In the fourth decade of the nation's epic and largely successful effort to reverse centuries of overfishing, 2010 commercial fishing landings and revenues in U.S. ports increased, but the nation continues to import the vast majority of its seafood.
Although New Bedford's landings were almost six times more valuable than Gloucester's, the volume landed — 133 million pounds — was not twice as large as Gloucester's 88 million pounds.
A report due in November on the economics of U.S. fisheries will contain the first hard numbers on the number of boats and fishermen working.
Overall, America's dwindling fleets landed 8.2 billion pounds of seafood, an increase of 200 million, and were paid $4.5 billion, an increase of $600 million.
"These increases in fish landings and value are good news for our nation's fishermen and for fishing communities, where jobs depend on health fish stocks," NMFS administrator Eric Schwaab said in a prepared statement.
Read the complete story by Richard Gaines in the Gloucester Times