Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: It Was Supposed to Be a Lifeline for a Blue-Collar Town. Then Trump Returned.

June 1, 2026 — The dock that launched U.S. offshore wind is mostly empty now. The 200-foot-tall tower pieces that loomed like skyscrapers over a harbor of fishing trawlers are gone. So too are the house-sized gearboxes and turbine blades stretching the length of a soccer field.

The big turbine parts were supposed to represent a new era in a city where fish houses and abandoned factories line the waterfront. They were assembled here, sent out to sea and installed as part of Vineyard Wind, the largest renewable energy project built to-date east of the Mississippi River. All that was left on a recent April day were empty blade racks, a pair of red cranes and three broken blades.

It wasn’t supposed to look like this.

Vineyard Wind was supposed to be the first of many. Instead, it may be the only offshore wind project ever built in New Bedford.

This city of Portuguese, Latino and Cape Verdean residents is ground zero for America’s offshore wind industry, a test case of whether a blue collar fishing town can forge a new economic future by raising massive turbines out at sea.

Read the full article at Politico

MASSACHUSETTS: After A Hard Winter, Blessing Of The Fleet A Welcome Event

May 27, 2026 — It was a tough winter for the New England commercial fishing industry.

The Lily Jean out of Gloucester and the New Bedford-based Yankee Rose both sank with all hands. The impact was felt far behind the vessels’ home ports.

The local nonprofit Women of Fishing Families (WOFF) sent grocery and gas cards as well as care packages to the families of the fishermen who lost their lives.

“They had a lot of people depending on them,” said WOFF founding president Karen Murdoch. “We were lucky to be able to help these families because it affected fishing communities up and down the coast.”

WOFF will bring the town’s commercial fishing fleet together Sunday, May 31 for the annual Blessing of the Fleet to both acknowledge the winter’s difficulties and set the stage for a safe and successful fishing season.

Read the full article at The Cape Cod Chronicle 

MASSACHUSETTS: As harbor cleanup winds down, education around toxic seafood continues

May 22, 2026 — Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency completed the large-scale cleanup of New Bedford Harbor, removing dangerous chemicals called PCBs from the surface water and siloing the remaining toxic sediment in underground cells.

In an annual update on the cleanup Wednesday night, EPA remedial project manager Chris Kelly announced that today, PCB levels in both the Inner and Outer Harbor remain low, posing no threat to swimmers, kayakers, or beachgoers.

Just don’t eat the fish.

Despite ongoing education around the health risks of eating fish and shellfish caught in New Bedford Harbor, a recent survey conducted by the Community Economic Development Center found that over three-quarters of surveyed residents reported eating contaminated seafood caught in the harbor last year. More than half reported eating contaminated seafood at least once a month.

The EPA survey results didn’t come as a surprise since the majority of the 149 respondents said this was their first time taking the survey, said Aaron Sheehan, EPA community involvement coordinator.

“It’s all to say that there’s more education for us to do,” Sheehan said.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: Port cities try to weather shifting winds

May 21, 2026 — Forty-Two Acres of vacant industrial land — a patchwork of asphalt, weeds, and grass — sit waiting in Salem’s harbor. In the center is a coal power plant, shut down in 2014 after a decade of community activism, and a natural gas plant, retired in 2018. The city identified the lot, roughly 30 football fields in size, to be the site for Salem’s offshore wind terminal, which would be the third in the state after the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal opened in 2015 and the city began its phased opening of the Foss Marine Terminal in 2023.

But strong political winds have, at least for now, changed the course for Salem.

For the city’s climate advocates, the prospective terminal represents decades of work toward a cleaner, renewable energy future, one that the state has been putting money and policy behind for years and that has promised to bring thousands of jobs and other community investments. Salem and New Bedford both received millions from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) to develop the sites of retired fossil fuel power plants into terminals that would serve as logistics and operations centers for the construction of offshore wind. But wind projects have long been struggling to get off the ground. During the Biden administration, global supply chain disruption, climbing inflation, and high interest rates drove up costs for developers. The Trump administration’s anti-wind actions — issuing executive orders that block new projects, pausing existing leases, and rescinding grants — drove both cities further from the economic boon they expected.

