Angela Sanfilippo Archives

MASSACHUSETTS: Light shows to honor fishermen’s wives

August 3, 2021 — Twenty years ago on the morning of Aug. 5, Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, was attending to the final details of the public dedication celebration of the 12-foot Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Memorial on Stacy Boulevard along Gloucester’s historic harbor.

Her joy would soon turn to utter despair.

“We had a wonderful event planned but it was very painful because we lost a boat that day,” she recalled. Early that morning, the Gloucester fishing vessel Starbound was struck by a freighter; one crewman survived and three died at sea.

But the women of the fishermen’s wives association carried on with the event which attracted an estimated 5,000 people.

“It wasn’t easy that day but we carried on and we wanted to acknowledge the pain of the widows. As women in the fishing industry, we carry on to help with the needs of fishermen, their families and the community. That comes with the title of being a fisherman’s wife,” said Sanfilippo.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Fighting for fishing grounds in face of wind farms

June 1, 2021 — For almost a half century, Angela Sanfilippo has spearheaded campaigns to protect the physical and economic health of commercial fishermen, their families and the communities in which they live.

The longtime president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association waged battle with energy behemoths while opposing two live natural gas pipeline terminals within about a dozen miles of Gloucester’s shores.

She fought foreign encroachment into U.S. fishing grounds and wrestled with fishing regulators over onerous fishery management regulations that have shrunk access to the rich fishing grounds that surround Cape Ann.

Now Sanfilippo is saddling up one more time to try to prevent the inexorable march of offshore wind projects in Massachusetts waters from blowing away elements of the Bay State’s historic and productive fishing industry.

“We are not crazy enough to think we’re going to stop this massive thing now,” Sanfilippo said at the beginning of an extended interview following the federal government’s final approval on May 10 of the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind project, located south of Martha’s Vineyard. “But we want to be at the table.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishermen’s Wives tout Gov. Baker’s support

October 15, 2018 — Gov. Charlie Baker said he and his wife, Lauren, have taken 20 vacation days over the last three years. On 17 of them, he said, they’ve visited Gloucester.

The affinity between the governor and the city continued on Saturday morning, when the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association held an event at the Gloucester House Restaurant to thank Baker for his support of the fishing industry.

The group has officially endorsed Baker, who is running for re-election against Democrat Jay Gonzalez in the November election. The governor, whose office listed the event as part of his campaign schedule, received both praise and a bouquet of flowers from Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association President Angela Sanfilippo and Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, the group’s vice president.

“We need representation and Charlie Baker is our representation,” Romeo Theken, who has also endorsed Baker, said. “He will listen to us and we will be heard.”

Sanfilippo said the governor’s ties to Gloucester and the fishing industry go back two decades, when Baker, then a health care executive, worked on a plan to obtain health insurance for fishermen.

When Baker decided to run for governor, Sanfilippo said he showed up in her office one day and said, “I want to learn all about the fishing industry because if I become governor I want to know what to do.”

In his remarks to the crowd of about 75 people, Baker, wearing a blue shirt and jeans, ran down several issues of concern to the fishing industry and ways the state is trying to help. He said the state has contributed about $500,000 to an industry-based survey, invested grant money in the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, and continues to work on making sure the fishing industry has access to health insurance.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

In Their Own Words: ‘Dead In The Water’ Lets Fishermen Tell Their Story

August 29, 2018 — What convinced Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, that filmmaker David Wittkower could tell the story of the decline of the New England commercial fishing industry was that he wanted to interview fishermen and let them speak in their own voice.

“That never happened,” she said. In most stories in the media about the industry, fishermen’s words “are always twisted,” she said. But she sensed that wouldn’t happen with Wittkower, that he’d let fishermen tell their own stories.

“This documentary tells the story of what people have endured through the years, and what we’re still enduring,” said Sanfilippo, whose organization helped finance “Dead in the Water,” Wittkower’s documentary on the industry, which screens at the Chatham Orpheum Theater on Saturday, Sept. 8 at 10 a.m.

Wittkower, who lives in Los Angeles but spent his middle and high school years in Rockport, where his parents still live, said he became interested in the plight of the commercial fishing industry about four years ago when he noticed fewer and fewer fishing boats docked in Gloucester. He began talking to folks and eventually made his way to Sanfilippo, who gave him the lowdown about how catch limits, days at sea restrictions and other regulations were killing the industry and making it impossible for young people to take up fishing.

Read the full story at The Cape Cod Chronicle

Massachusetts: ‘A Fish Story’ you have to see to believe

March 15, 2018 — The Dock-U-Mentaries film series continues with “A Fish Story” on Friday at 7 p.m. This film is part of a series of programs focused on Women in the Industry in celebration of Women’s History month.

All programs are open to the public and presented free of charge.

“A Fish Story” is the tale of two women who lead their communities in a battle for control of the ocean. Angela Sanfilippo of Gloucester and Shareen Davis of Chatham were born into fishing families and married men who continue to make a living from the sea.

Fishing defines who they are and has sustained their communities for generations. But their way of life is threatened when a powerful coalition of national environmental groups file a lawsuit that could put hundreds of fishermen out of business. Three hundred years of fishing tradition and the health of the ocean hangs in the balance.

In the 1970s, enormous international fishing fleets decimated the waters off New England leaving local fishermen struggling to survive in the wake of this environmental disaster. Decades later, New England fishermen and environmentalist remain locked in an intense battle over the current health and future management of the ocean.

Sanfilippo and Davis find themselves at the center of this political storm as they struggle to save both fish and fishermen. Delving into the behind-the-scenes world of politicians, environmentalists, journalists, and fishermen, “A Fish Story” confronts the hard choices faced when human needs and those of the environment collide, a press release about the screening states.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Trump plan to allow oil drilling off New England unites foes in opposition

March 5, 2018 — For decades, they have done battle — through street protests, in courtrooms, on Beacon Hill. It takes a lot, something broadly and viscerally opposed, to unite the traditional foes.

But the Trump administration’s new plan to allow drilling for oil and gas off the shores of New England has done just that, forging a bipartisan coalition of fishermen, environmental advocates, industry groups, and scientists against the plan.

At a recent press conference held to denounce the plan, Peter Shelley of the Conservation Law Foundation noted that the last time he stood on the same side as so many fishermen was some four decades ago, when the federal government last pressed such a proposal.

“It’s ridiculous, and very discouraging, that we’re back here 40 years later,” he said, noting that the previous coalition succeeded in blocking offshore drilling while opponents in other regions failed. “It didn’t make sense then, and it makes less sense now.”

When Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, spoke at the press conference last Monday at the New England Aquarium, she smiled at Shelley, a longtime proponent of fishing regulations.

“Here we are again,” she said, calling the drilling proposal “a disgrace.” “We’re not going to allow it to happen . . . Georges Bank is the richest fishing ground in the world. We have to protect it with our lives.”

In January, the Trump administration announced it was lifting a drilling ban and would allow prospecting for offshore oil and gas deposits in nearly all the coastal waters of the United States.

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which will oversee the permitting process, estimates that opening the proposed areas could tap some 90 billion barrels of oil and 327 trillion tons of natural gas, potentially a major boost to the nation’s energy reserves.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Massachusetts: Promise of jobs, revenue not muting foes of offshore drilling

February 27, 2018 — BOSTON — The Trump administration proposal to open new tracts of ocean to the oil industry could create “hundreds of thousands of jobs,” according to an offshore energy group whose president said the plan is part of a “larger push to increase the global competitiveness of America and to spur jobs and economic growth at home.”

But the prospect of drilling off the Massachusetts coast also brought together advocates on Monday who are often at loggerheads but are now pulling in the same direction, against the Trump administration’s plans.

Decades ago, when oil exploration at George’s Bank last occurred, the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) joined together with the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives to fight the proposal, ultimately prevailing, and those groups and others are hoping for a repeat this time around.

“It was a remarkable moment,” said Peter Shelley, senior counsel at CLF, who said it is “ridiculous” that the idea has resurfaced.

“We knew this would not die completely,” said Angela Sanfilippo, of the Fishermen’s Wives, who said she saw the devastation an oil spill can bring to a fishing community when she visited New Orleans after Deepwater Horizon spewed fuel into the Gulf of Mexico eight years ago.

CLF often supports regulations on fishing that the industry opposes, but the two groups — and others — were on the same side for Monday’s event, organized by U.S. Sen. Ed Markey one day before the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s hearing on the offshore drilling proposal in Boston.

The public meeting scheduled for 3 p.m. at Sheraton Boston Hotel is a “sham” because officials there will not take live testimony from the public and the meeting location was moved multiple times, according to Markey.

