September 6, 2016 — More than 1,500 miles separates Gloucester from Bentonville, Arkansas. But if Barry Furuseth has his way, he’ll connect the two geographical dots with an unceasing supply of fresh seafood from America’s oldest seaport.
Furuseth, the owner of Blu Fresh Fish Marketplace in Bentonville, has become one of the staunchest acolytes of fresh Gloucester seafood and the city’s rich fishing heritage, incorporating both onto his restaurant menu and into the cases of his seafood market.
“I want to showcase the American fishermen and I want showcase ‘Gloucester Fresh’,” Furuseth said Friday afternoon, invoking the name of the city’s overarching seafood marketing brand. “I want to show people that this is where their seafood is coming from, from these cold, clear, fresh waters. And to do that, we will market and sell ‘Gloucester Fresh’ seafood.”
The Minnesota native, now transplanted to the Arkansas city that boasts the headquarters of giants Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, was standing in the stern of lobsterman Mark Ring’s FV Stanley Thomas as it made its way across Gloucester’s Inner Harbor to Capt. Joe & Sons Inc. in East Gloucester, passing some of the early arrivals for the weekend’s Gloucester Schooner Festival along the way.