August 12, 2025 — The New Bedford Port Authority announced the completion of Phase V of the New Bedford Harbor Dredging Project on Monday morning.
The project as a whole has been ongoing since 2019.
In Phase V, the port authority said, approximately 380,000 cubic yards of sediment were removed from the water.
August 7, 2025 — New England Aquarium researchers recently documented what they say was a rare sighting of an endangered fin whale and its calf.
Scientists on a July 24 aerial survey flew over the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, about 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod. They observed more than 1,000 marine animals, including seven fin whales, one endangered sperm whale, one humpback whale, two minke whales and more than 900 dolphins.
“Seeing an endangered fin whale and its calf is a rare occurrence,” assistant research scientist Kate Laemmle said in a statement Wednesday.
August 4, 2025 — Nantucket officials called Vineyard Wind on the carpet Tuesday, claiming the offshore wind developer had failed to live up to its agreements with the town, and telling the company to “lead or leave.”
In a press conference Tuesday morning held on Zoom, the Nantucket Select Board made 15 demands of Vineyard Wind, setting a two-week deadline for the offshore wind company to reply. If no reply is forthcoming, or if the Select Board deems Vineyard Wind’s responses inadequate, the town is leaving all of its options open -including legal action.
The statements by town officials marked the strongest rebuke yet of Vineyard Wind since the July 2024 blade failure that littered Nantucket’s beaches with fiberglass and foam debris, and prompted federal authorities to shut down the project for nearly six months.
“This is not the first time that Vineyard Wind has seen many of these demands, so we expect two weeks is plenty of time for them to confirm their agreement, or to explain publicly why they should not be held accountable in these basic ways,” said Select Board member Brooke Mohr, who was the board’s chair during the July 2024 blade failure.
July 31, 2025 — Coastal lawmakers and scallopers railed Wednesday against a decision fishing regulators made last year to keep closed the northern edge of Georges Bank, a thriving scallop ground that has been shuttered to commercial fishing since 1994.
“It’s singularly my most frustrating experience, as someone who thinks of the environment every day, but also worries about the economy minute to minute in my own district. It’s stunning to me how long — decades — this has been closed,” said Sen. Mark Montigny of New Bedford.
Montigny chaired a Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight hearing on Wednesday which explored the state of commercial sea scallop fisheries and regulations impacting the industry.
New Bedford is the largest port in the United States for sea scallop landings and revenue. Other ports in Massachusetts are important for smaller scallop vessels, including Gloucester, Provincetown, Barnstable and Chatham.
Last year, the New England Fishery Management Council voted against reopening the fishing grounds on the northern edge of George’s Bank, a shallow underwater plateau between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia that is rich in biodiversity and a known spawning ground for Atlantic cod and habitat for scallops. The Light reported that Mayor Jon Mitchell was among those asking the council to reconsider opening it, citing headwinds for the region’s top fishery, including falling prices and fewer days at sea for fishermen.
The council voted not to continue discussions on reopening the area, as they said the high density of scallops there helps spawn other nearby scalloping grounds.
Read the full article at the New Bedford Light
July 30, 2025 — Nantucket delivered a blistering rebuke to Vineyard Wind on Tuesday, accusing the offshore wind developer of a pattern of deception, negligence, and disregard for the island community it promised to protect.
At a press conference, town officials outlined 15 sweeping accountability demands after what they called Vineyard Wind’s “empty pledges and unfulfilled commitments.” Officials said the company has failed on every major front — from basic safety measures to transparent communication — leaving the island vulnerable and eroding public trust.
“Vineyard Wind has left Nantucket, its residents, and its visitors with empty pledges and unfulfilled commitments. We are done waiting for them to do the right thing,” said Select Board member and former chair Brooke Mohr. “We call on Vineyard Wind’s owners, investors, federal regulators, and our elected leaders to stand with us in holding the company to its word.”
The scathing list of failures includes the company’s refusal to communicate critical safety information, its inability to activate light pollution controls in a timely manner, and its failure to create any meaningful emergency response plans despite last year’s high-profile turbine blade failure
July 29, 2025 — New Bedford’s long-running tradition of honoring its commercial scallop fishery will take center stage once again on August 14 during “Scallopalooza,” a new community event organized by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center (FHC).
Scheduled from 5-8 p.m. during the city’s August AHA! Night, Scallopalooza will host a shucking contest featuring 15 local scallopers. The competition is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. in the center’s parking lot on Bethel Street, which will close to traffic at 1 p.m. that day for vendor and stage setup.
