May 24, 2013 — Few cities in New England are feeling the pain of this month’s 77 percent government cut in allowed cod-fishing as this hard-working port on Cape Ann, whose fishermen bring in, on average, $1 million a week worth of fish.
As fishermen cope with the latest in several allowed catch reductions since 1978, Gloucester civic and business leaders are working on what Mayor Carolyn Kirk calls their “bridge plan” – a bridge to a future where, activists know, there is still plenty of money to be made from the sea, but it’s likely to have much less to do with trawlers heading out to Georges Bank and beyond.
"People won't invest in the fishery right now, because they don't know what the regulations are going to be next year," said Kirk’s harbor planning director, Sarah Garcia.
With federal disaster relief money coming, slowly, to Gloucester, the city’s also working to get funds for planning and spawning new products, markets, and industries.
"It just doesn't take a whole lot of money from the federal government to make sure that that investment's made to preserve the fishery," Garcia said.
One example Gloucester officials love of a new fishing-related revenue stream: Neptune’s Harvest, a waterfront business that turns fish guts and crab shells into rich, organic, low-nitrogen fertilizer. Starting out in the 1980s as a wholesale producer, Neptune’s Harvest created consumer brands starting in 1994 and have seen steadily growing interest in their products, which, besides providing a range of nutrients, also have natural deer-repelling effects for plants.
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