Massachusetts: How Gloucester won lion’s share of fishing aid

August 25, 2015 — All things considered, it could not have gone much better.

The small working group assembled by Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken in February was tasked with helping identify and contact city waterfront businesses that might be eligible to receive some of the $750,000 in federal funds set aside to help Massachusetts shoreside businesses damaged by the ongoing groundfish disaster.

The committee identified 15 Gloucester businesses willing to go through the application process. All 15 were qualified by the state Division of Marine Fisheries to receive financial aid, with 13 maxing out at $26,786, and two of the businesses receiving $16,071.

Collectively, the 15 Gloucester fishing-related businesses — companies that sell fishermen everything from fuel to ice, from fishing slicks and gear to accounting services — received $380,360.

It was the greatest number of businesses from any single fishing community to receive the assistance, as well as the largest amount of money (50.7 percent of the total $750,000) sent to any of the Bay State’s groundfishing ports to help shoreside, fishing-related businesses.

By comparison, consider New Bedford. The historic whaling city on the state’s southeast coast — and now, thanks to its burgeoning scallop fleet, the state’s most lucrative port — had 10 of its shoreside businesses collectively receive $246,430.

Boston, Salem and South Dennis each had one business qualify for the financial assistance that was earmarked for shoreside businesses from the $8.3 million contained in the second phase, or Bin 2, of the federal disaster relief. Scituate had two.

There was, it seemed, a true recognition on the part of state officials at the Division of Marine Fisheries, as well as other fishing stakeholders throughout the state, that Gloucester — on the water and off — still sits at the very epicenter of the groundfish fishing disaster.

“We were thrilled with the result,” city Chief Administrative Officer Jim Destino said. “We thought if we could get $370,000 of the $750,000, that would have been fabulous. I don’t think we really believed we would get anything above that.”