New Bedford Port Authority Archives

Saving Seafood Launches COVID-19 Response and Aid Information Portal

April 9, 2020 — We are pleased to announce Saving Seafood’s COVID-19 Response and Aid Information portal, available on the Saving Seafood website at coronavirus.savingseafood.org.

The two-way portal will provide curated and up-to-date information to the domestic seafood harvesting and processing community, as well as serve as a way for us to collect concerns from industry members, and get those concerns to appropriate entities at the Federal level.

As we have been doing since the declaration of a national emergency using our existing Saving Seafood member email lists, we will send out updates as we receive them from the White House, Congress, the Department of Commerce, Department of the Treasury, FEMA, DHS and other agencies. And we will add, modify, or update the information on this page.

If you would like to receive these updates by email, you may add you email address via the form at the top of the portal page.

We have heard from White House, Administration, Congressional offices and others who have asked that we keep them informed about any questions or concerns from the industry. This page will collect information received from members of the fishing industry, so we can provide that data to staff at relevant agencies and offices.

We will ensure that information sent out and posted here is reviewed and edited daily so that it is applicable to all types of businesses involved in seafood harvesting and processing in all regions of the U.S.

We will also include information that is relevant on a more local level, as we certainly are aware that the seafood industry and fisheries across the country are diverse. We want to work with appropriate state and local agencies to ensure that we have their updates as well.

Our friends at Massport — the Massachusetts Port Authority — and the New Bedford Port Authority were the first to agree to be partners in the effort, but since then numerous local agencies, companies and organizations have joined the effort. If your locale is not yet listed in the state area of the page, please reach out to your local/state agency that you feel would be our best partner in this effort and [1] introduce us or re-aquatint them with us, and [2] ask them if they’d partner with us (and you) on this project, and [3] let us know who you think we should work with in your region.

If your company or organization or agency is willing to be a partner in this effort, please contact derek@stoveboat.com to let us know and send a logo.

We would like to thank Pamela Lafreniere and Ed Anthes-Washburn at the Port of New Bedford, and Gordon Carr at Massport for helping us get this off the ground.

Vineyard Wind supports potential onshore facilities

November 29, 2019 — Vineyard Wind will provide agencies in New Bedford and Fall River with $50,000 apiece with an eye toward developing property to support land-based operations for the offshore wind industry.

The company has announced a grant to the New Bedford Port Authority to develop publicly owned port facilities. The grant would go toward consultants for engineering studies on ways to develop the city’s waterfront.

Vineyard Wind also will provide the Fall River Redevelopment Authority with money as part of an agreement to prepare an analysis of potential uses of a parcel that lies within the city’s Water Urban Renewal Plan area and to redevelop a pier.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTES: Port of New Bedford gets $50,000 from Vineyard Wind

November 26, 2019 — The New Bedford Port Authority has received $50,000 from Vineyard Wind to help ready the port for offshore wind.

Port officials have heard that an additional 50 vessels could be coming in and out of the harbor each day during construction of the wind farm, according to Edward Anthes-Washburn, Port Authority executive director. He said the port will use the money to help identify ways to accommodate more boats, determine what new infrastructure might be needed, and figure out how the port can leverage its existing infrastructure to take advantage of the opportunity.

“We appreciate the partnership with Vineyard Wind,” he said in an interview.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Massachusetts awards New Bedford Port Authority, UMass Dartmouth combined $390K

March 1, 2019 — The state awarded $6.4 million in grants Wednesday, including $390,000 for projects in SouthCoast for revitalization and business development.

Seaport Economic Council grants awarded include $150,000 for the creation of a regional marine science and technology collaborative to encourage growth in relevant industries at UMass Dartmouth and the SouthCoast Development Partnership and $240,000 for planning of the redevelopment of a waterfront property in New Bedford.

“This region’s historic connection to the ocean is a powerful unifying asset,” said Hugh Dunn, Executive Director of Economic Development at UMD, in a statement. “This project is designed to identify and marshal our marine economy assets to expand economic opportunity. To date, nothing of this scale has been executed on the Atlantic Coast.”

The funding will create an environment where relevant regional institutions, businesses, and universities can collaboratively develop the Southeastern Massachusetts Marine Science and Technology Corridor, according to a news release.

“I want to thank the Baker-Polito Administration for supporting UMass Dartmouth and our region as we develop our blue economy corridor from Rhode Island to Cape Cod,” said UMD Chancellor Robert E. Johnson in a statement. “In awarding this grant, the Seaport Economic Council is demonstrating the Commonwealth’s commitment to an industry sector that can transform our economy.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

New partnership develops with goal of improving talks between offshore wind, fishing

January 18, 2019 — The pool of organizations aiming to generate a mutually beneficial relationship between offshore wind and the commercial fishing industry grew on Thursday.

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) announced a partnership with Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind that is meant to improve communications between the fishing industry and offshore wind developers.