“We cannot allow George’s Bank to become Exxon’s Bank,” Markey said at Monday’s event, held at the New England Aquarium. The Trump proposal is an “invitation to disaster,” he said.

The Trump administration has proposed opening up waters to drilling and oil exploration, allowing companies to tap into some of the estimated 89.9 billion barrels of oil sitting undiscovered beneath the continental shelf. The idea has pitted food providers against fuel providers.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Bipartisan Legislation Seeks Sustainable Growth for Fishing and Farming $50 Million Bond Bill to Support Local Food Production

February 26, 2018 — BOSTON — The following was released by the Office of Massachusetts State Senator Bruce Tarr:

With an eye toward supporting two major food producing industries, Senator Bruce Tarr (R- Gloucester), has authored a bill intended to stimulate research and development, innovation, and energy efficiencies to support and strengthen expand fishing and farming in Massachusetts.

The bill creates two innovation funds, one for fishing the other for agriculture, and each is designed to foster economic growth and sustainability by prioritizing the awarding of grants and technical assistance for; fuel efficiency, carbon emission reductions, sustainable practices, safety equipment, research and development, and food processing.

Designed to accelerate the direct application of recent advances in technology, food processing techniques, and changing market condition, the bill establishes funding mechanisms which will distribute grants to support farming and commercial fisheries.

“From Cape Ann to Cape Cod and from Boston to the Berkshires we are experiencing a rise in interest in conserving and protecting our natural resources, yet the people responding to that interest need our help. By carefully targeting state funds we can help those traditional local business to survive while creating sustainable environments for them to grow,”said Tarr.

“Hardworking fishermen and farmers have played a pivotal role in our economy for generations,” said Rules Chairman Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford). “I am pleased to join Senator Tarr on this bipartisan legislation to better support our local fishing and agricultural industries so that they may continue to strengthen our economy in the face of increasing pressure and burdensome regulations.”

“Farmers and fishermen have been the backbone of our agricultural economy here in Massachusetts for centuries,” said Senator Gobi (D-Spencer), Chairman of the Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture. “With this funding and further technological enhancement across these industries we can ensure that our producers stay ahead of the curve while maintaining a sustainable level of growth and development.”

Each fund will be supported by an advisory committee appointed by the Governor and comprised of experts and industry leaders from diverse perspectives and geographic locations. The commercial fishing advisory committee will include experts in marine sciences and will include representatives who fish with different gear types including trawls, hooks, gillnets, and traps; the panel will be led by the Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries.

“This legislation is a light at the end of the tunnel, “said Angela Sanfilippo President of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, a non- profit organization which promotes New England fishing industry. “Fishing is difficult, there are so many regulations and it’s tough to stay afloat and keep the boats and keep the infrastructure up to date. We need to revitalize our infrastructure that’s in place now and this bill will help us to do that and be ready as fishing regulation will allow us to catch more fish for consumers to keep them healthy.”

The Commissioner of the Department of Agricultural Resources will chair a 13 member panel of farmers representing horticulture, crop raising, cranberry growing, dairy farming, and the livestock raising sectors of the state, under provisions of the bill.

“Agriculture changes over time and is continually faced with new challenges,” said Ed Davidian, President of the Massachusetts Farm Bureau. “The funding proposed by Senator Tarr in this bill will help ensure that Massachusetts farmers remain leaders in innovation, and can continue to provide fresh, healthy food to the people of the Commonwealth.

“As the Commonwealth seeks to develop, incentivize and grow new industries, it cannot turn its back on the traditional economic foundations of our society. In working to create jobs in emerging technologies, we cannot abandon those who have worked the land and the sea for generations,” said Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante (D- Gloucester). “This bill seeks to guarantee the Commonwealth’s prominence as a leader in a diversified economy, respecting the labors of all its citizens.”

“We lead the nation in public and private marine research and our contributions to the country’s agricultural heritage are renowned; it’s vital that we support these industries, which go all the way back to our colonial history,” said Tarr. “Farmers and fishermen work hard, we should support them with capital and by connecting them with resources to help them prosper and grow.”

According to a report by UMass Dartmouth, the state’s maritime economy is responsible for more than 90,000 jobs. The report points to the need for infrastructure improvement to expand capacity and growth. With 2,000 miles of coastline, annual sales of fish and other seafood in Massachusetts top more than $2 Billion.

