The Canastra brothers, who own and operate the leading seafood auction house in New Bedford, the country's most lucrative port, are poised to extend their reach in the business by opening a new seafood auction mart this week in the nation's oldest port.
The new Gloucester enterprise — which is set to take landings beginning on Wednesday and hold its first auction Thursday morning — is being launched in a facility owned by Vito Giacalone, policy director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition and founder of the Gloucester Permit Bank, which holds $10 million worth of community rights to buy and broker shares of the fishery's harvest.
The Gloucester-based auction itself will be owned and managed by Giacalone's three sons, who have run the Fisherman's Wharf facility for the past year as a point to weigh and sort the area's catch, to be shipped to the Canastras' Boston auction.
Their offload operation now handles about 5 million pounds a year, and employs 6 full-time workers. But that is expected to multiply to at least 15 million pounds, said Vito Giacalone, and, "if the volume goes up, we'll hire more. Maybe up to 15 or 20."
Read the complete story in The Gloucester Times
Read the press release for more information about BASE Gloucester