While the agreement was described as a “first-of-its-kind” partnership in the press release, it’s not the first pact agreed upon with the hopes of improving communication.

Last November, the New Bedford Port Authority announced an agreement with all offshore wind developers operating in the Massachusetts/Rhode Island market to serve as the designated Fisheries Representative of the commercial fishing industry to each of the development companies.

Orsted said this agreement would not affect its partnership with the Port Authority. It said it views this most recent announcement as an addition to its relationship with New Bedford.

The agreement between RODA and Orsted is unique in that RODA extends its representations from Maine to North Carolina.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

BOEM elaborates on map for New York Bight areas for offshore wind

November 26, 2018 — Walter Cruickshank, the acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, provided some details to an otherwise ambiguous map the agency released last week for potential offshore wind sites along the New York Bight Call area.

The map featured four sections of land off the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey and included shaded areas deemed as “primary recommendations” and “secondary recommendations.”

The labels left commissioners at the Port Authority confused.

“There’s secondary and primary leases,” Port Director Ed Washburn said at last week’s meeting. “We’re not exactly sure what secondary or primary means other than one they prefer over the other. We don’t know exactly why.”

In an interview with The Standard-Times earlier this week, Cruickshank elaborated on the map.

“It’s not a decision yet,” he said “But it’s things we want to get some feedback on before we make a decision on what areas we’ll conduct the environmental analysis on.”

The idea of primary and secondary areas, Cruickshank said, was to elicit discussion from stakeholders. However, they also represented areas where BOEM felt the least conflict existed among fishermen, wind developers, the Department of Defense, environmentalists and others claiming any kind of value in the areas.

The conflicts that arose in the areas not shaded at all, Cruickshank said, were too large to overcome.

“Any area you pick is still going to have some conflicts,” Cruickshank said. “This was the primary sort of our view where there might be some ability to manage conflict and move forward.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Liasion picked for wind farms, fishermen

November 21, 2018 — The New Bedford Port Authority will serve as the designated fisheries representative for offshore wind developers in the Rhode Island and Massachusetts markets.

The Port of New Bedford announced the agreement Tuesday, saying the authority will fill a role that’s required under federal guidelines issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The port authority will serve as the fishing community’s primary point of contact for communicating project-related concerns to the developers, port officials said.

Vineyard Wind and Orsted are pursuing commercial energy projects in the waters off Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

According to the port authority, it will act as a clearinghouse for information, facilitate talks between fishermen and developers, and advocate for ways to mitigate impacts on commercial fishing from wind turbines.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Port Authority to become fisheries rep to offshore wind

November 21, 2018 — The New Bedford Port Authority has reached an agreement with all offshore wind developers operating in the Massachusetts/Rhode Island market to serve as the designated Fisheries Representative of the commercial fishing industry to each of the development companies, according to a news release.

Under federal guidelines issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management offshore wind developers must establish a fisheries representative to be the fishing community’s primary point of contact for communicating project-related concerns to the developer.

“The NBPA has been contracted by the developers to represent the interests of commercial fishermen, and to be a conduit of information between the developers and the commercial fishing industry as offshore wind farms are developed on the Outer Continental Shelf,” said Port Authority Director Ed Anthes-Washburn in a statement. “We’re very excited to have all three developers on board for this timely announcement. Adequate and sustained engagement with the fishing industry will translate into more conciliatory communications and interactions with fishing communities up and down the eastern seaboard as the offshore wind industry begins in the United States.”

In this role, the Port Authority will act as a central clearinghouse of information, convene stakeholders, facilitate dialogue between fishermen and respective developers, and advocate for ways to mitigate impacts of wind projects on commercial fishermen, according to the release. The Port Authority will also work with state and federal agencies to adopt policies and regulations needed to ensure the viability of commercial fishing operations.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Massachusetts Maritime Academy Receives $69,600 in Grant Money

October 11, 2018 — As part of a $450,000 state grant program that promotes the blue economy, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy is receiving $69,600 to pursue a project on hydrokinetic energy.

The Academy will develop a marine hydrokinetic oceanographic data portal that will be hosted live and available online to anyone, building on the Academy’s expertise as an academic test center for marine hydrokinetic energy (e.g. tidal flow) generators and instrumentation. The new data portal will have uses for commercial users in renewable energy, aquaculture, recreational mariners, educators, and the general public. MMA has several marine research and aquaculture programs generating live oceanographic data, in addition to separate video cameras which cover Cape Cod Canal marine traffic and provide high-definition video from 20 feet under water.

The project will modify these independent systems into one visual portal and will give the internet a real time view of science, technology, engineering and mathematics at work. The project will also work cooperatively with a 60kW hydrokinetic (tidal) turbine that can be used for environmental testing, workforce development training and power production, infrastructure funded through a $150,000 investment by the Commonwealth. The turbine, housed on a mobile barge, will act as a test site which will tie into the data portal, allowing viewers of the portal to view the output of the barge throughout the varying tidal cycles and in real-time.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com