Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Warren, Markey speak on port of New Bedford

March 27, 2017 — Behind closed doors, politicians from around the state discussed how to improve the Port of New Bedford Friday afternoon at Seatrade International.

“We want to make sure the 21st century is just as prosperous and even more so than the 20th and 19th centuries were for New Bedford,” Markey said. “We’re going to work down in Washington every day to advocate for the commercial fisherman of New Bedford.”

Senators Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with state representatives Bill Strauss, Paul Schmid, Christopher Markey, Robert Koczera and Antonio Cabral joined Mayor Jon Mitchell, City Council President Joe Lopes and Ward 4 Council Dana Rebeiro, discussed policies affecting the port.

The meeting lasted about an hour and according to Ed Anthes-Washburn, the executive director of the Harbor Development Commission, about two-thirds of the discussion revolved around dredging.

“We heard example after example of what it will mean if we could get proper dredging for new businesses, expanded businesses, more opportunities,” Warren said. “That’s what we want to see in New Bedford. That’s what we want to see here in Massachusetts.”

The New Bedford Harbor Development Commission predicts the dredging would create  898 permanent jobs, $65.1 million in wages and $11.5 million in state and local taxes.

“We have a number of docks in the harbor that are on very shallow water,” Mitchell said. “There are businesses that want to pull boats up to those docks but can’t because of the shallow water.”

According to Washburn, who attended the meeting, lawmakers agreed that Phase V dredging would be most beneficial for the port in terms of cost and reward.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Standard-Times

New Bedford again tops nation for dollar value of fishing catch

October 31st, 2016 — The city’s port has again topped the country for dollar value of its fishing catch, NOAA Fisheries reported this week, citing 2015 landings worth $322 million.

That marks 16 years in a row that New Bedford has held the top-value title, which is thanks largely to scallops. Dutch Harbor, Alaska, again was tops for total volume of catch, landing 787 million pounds last year.

New Bedford’s catch was much smaller: 124 million pounds, good for only 11th in the country and far behind Dutch Harbor. But Dutch Harbor’s catch had a value of $218 million — second-highest in the country — reflecting the strong commercial value of New Bedford’s scallop industry.

“The scallop industry has put New Bedford at the top of the food chain, as it were, of fishing ports for the last 16 years — that’s a very impressive streak,” said Ed Anthes-Washburn, port director for the city’s Harbor Development Commission. “It really shows the impact of scallops but also the impact of cooperative research.”

In the 1990s, SMAST scientists Brian Rothschild and Kevin Stokesbury pioneered innovations in counting scallops, with cameras tested and used on local scallopers. The resulting data affected stock assessments by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), ultimately leading to larger catch quotas and helping secure steady catches for waterfront businesses.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times 

Eye on the Catch: New Bedford becoming hub for emerging fishing technology

April 25, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — On a March afternoon at The Black Whale restaurant on New Bedford’s waterfront, steps away from docked fishing boats, Chris Rezendes signaled to waitstaff as his party gathered for lunch.

He was going to need more tables.

Guests included Ed Anthes-Washburn, port director for the city’s Harbor Development Commission; Kevin Stokesbury, chairman of the Department of Fisheries Oceanography at UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST); John Haran, manager of fishery Sector 13 and newly elected member of Dartmouth’s Select Board; and Rezendes, founder of INEX Advisors and an affiliated Internet connectivity company, IoT Impact LABS, based in New Bedford.

Also present for the informal lunch were representatives from computer giant Dell and several other tech firms.

The subject was Internet of Things (IoT), generally defined as the merging of physical objects with connected, network technology.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Vision for New Bedford’s waterfront focuses on fishing, revamped State Pier

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (March 24, 2016) — Expanding the scope of New Bedford’s commercial fishing industry — and showcasing it with greater public access on a revitalized, multi-use State Pier — are key components of a detailed vision for the city’s entire waterfront outlined in a report that culminates an 18-month planning process and looks decades into the future.

Boston consultants Sasaki Associates focus on three waterfront sections: northern, roughly from the Whale’s Tooth parking lot to I-195; central, roughly from Route 6 into the NStar site of a failed casino bid, now used by Sprague Oil and Eversource Energy; and southern, primarily involving the Marine Commerce Terminal and surrounding parcels.

Ed Anthes-Washburn, port director for the Harbor Development Commission, emphasized a primary theme that he said permeates the entire plan.

“Fishing is threaded throughout,” Anthes-Washburn said Wednesday.

Sasaki’s final report follows numerous public and private meetings last year, and incorporates input from business leaders, industry representatives, property owners and other stakeholders up and down the waterfront.

“Every single parcel, and every single parcel owner, was contacted,” said Derek Santos, executive director of the New Bedford Economic Development Council (EDC).

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times