The state also claims more than 8,000 farms which generate more than 16,000 jobs. Agricultural activity ranging from dairy farming, cranberry growing, fruit and vegetable farming, and raising livestock and poultry take place over hundreds of thousands of acres requiring vast resources to operate efficiently and effectively.

The bill was filed today in the Senate with bipartisan support.

More from Senator Tarr is available here.

Massachusetts: Local fishing stakeholders marshal opposition to drilling proposal

February 12, 2018 — So the Winter Olympics are rolling on the Korean peninsula and everybody seems to be on their best behavior and we’re all still alive to tell the tale. So that’s a good thing.

Here’s another good thing. You might have noticed we have coverage in today’s Gloucester Daily Times and on gloucestertimes.com of the double-showing Saturday of the fishing documentary “Dead in the Water” at the Cape Ann Museum.

Both screenings were sold out. But what was really interesting was the composition of the crowds. These weren’t the usual faces when it comes to Gloucester fishing. These weren’t the folks you see at the New England Fishery Management Council meetings or at other public forums. These weren’t permit holders and guys who work on boats.

The audiences for both screenings featured a cross-sampling of the Cape Ann community concerned enough about one of the region’s iconic-if-imperiled industries to give up a chunk of their Saturday to watch the film and begin to understand the withering complexities of the fishing crisis.

So, good for them. And good for the Cape Ann Museum for stepping up to host the screenings and subsequent panel discussions.

As an aside, we must concede we’re really not much for the Winter Games here at FishOn.

We like the skiing and love the hockey when the best players in the world are playing. But ixnay on the curling and skating and luge (Look, either sit down like a normal person or at least lay down so you know where you’re going.)

And don’t get us started on the biathalon. Ski for a while and then stop and shoot. Why? It all seems rather arbitrary. Why not have them ski for a while and then change a tire or grout some tile?

Willin’ to be drilling?

Things should get nice and toasty at the Hyatt Regency in Boston on the afternoon of Feb. 27 when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management hosts a public hearing on the Trump administration’s proposal to open the ocean floor off New England to potential drilling and exploration for gas, oil and, for all we know, wolfram.

It’s a sweeping proposal, potentially opening up more than 90 percent of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf to drilling and other invasive exploration.

More to the point, the plan is extraordinary iffy for only two reasons:

Most people — you know, everybody not scurrying around to scoop up mineral rights and leases — hate it and it has the superhero power of uniting the commercial fishing industry, environmentalists, the management councils and the recreational fishing industry in the same fight. On the same side.

Local fishing stakeholders, including the omnipresent Angela Sanfilippo of the Fishing Partnership and Support Services (as well as the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association) are calling out the hordes to attend the hearing and marshal opposition.

So go, make thy own self heard.

Ornery down below the border line

Heading to Myrtle Beach soon for a little break in the action? Nice. Believe it or not there’s one restaurant named Mrs. Fish and another named Mr. Fish. They’re unaffiliated and they’re both really good.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Massachusetts: ‘We knew it was bad, but we had no idea how bad’

February 12, 2018 — There have been almost a half-dozen screenings now of the “Dead in the Water” documentary on the commercial fishing crisis and one things is clear: Most people who don’t fish for a living have no real grasp of the complexities and challenges that fishermen face every day just to keep fishing.

That, of course, was one of the motivating forces in the making of the film, both for director David Wittkower, a Rockport native, and stakeholder producers John Bell and Angela Sanfilippo.

For Wittkower, the film is a chance to tell the story of the virtual disappearance of an industry rooted in his Cape Ann childhood. For the producers, particularly Sanfilippo, it is a chance to not only set the fishermen’s side of the debate, but to frame and personalize the issue in ways the industry has been unable to do before.

The film, already shown in Rockport and New Bedford, was privately screened in Gloucester last year.

So Saturday’s twin-bill was the first public screening in America’s oldest commercial seaport, the first true home game for the film whose sweeping cinematography features Gloucester as the centerpiece and its fishermen as the core characters.

“I thought it was amazing,” said Peggy Matlow of Gloucester, following the morning screening in the museum’s auditorium and Granite Gallery. “It was enlightening and so well done.”

But like many before her, Matlow left the screening with a gnawing sense of frustration at the uneven financial and regulatory playing field portrayed in the film.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times