In New Bedford, the influx of tenants that was hoped for never materialized. In Salem, the plan was to build two berths to receive ships carrying crew and materials for wind projects. But construction is stalled and there’s no start date in sight.

“We expected a lot of jobs, like a lot of life-changing … career sustainable jobs that were going to come from this, and that’s what hasn’t materialized,” said Sam Lambert, deputy chapter director for the Sierra Club’s Massachusetts’ chapter, of the Salem terminal and the offshore wind projects it might have supported.

In New Bedford, the terminal has had to shift its vision. It’s leaning on general cargo and marine construction for additional revenue.

“We were operating under a plan where, when the first [wind farm] gets first electricity, it would start doing its operation and maintenance work out of our facility,” said Andrew Saunders, president of the New Bedford Foss Marine Terminal. But with the current political climate, “the terminal has had to pivot in order to generate revenue, and figure out something of a different identity.”

Read the full article at Commonwealth Beacon

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford fishing industry sees impact of rising fuel costs

May 18, 2026 –At Sea Fuels Marine, located at 101 Co Op Wharf in New Bedford, General Manager Paul Anthony said he hasn’t witnessed such a rise in the cost of diesel fuel in a long time.

It seems like every time it’s brought up in the news, the fuel price jumps, he said.

“Who knows how long it will take to level out. I honestly don’t know. I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve never seen it like this, and there have been times there were spikes including during the Gulf War, the pandemic and the Ukraine war with Russia,” he said.

According to AAA, as of May 17 the price of diesel fuel is at $5.79 per gallon. A year ago, it was $3.76 per gallon.

Read the full article at The Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford exhibit explores fishing’s complex history

May 14, 2026 — A new exhibit exploring the complex history of federal fisheries management is scheduled to open May 14 at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.

Titled “In History’s Wake,” the exhibit examines the legacy of the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, according to a community announcement. The law established the 200-mile limit that pushed out foreign factory ships and laid the groundwork for much of the governance and oversight that manages the commercial fishing industry today.

The exhibit will be on display through spring 2027.

The exhibit goes beyond a look at the Magnuson-Stevens Act’s legislative history, examining the evolution of the industry and the often-challenging relationship between commercial fishermen, the state and federal government, environmentalists, and scientists, according to the announcement.

Read the full article at AOL

MASSACHUSETTS: Oil and water: Inside the ‘mystery’ oil spills casting a sheen on New Bedford Harbor

March 30, 2026 —  Anyone walking down New Bedford’s Pier 3 can see the state of the commercial scalloping fleet, rusty trawlers and all. Less obvious are the subtle sheens of “mystery” oil spills leaking into the harbor’s waters.

Trace amounts of diesel and other fossil fuels — especially in older boats — can leak into the vessel’s bilge water and spill into the ocean, where their origins are nearly impossible to trace. These spills can impact water quality and get stuck in the harbor sediment.

At one point, Buzzards Bay Coalition estimated that these so-called “mystery” spills occur in the harbor once every eight days. Coalition President Mark Rasmussen believes that number is likely higher.

“Those are just the spills that are reported,” Rasmussen said. “It’s considered commonplace in a lot of spots of the harbor here to see oil in a way that just doesn’t happen in other places.”

These spills average between 5 and 20 gallons of oil per spill, Rasmussen added.

Although harbor workers and local officials are required by law to report oil spills or visible sheens to the U.S. Coast Guard, these smaller spills often go undetected, Rasmussen said, either dispersing on their own or sinking into the sediment on the harbor floor.

These spills are particularly common among the aging scallop fleet. Many scallop boats are between 30 and 50 years old, making it one of the oldest fleets in the U.S., behind Pacific salmon trolling boats.

The problem is worse in New Bedford than in other ports, in part because it doesn’t have a facility to pump oily bilge out of boats.

The oil pollution also brings up long-term questions: how can New Bedford’s fishing fleet adapt to use less diesel fuel? And someday, could the fishing fleet even go electric?