While the shucking contest is the main draw, the event will also showcase the broader culture and industry that surrounds the region’s scallop fishery, FHC said in a press release. Attendees can expect live music, food vendors, and educational demonstrations and exhibits that highlight the city’s working waterfront. The indie rock band Immuter will kick off the evening with a set at 5 p.m., followed by an artist talk with Michael Medeiros at 5:30 p.m. and a scallop dredge link squeezing demo by Blue Fleet Welding at 6 p.m.
July 16, 2025 — One year ago today, Nantucket residents awoke to reports that green debris was littering the south shore beaches from Madaket out to Tom Nevers. It quickly became clear that the thousands of pieces of fiberglass and foam had floated to the island from the Vineyard Wind farm 15 miles to the southwest following a blade failure.
After failing to notify the town about the incident for 48 hours, Vineyard Wind finally acknowledged the situation following the initial reports of debris washing up and dispatched a team to the island to begin the assessment and cleanup. But in those first few hours, it was the island’s lifeguards – some of them just teenagers – who collected the largest and most dangerous pieces of debris from the surf. Despite warnings not to, residents took it upon themselves to gather and dispose of the blade pieces.
The incident rapidly became a regional and then national news story as the town announced that all of Nantucket’s south shore beaches were closed to swimmers “due to large floating debris and sharp fiberglass shards.”
Within hours, the federal government agency responsible for monitoring the Vineyard Wind project – the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) – shut down the multi-billion-dollar project. The story of Vineyard Wind’s blade failure and the revelations that followed – including manufacturing deviations and allegations of a safety data falsification scheme at a wind turbine blade plant in Canada – would become the biggest news story of the past year.
Twelve months later, while some parts of the story have concluded, others are still unfolding and remain unresolved.
July 16, 2025 — New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Northern Wind has launched a global scallop import program.
The new program comes after Northern Wind acquired Atlantic Capes in December 2024, a move that Northern Wind CEO Ken Melanson told SeafoodSource is related to the diminishing availability of U.S. scallops.
July 15, 2025 — GE Vernova, the manufacturer of the faulty Vineyard Wind turbine blade that broke and washed onto Massachusetts shores one year ago, has agreed to pay the Town of Nantucket $10.5 million to compensate for impacts to the town and local businesses during what was peak summer tourist season.
In the days after the blade broke on July 13, 2024, the town closed beaches to swimming out of safety concerns over fiberglass shards. A local surfing business told town officials in meetings that followed about cancelled lessons. Local officials, eventually with the assistance of company officials, engaged in beach cleanups.
Under the agreement, the town will establish a “Community Claims Fund” to be administered by a third party, which will review claims submitted for cleanups, property damage and lost profit, and dole out compensation.
“We are pleased to have reached a final settlement agreement with the Town of Nantucket to provide compensation for any impacted local businesses,” said a GE Vernova spokesperson in an email Friday.
Nantucket may use any funds not dispensed through the claims process “at its discretion in the public’s interest,” per the 17-page settlement.
The multi-million dollar settlement “finally and forever” releases GE Vernova, Vineyard Wind and the town from “any and all” claims and suits related to the 2024 blade incident. It also binds the Town of Nantucket in an agreement to not sue GE Vernova over the incident.
Notably, the town stated it “would not accept” Vineyard Wind as a signatory to the settlement, though Vineyard Wind still benefits from it.
“The Town has found Vineyard Wind wanting in terms of its leadership, accountability, transparency, and stewardship in the aftermath of the blade failure,” reads the town’s FAQ page. Vineyard Wind is constructing the offshore wind farm about 15 miles south of Nantucket, using turbines built by GE Vernova.
The Light contacted both Vineyard Wind and the town Friday morning for clarification on whether Vineyard Wind requested to be a signatory on the settlement.
July 9, 2025 — Hector Grave has worked in the seafood business since he came to this historic fishing city from a small town in Guatemala in the late 1990s.
He worked at fish houses, cutting scallops and shrimp, cleaning fish that came in from nearby waters. Later, a friend introduced him to net making, and he felt it was like solving a puzzle.
He found a job making fishing nets for local companies, typically stitching and braiding the nets together and adding floats, and then founded his own net company in 2012, which now includes a buoy business.
Grave is part of a long line of immigrants who help sustain the fishing industry in New Bedford, the most valuable fishing port in the country. But immigration crackdowns by the Trump administration across New England and in New Bedford, where about a fifth of the city’s residents are foreign born, have spread anxiety in recent months. Some workers are limiting their time outside of their homes and work to avoid potential ICE activity. Many industry leaders said they work hard to ensure they are hiring documented immigrants, but they also hope the Trump administration will take steps to give foreign-born workers pathways to continue earning a living in the sector.