Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Opposition stalls plans for waterfront energy center

December 19, 2024 — Three months after a state agency and New Bedford’s mayor endorsed a waterfront spot for an energy research and development center, the project is in limbo in face of City Council opposition.

A city-owned parking lot between Merrill’s on the Waterfront and the Fairfield Inn & Suites will stay as it is for the time being; the state has suspended pursuit of that location. But the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (CEC) is still pursuing the project.

Although it’s not clear exactly where in the city, the agency is focused on  New Bedford as the site of the Ocean Renewable Energy Innovation Center, devoted to research and business development for new, ocean-based alternative energy technology, including wind power.

“It’s certainly not dead,” public information officer Jonathan Darling said in mid-December, weeks after the state agency halted its effort to win City Council approval of a proposed lease for that parking lot and a portion of the historic stone-block Bourne Counting House next to it. Mayor Jon Mitchell supported that location.

The agency planned to use a part of the counting house on MacArthur Drive for offices and meeting space. It also aimed to put up a building to accommodate startup companies and a space for building prototypes for ocean-related energy gear — chiefly, but not exclusively, wind power.

Two council members and one property owner have objected to the location, saying they feel the project is out of place on the waterfront and would interfere with existing businesses. One council member questioned whether the proposed 15-year lease is the best possible deal for that property.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Council advances plan to cut Northeast US scallop quota 28 percent

December 6, 2024 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) voted to enact Framework 39 for the 2025 scallop fishing season – which includes a significant drop in the scallop allowable catch.

The Fisheries Survival Fund – which was established to advocate for the long-term sustainability of the Northeast U.S. scallop stock – supported the council’s decision and advocated for it to select Framework 39 before the council meeting. The organization said the allocations “reflect the need for pragmatic balancing” of fishing effort in the region to ensure the continued success of the fishery.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell also wrote to the council in support of Framework 39. New Bedford, Massachusetts is consistently ranked among one of the top ports by value in the U.S. – in part thanks to the high value of the scallop fishery.

“The scallop industry is a cornerstone of New Bedford’s economy, supporting not only fishermen and their families, but also the numerous shoreside businesses that rely on its success,” Mitchell wrote.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

With Trump, New Bedford’s fishermen hope for better times

December 2, 2024 — A cold wind cut across New Bedford harbor as Jim Kendall, a retired scallop boat captain, surveyed the city’s main fishing pier. Many of the boats sat idle, while a few crew members cleaned their decks and repaired equipment.

Kendall remembers how busy these docks used to be years ago, when there were fewer regulations and closures, and fishermen could head out most days of the year.

Now, “if you can fish, say, 60 days a year, you’re doing pretty damn good,” he said.

New Bedford is the most valuable commercial fishing port in the country, landing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of seafood every year. But Kendall said bringing in that haul is getting harder, and the margins tighter. He blames Washington, and specifically the Democratic Party, for the change in fortunes.

“A lot of the Democrats had basically forgotten about the fishing industry or just don’t pay much regard to it,” he said.

As for President-elect Trump, “the fishing industry is really supporting him.”

All across Massachusetts’ South Coast, cities and towns that voted for President Biden in 2020 flipped to Trump’s column in 2024. The former president even came close to winning here in New Bedford, a storied working-class city that overwhelmingly supported Biden just four years ago.

Kendall said he’s surprised Trump didn’t win New Bedford outright, given all the support he sees among the fishermen.

Read the full story at WBUR

MASSACHUSETTS: Ocean-energy center on New Bedford’s Homers Wharf hurts fishing industry, says abutter

November 25, 2024 — A proposed state ocean-energy center fronting Homers Wharf is drawing opposition from a prominent local attorney who is an abutting property owner.

Richard T. Moses, who is also a retired Superior Court judge, said the proposed building “clearly does not belong on Homers Wharf” in a letter to the City Council Property Committee.

City Council approval is required for the proposal because the Mass. Clean Energy Center wants to lease the site for 15 years. The Port Authority’s enabling legislation requires a council OK for leases longer than five years.

Read the full article at Standard-Times

Top U.S. ports for a quarter century

November 21, 2024 — For the 25th consecutive year, Dutch Harbor, AK, and New Bedford, MA, ranked as the top U.S. fishing ports for volume and value in 2022.

Nationwide, commercial landings that year were 8.4 billion pounds valued at $5.9 billion, down by 2.6 percent and 11 percent ($632 million), respectively.

Those are two of the top takeaways from the annual Fisheries of the United States report released this month by NOAA Fisheries. The data show a downward press almost across the board from Covid-driven impacts as the global pandemic waned in 2022.

The easy-to-read, 23-page report provides a national snapshot of U.S. commercial fisheries, aquaculture, seafood processing, imports and exports, market trends, and per capita consumption.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Cuban-born net maker shares his journey from Havana to New Bedford’s working waterfront

November 15, 2024 — When he had his chance, Cuban-born net maker Miguel Sanchez escaped his home country, jumping from a Cuban fishing boat aboard a ship heading to Canada.

The young law student escaped to start a new life, far away from Cuba and its oppressive dictatorship, the only member of his family to escape.

Sanchez left Havana abruptly on March 24, 1996, before heading to Canada, arriving in Nova Scotia on April 15, 1996.

A year ago, after spending more than 20 years in Nova Scotia, he got a call to work at Reidar’s Manufacturing on the New Bedford waterfront. His skills as a net maker were in demand.

Read the full article at the The Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford oral history exhibit tells the stories of immigrants in the fishing industry

November 11, 2024 — “Casting A Wider Net,” a new exhibit exploring the stories of Cape Verdean, Vietnamese, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Guatemalan and Salvadoran members of New Bedford’s working waterfront in their own words, will soon open to the public.

The exhibit opens Thursday, Nov. 14, at 6 p.m. on AHA! Night at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center at 38 Bethel St. The exhibit will remain on display through May 31, then travel to locations throughout the community.

Anyone interested in learning more about this project is encouraged to explore the exhibit and meet with the program participants from 6 to 8 p.m.

All of the community ethnographers are expected to be on hand to answer questions along with some of the people who shared their stories through the interview process.

Read the full article at The Standard-Times

Fishermen celebrate Trump: ‘Government has crucified this industry’

November 8, 2024 — Fishermen on the New Bedford waterfront met the news of a second Trump term with vengeful enthusiasm on Wednesday morning. There was hope that the president-elect would scale back regulation, stop offshore wind development and open new fishing grounds — breaking the slump of declining revenues and ushering in a period of relative prosperity for the industry.

Donald Trump gained significant support throughout the South Coast in the 2024 election, narrowing the margin of his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden in the region. Trump didn’t win New Bedford, where Vice President Kamala Harris held a margin of 2,688 votes. But the city’s fishermen have dug in with their support for President-elect Trump.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishermen, fleet owners hope Trump helps their industry

November 6, 2024 — New Bedford fishermen fly many flags. There is the American flag; the skull and crossbones flag. There are flags expressing resistance to offshore wind development. And there are many — many — flags for former President Donald Trump.

But one flag is rarely hoisted on the New Bedford waterfront.

“I have yet to see a Harris-Walz flag on a fishing vessel,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney representing the industry’s Sustainable Scalloping Fund.

The South Coast already has the densest concentration of Trump supporters in an otherwise deep blue state. But if a pollster were to survey a specific two-mile stretch of paved riverbank — the Port of New Bedford — they would find an especially vivid shade of red. Among New Bedford fishermen and fleet owners interviewed by The Light, there are three types of voters: those who strongly favor Trump; those who are skeptical but reluctantly favor Trump; and those who didn’t want to share their opinion.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light