.S., has abruptly closed its doors, claiming it can no longer operate profitably in the face of excessive fishery management regulation.
The Northern Pelagic Group, which targets herring and mackerel, has shuttered its well-known plant on Fish Island, laid off all but one of its 120 employees and tied up its two boats, the Northern Explorer and the Dona Martita.
"One of the boats is going back to the West Coast, and I don't know what's going to happen to the other one," said Eoin Rochford, NORPEL's operations manager and the only remaining employee at the facility Tuesday afternoon.
"The Department of Marine Fisheries in Massachusetts and the National Marine Fisheries Service encouraged investment in herring and mackerel," he said. "The boys put up their money and, once it was invested, they turned the tables on them."
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