This week's debut of the new Base Gloucester seafood exchange, which will take is first landings to be auctioned at its Fishermen's Wharf site on Wednesday, then actually host its first auction Thursday morning, marks a giant step forward along the city's waterfront.
Yes, there are still clouds over the entire fishing industry's future — the vast majority spewed by our own Commerce Department and its National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And yes, the defunct Gloucester Seafood Display Auction, owned by the Ciulla family remains under some legal clouds of its own (There is still a seafood auction on Harbor Loop, though under new ownership and new name, Cape Ann Seafood Exchange). But the fact is, the new Base Gloucester — to be run by Nick, Chris and Vito Giacalone Jr., sons of Vito Sr., who owns the property and is one of the heads of the Northeast Seafood Coalition — offers immense potential for growth.
Read the complete editorial from the Gloucester Times.