Other News

R.J. Heim, of WJAR-TV10 in Providence discusses the Southern New England fishing industry with Rich Fuka of the Rhode Island Fishing Alliance. See the video from WJAR 10 by clicking here.

The federal government is banning black sea bass angling, beginning Monday, for 180 days because the year’s catch is already over the 2009 quota.

The ban covers only federal waters that run from three to 200 miles offshore – but this is where 96 percent of New Jersey’s keeper black sea bass are landed. Fish are caught inside three miles, but are generally too small to keep. The minimum size is 12.5 inches.

The ban also would apply in state waters for anyone holding a federal permit to land black sea bass, said Maggie Mooney-Seus, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

Read the complete story at Press of Atlantic City. 

For most people, digging quahogs evokes pleasant images of barefoot summer days and sparkling water.

The hardy souls harvesting the bivalves for a living have a different view, especially those like New Bedford’s Kenny Breton and Norberto Cristobal, who are licensed shellfish divers.

Breton, who started diving commercially this summer, is learning the ropes from Cristobal, a wily veteran and probably the only man in the city who dives the local waters year-round. Breton has already discovered that it’s no day at the beach.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

Scallop shells were flying, whaling boats were moving and fish were frying on the first day of the Working Waterfront Festival on the city’s port.

Saturday’s sunny, crisp weather was a welcome change from last year’s downpours, and visitors came from all over to get a sense of what life is like when commercial fishing is your living.

"The fishing industry is New Bedford, and we should be proud of it and support it," Associate Director Kirsten Bendiksen said.

New faces and new attractions cropped up at this year’s event, as organizers included farming in the festival’s theme. Farmers and fishermen have more in common than one might realize at first glance.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

VOICES FROM THE PORT is a series of short radio pieces based on oral histories collected as part of the Working Waterfront Documentation Project.  The four minute programs are designed to provide another window into the history and culture of the working port, and encourage listeners to visit New Bedford, America’s #1 Port to learn more.  Topics include: Storms at Sea, Women in the Industry, Changes in Technology and more.  The project was made possible with funding from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. Look and listen to the entire week’s "Voices from the Port" audio series!  [click here]

Women are employed in many aspects of the commercial fishing industry– as captains and deckhands, in processing plants and shoreside businesses, as advocates, fisheries scientists and boat owners. 

One woman worked in a fish processing and packing plant, and says the ratio was 65% female, 35% male, excluding management. Women did have to face prejudice, not just from fishermen but from lumpers and laborers on the docks, but these days the role is open to both sexes, however it seems that women do have to prove themselves from the very beginning.

Listen to the commentary here.

Organizers are expecting record crowds at the Sixth Working Waterfront Festival this weekend, when the waterfront will be transformed from a commercial fishing port into a public celebration of the fishing industry.

Held today from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the festival will span Fisherman’s Wharf/Pier 3, State Pier and Steamship Pier, welcoming visitors with a variety of activities for all ages.

"I think it’s going to be the biggest crowd we’ve ever had," said director Laura Orleans Friday evening as she hosted a harbor tour for out-of-town participants in the festival. Other organizers were hanging signs and banners in preparation for the event.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

David Kinney, whose book about the monthlong Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby has been optioned by Steven Spielberg, returned to the Rock today.

This year’s derby is underway, but Kinney wasn’t there to fish. The author of "The Big One: An Island, An Obsession, and the Furious Pursuit of a Great Fish" spoke to injured vets who were invited by derby organizers to take part in the tourney. (The soldiers, who came from hospitals in Maine and D.C., were put up at Bob Nixon’s Beach Plum Inn in Chilmark and treated to a special screening of Spielberg’s classic "Jaws.") Kinney isn’t sure when the book might make it to the big screen, but he’s not holding his breath.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

New England’s fishermen harvest millions of pounds of seafood each year.  Anyone who has fished for any length of time has a story about something unexpected that came up in the net.

Depth charges from have been caught which would sometimes actually explode on the way to the surface. Every fisherman seems to have caught glass and bottles at one point or another, but one man had caught a walrus tusk that was examined by a professor and was determined to be 20,000-25,000 years old.

Once a fisherman thought he had caught a cane, but he later found out it was a femur bone. Another had an airplane caught in his net! 

Listen to the commentary by clicking here.

It should come as no surprise that a waterfront festival focused on the lives of fishermen and farmers should feature music, cooking demonstrations and traditional skills from Native American tribes who have harvested their food from the land, sea and river for generations.

The bulging schedule for this weekend’s Working Waterfront Festival includes a variety of opportunities to learn from Native American performers, among them: Inupiat whalemen from Barrow, Alaska; Choctaw fishermen and farmers from Mississippi; and native singers and drummers representing the Wampanoag, Chippewa and Abenaki native nations.

"These folks harvest from the water and they harvest from the land," said Bob Rocha of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. "They do their best to do it in the way that they have for a long, long time. Obviously they do it to provide for their needs and in a way that minimizes waste and shows a respect for the resources."

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.