Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: One Square Mile: Opioids In New Bedford’s Fishing Industry

February 8, 2018 — Commercial fishing consistently ranks as one of the world’s most dangerous jobs, which may help explain why fishermen have been hit hard by the opioid epidemic.

In this next story in [Rhode Island Public Radio’s] series, “One Square Mile: New Bedford,” health reporter Lynn Arditi visits the Port of New Bedford. Here’s part one of the two-part story.

Captain Mario Gonsalves drove up to the docks one December morning to find his fishing boat caked with ice. A storm was coming and he wanted to get another run in before it hits. One of his crew used a sledge hammer to smash ice off the boat’s roof.

Gonsalves and his five-man crew fish for whiting, squid and scup year round — in all kinds of weather. It’s a lot of lifting and pulling on slippery decks, often at night. So he said can’t risk having someone on his boat impaired by drugs or alcohol.

“Right now we drug test all the time,’’ Gonsalves said. “We never used to do that but since a couple months back we started drug testing everybody….You don’t want somebody that’s all high and stuff playing with machinery to hurt somebody.’’

Read and listen to the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio

 

Massachusetts: Battling Ice On A New Bedford Fishing Boat

January 3, 2018 — The normally bustling docks along New Bedford harbor were practically deserted Tuesday as an arctic cold front kept some boats off the water.

On one pier, a deckhand heaved a sledge hammer against the ice-caked roof of the Gabby G, a fishing boat on the New Bedford pier. Ice covered practically every exposed surface of this 105-foot dragger.

The boat’s captain, Mario Gonsalves, said he wanted to get another run in before a snow storm that’s predicted to hit Thursday.  But first, the crew had to de-ice the boat.

“You’re seeing a lot of ice build-up from spray from the ocean,’’ he said. “The boat goes up and down and the spray from the waves…just freeze(s) instantly, almost. This is what happens when you fish and it’s really cold out.’’

Gonsalves and his five-member crew fish for squid and whiting, also known as Silver Hake. Once they catch the fish they store them in boxes with packing ice – not to keep the fish cold, he said, but to stop them from freezing.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio