Saving Seafood

America’s largest scallop company sues New Bedford over waterfront expansion

February 22, 2021 — Roy Enoksen and his business partner own the largest scallop fleet in the world. Their 27 fishing vessels bring more than 80,000 pounds of seafood into New Bedford each day, employing more than 400 captains, fishermen and support staff.

But a construction project planned by the city’s port authority would cut off water access at one of Enoksen’s boat maintenance facilities.

A lawsuit filed by Enoksen last month has blown the lid off a simmering conflict between New Bedford and one of the largest employers along its waterfront. Enoksen owns multiple businesses that operate in the port, including Eastern Fisheries and Marine Hydraulics, a marine repair company that services his boats.

Mayor Jon Mitchell called the litigation “a veiled attempt to grab valuable land that belongs to the public for the purpose of enhancing the company’s already substantial profits.”

The proposed expansion of New Bedford’s North Terminal would cull more than six acres of fresh land from the harbor using sand dredged from the mouth of the Acushnet River. The dredging would create dozens of new spaces for commercial vessels and remove contaminated sediments that have turned the harbor into a federal Superfund site.

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

MASSACHUSETTS: Some New Bedford Businesses Growing Despite Pandemic

December 14, 2020 — Mayor Jon Mitchell and his economic development team have been working on growing jobs and the city’s economy despite the strong headwinds of COVID-19.

The seaside city of New Bedford has been hit as hard, if not harder, than most communities by the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayor Mitchell has done more than most local leaders to deal specifically with the virus – including a Roosevelt New Deal-esque move to convert two mothballed healthcare facilities into COVID-19 hospitals for his residence.

There will be a world after COVID-19 has passed.

Read the full story at WBSM

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford port nets $20 million to protect against natural disasters

October 21, 2020 — A $16 million grant is bound for the city of New Bedford to improve the city’s port, helping prepare it for future natural disasters.

According to a U.S. Economic Development Administration press release, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the grant funding on Tuesday.

The money, according to the press release, will “make port infrastructure improvements needed to protect commercial fishing businesses from floods and severe weather events.”

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant, to be located in a Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Opportunity Zone, will be matched with $4 million in local funds and is expected to create or retain more than 400 jobs and spur $4 million in private investment, the press release states.

According to a Tweet from New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, a majority of the matching funds will come from the state, with the New Bedford Port Authority chipping in $500,000.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Lands $16M Federal Port Infrastructure Grant

October 21, 2020 — New Bedford has landed a $16 million federal grant for port infrastructure improvements to protect commercial fishing businesses from floods and severe weather events.

The investment will be matched with $4 million in local funds, and is expected to create or retain 400 jobs and spur $4 million in private investment. The matching funds will come from from the state and the New Bedford Port Authority. The funding was made possible because the port is located in a federal tax cuts and opportunity zone.

The Economic Development Administration grant was announced by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Tuesday.

“The Trump Administration is committed to helping disaster-impacted American communities obtain the modern infrastructure they need to build resilience against natural disasters,” said Ross in a media release. “These port infrastructure improvements will better protect New Bedford’s commercial fishing industry from flooding, and the project’s location in an Opportunity Zone will drive additional private investment to the community.”

The grant represents “another major step in our effort to modernize the Port of New Bedford and maintain its standing as America’s leading commercial fishing port and the economic hub of Southeastern Massachusetts,” said Mayor Jon Mitchell. “Enhancing the resilience of port infrastructure is central to both our economic development strategy and climate adaptation efforts.”

Read the full story at WBSM

NPR: New Bedford’s COVID safety measures could become best practices

July 16, 2020 — When the meatpacking industry in the U.S. started seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases, local officials in New Bedford, Mass., worried that their city was next. But the city took action, issuing emergency orders that safety experts say should be a model for workplaces across the U.S., if those orders can be properly enforced.

Jon Mitchell, the city’s mayor, issued two COVID-19 orders on May 6 in a city where nearly 15% of the population works in manufacturing and 20% is Latino.