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

RHODE ISLAND: Recent fishermen’s deaths hit home in Point Judith

March 13, 2026 — This winter has been an especially difficult season for the fishermen of New England, with the death of a Stonington man and two recent boat sinkings.

On Jan. 25, late at night, Thomas Williams’ body was found in the water near the town dock in Stonington. Williams was a well known captain of the F/V Heritage and a long-time local fisherman out of Stonington and Point Judith.

Last Wednesday, New Bedford, Mass., police rescued a man from freezing water, according to 7 News Boston. The man fell between two fishing vessels, where he became trapped and unable to get out. Five officers were able to pull him safely out of the water after he was found holding onto dock lines.

A day later, the commercial fishing vessel Yankee Rose sank off Cape Cod, according to the Associated Press. The U.S. Coast Guard was able to pull one person out of the water, but the second crew member is still missing.

As a third-generation fisherman, Williams was a staple of the Rhode Island community for over 25 years. He was known as one of the best fishermen in Rhode Island, according to Fred Mattera, a retired local fisherman and president of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation.

Read the full article at The Independent

Two New Bedford-area fishermen mourned as Coast Guard investigates capsizing

March 11, 2026 — In the last few days, Sherry Holcomb has gotten a few packages. Sunglasses, a pair of flashlights, and a Q-tip holder embossed with a skull. They were ordered by her late husband — a mostly retired commercial fisherman — before he died at sea last week.

She’s also gotten visitors — announced and unannounced — there to help her navigate what comes next, ask questions or offer up a lasagna.

But she hasn’t gotten many answers.

Why did the fishing vessel that Truett “Gene” Holcomb was captaining last week capsize just three miles off of Provincetown? How could that happen when the water was like “glass,” as Holcomb told Sherry in a phone call late Thursday morning — the last time they spoke?

By 11:58 a.m. that day, the U.S. Coast Guard received a report from two witnesses of a capsized vessel. It was the Yankee Rose, the boat Holcomb had recently called from. The 46-foot dragger is painted forest green, but what Coast Guard rescuers saw on scene was her rusted keel.

The federal agency dispatched rescue boats, along with a Jayhawk helicopter and fixed-wing plane.

By about 12:30 p.m., responders from the Coast Guard and Massachusetts Environmental Police recovered a man from the water, 37-year-old Angel Nieves of New Bedford. They brought him to the pier to Provincetown Fire Rescue, where they determined resuscitation was not possible, according to the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office.

By around 3:45 p.m., the vessel sank.

And by 1:27 p.m. the next day, the Coast Guard called off the search for Holcomb, who might have been in the wheelhouse when the vessel capsized. His body has not been recovered as of Tuesday.

The Coast Guard and the Massachusetts Environmental Police are investigating the accident.

“Screamin’ Gene,” as Holcomb was known by fellow fisherman, had escaped possible death last month, just days before the capsizing. He found Nieves unconscious on the Yankee Rose from apparent carbon monoxide exposure on Feb. 26 and called 911, according to Nieves’ fiancée, Danielle Jeffrey. The fumes were so strong that they sent six first responders to the hospital for evaluation.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSSETTS: Vineyard Wind’s last turbine blades shipped from New Bedford

March 11, 2026 — The last shipment of turbine blades for the $4.5 billion Vineyard Wind 1 project left New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal on March 10.

Mayor Jon Mitchell said, “The deployment of the final major components of the  Vineyard Wind project represents the closing argument of the case we have been making for years: that New Bedford is well-suited to be a center of the offshore wind industry. No matter when the next projects are ready to proceed, we and our many partners have shown that the industry can successfully compete and operate projects from here while working cooperatively with the fishing industry.”

Gordon Carr, New Bedford Port Authority executive director, said, “Today’s final shipment of Vineyard Wind turbine blades from the Port of New Bedford represents an important milestone, not only for this project, but for the role our port has played in this process over the last few years. New Bedford Harbor has shown it can be a critical marshalling and logistics center for large projects while continuing to support our world-class fishing industry.”

Read the full article at the Standard-Times