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.
Base partner Ray Canastra — who, with his brother Richard, runs an affiliated Base (for Buyers and Sellers Exchange) in New Bedford — says the new operation will bring in 39 buyers, including heavyweights such as Legal Sea Food, Gloucester's Ocean Crest, Whole Foods and more. And, with a capacity to handle up to 80,000 pounds of fish at once, it could also bring 15 to 20 new waterfront jobs.
That makes the new Base Gloucester auction precisely the kind of development the city needs, given the state's Designated Port Authority mandates. And, through the Giacalones and Canastras, it forges a tangible new link between Gloucester and New Bedford, the nation's twin capitals of the fishing industry.
To that end, we welcome this important new business to the city's waterfront — and wish the new Base Gloucester nothing but the best.
Read the complete editorial in The Gloucester Times
Read the press release from BASE Gloucester for more information