The first measure requires companies to report workers who have, or may have, the coronavirus to the local health department. The second requires industrial facilities such as fish houses to provide personal protective equipment, disinfect work areas and abide by social distancing rules. Every facility is mandated to have a health and safety officer who takes workers’ temperatures at the start of every shift.

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

MASSACHUSETTS: Joe Kennedy: NOAA Fisheries Should Move to New Bedford From Woods Hole

July 13, 2020 — Massachusetts congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Joseph P. Kennedy III said Friday that government scientists working for NOAA Fisheries should be headquartered in New Bedford instead of in Woods Hole, the scenic community on Cape Cod that hosts a half-dozen leading scientific institutions.

“We have the most important fishing port in the country here. And we have the scientists that have enormous influence about that port decide to be over there instead. Why would you do that?” Kennedy said during a campaign visit to New Bedford’s working waterfront.

The Democrat, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Senator Ed Markey in the Sept. 1 primary, said the concept would move 200 jobs to the city, provide an important investment in an anchor institution, and say to commercial fishermen “that we want your opinion, we need your opinion, and we want to get this right.”

The now-obsolete Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole was completed in 1961, and plans have been afoot to replace it. “It’s going to get rebuilt. The question is where,” said New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell.

Read the full story at WBSM

MASSACHUSETTS: Kennedy throws support behind moving NOAA from Woods Hole to New Bedford

July 13, 2020 — A proposal to move the region’s NOAA Fisheries headquarters to New Bedford now has the backing of U.S. Senate candidate Joe Kennedy III.

Kennedy, currently a Democratic congressman, made the announcement in the city Friday while visiting Pier 3 alongside Mayor Jon Mitchell. He spoke with local fishermen about his new COVID-19 economic recovery plan, which calls for large-scale public works and federal hiring programs.

“Listening to local communities, recognizing those bottlenecks and then saying, ‘Hey, with you at a seat at the table, let’s actually design a policy to do that,’” Kennedy said. “The risk that we have in the midst of a shock like this is that small guys essentially get eaten up and closed.”

Fisherman Steven Palmer said he appreciated his conversation with Kennedy, during which he expressed frustration about scallop prices during the pandemic.

“Earlier this year it dropped down to $4 a pound in some spots, so it’s been tough,” Palmer said.

Read the full story at WPRI

Twelve of Carlos Rafael’s vessels officially sold to Blue Harvest

February 20, 2020 — The boxing match over a large portion of the Codfather’s fleet with its counter punches and knockouts has come to an end and Blue Harvest Fisheries is left standing to take its victory lap.

Blue Harvest announced in a statement Thursday that they closed a deal with Carlos Rafael for 12 of his groundfishing vessels and 27 of his permits.

Those vessels and permits will be staying in New Bedford, according to the statement.

“This agreement ensures a major portion of the groundfish fishery remains in the Port of New Bedford, with vessels docked in New Bedford and crewed by local fishermen,” Blue Harvest Fisheries said.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell has long been vocal about his hope that the permits and vessels would remain in the Whaling City.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: US scallop harvester Quinn Fisheries to convert former copper mill into shipyard

July 23, 2019 — Charlie and Michael Quinn, father and son owners of Quinn Fisheries — a six-vessel  harvesting operation in the US’s scallop landing capitol of New Bedford, Massachusetts — have purchased a historical 14-acre waterfront property once dedicated to metal works and plan to convert it into a shipyard, the New Bedford port authority confirms.

Edward Anthes-Washburn, director of the Port of New Bedford, told Undercurrent Newsthat he has been working for several years to redevelop the property owned by the Revere Copper and Brass complex, on North Front Street, since it opened in 1861. The more than 400,000 square feet worth of structures on the property largely have been dormant since Revere closed the plant in 2008 and shipped much of its equipment to South Korea a year later, according to South Coast Today, the local newspaper.

New Bedford mayor Jon Mitchell told the radio station WBSM 1420 over the weekend that it was his understanding that most of the complex will be brought down to make room for vessel work, though he said he was hopeful that an icehouse, built out of granite that played a role in the city’s history whaling history, would be restored.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News