October 17, 2025 — Senator Mark Montigny has announced more than $1.8 Million dollars to support SouthCoast food and New Bedford fishing.
Boost for Local Seafood and Fresh Food Access
New Bedford’s seafood industry and community food programs are getting a big boost, thanks to new state grants announced by Sen. Montigny (D-New Bedford).
October 17, 2025 — Mayor Jon Mitchell today wrote to Eugenio Piñeiro Soler, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries, setting forth his position on a proposed rule that would allow full-time, limited-access scallop permit holders to “stack” two permits on a single vessel. New Bedford has been the nation’s highest-value fishing port for 23 consecutive years, since 2001. As the Mayor writes, “the Atlantic sea scallop fishery is one of America’s highest grossing commercial fisheries and is concentrated in New Bedford,” giving the city “a singular interest in policies that govern the allocation of scallop permits.”
Background and changing circumstances
Three years ago, the mayor opposed a proposal that would have authorized leasing of limited-access scallop permits. In his view then, it went further than necessary to address over-capitalization and risked inexorable industry consolidation, costing shoreside jobs and diminishing returns to single-boat owners and their crews, while failing to sufficiently engage the small businesses most exposed. He now notes that changing circumstances have prompted him to revisit his position, given the continued tightening of effort controls and their knock-on effects throughout the fleet and waterfront.
Why the industry needs relief
“The continued decline in available days-at-sea and closed area trips for limited-access permit holders has forced a broad reckoning in the industry that the traditional assignment of one permit per boat is antiquated. It has resulted in scallopers remaining in port for nearly eleven months a year on average – hardly an efficient use of a multi-million-dollar business asset,” the mayor writes. Building on that point, the mayor cites the practical consequences in port: prolonged vessel idling has increased congestion on municipal piers, reducing safety for fishermen; and by cutting average-boat revenues, it has constrained reinvestment in vessels, raising additional safety concerns.
What’s different now
“The new proposal is being advanced by a different group of proponents, who went back to the proverbial drawing board to fashion a more measured approach. In its broadest terms, the proposal would not allow the leasing of permits, but it instead would allow the transfer of permits between two vessels of similar size and common ownership. In practice, this would enable one boat to fish for approximately twice as long in any given year,” the mayor wrote.
October 16, 2025 — The following was released by the Port of New Bedford:
Mayor Jon Mitchell today wrote to Eugenio Piñeiro Soler, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries, setting forth his position on a proposed rule that would allow full-time, limited-access scallop permit holders to “stack” two permits on a single vessel. New Bedford has been the nation’s highest-value fishing port for 23 consecutive years, since 2001. As the Mayor writes, “the Atlantic sea scallop fishery is one of America’s highest grossing commercial fisheries and is concentrated in New Bedford,” giving the city “a singular interest in policies that govern the allocation of scallop permits.”
Background and changing circumstances
Three years ago, the mayor opposed a proposal that would have authorized leasing of limited-access scallop permits. In his view then, it went further than necessary to address over-capitalization and risked inexorable industry consolidation, costing shoreside jobs and diminishing returns to single-boat owners and their crews, while failing to sufficiently engage the small businesses most exposed. He now notes that changing circumstances have prompted him to revisit his position, given the continued tightening of effort controls and their knock-on effects throughout the fleet and waterfront.
Why the industry needs relief
“The continued decline in available days-at-sea and closed area trips for limited-access permit holders has forced a broad reckoning in the industry that the traditional assignment of one permit per boat is antiquated. It has resulted in scallopers remaining in port for nearly eleven months a year on average – hardly an efficient use of a multi-million-dollar business asset,” the mayor writes. Building on that point, the mayor cites the practical consequences in port: prolonged vessel idling has increased congestion on municipal piers, reducing safety for fishermen; and by cutting average-boat revenues, it has constrained reinvestment in vessels, raising additional safety concerns.
What’s different now
“The new proposal is being advanced by a different group of proponents, who went back to the proverbial drawing board to fashion a more measured approach. In its broadest terms, the proposal would not allow the leasing of permits, but it instead would allow the transfer of permits between two vessels of similar size and common ownership. In practice, this would enable one boat to fish for approximately twice as long in any given year,” the mayor wrote.
“Earlier objections to permit stacking are not triggered by the new proposal. The consolidation of two permits will not likely result in the loss of crew jobs. The reality is that on account of the days-at-seas caps, it is now common for scallop fishermen to serve on multiple vessels. It is also not likely for scallop stocks to grow to a point that could support a significantly greater number of fishing days for the current fleet. New equipment technology and fishing techniques have made scallop fishing much more efficient than it was in the 1990s, when the current permitting regime was instituted.” He adds that “the process used to fashion the new proposal was more open than last time,” and that proponents “have actively sought to understand the concerns of boat owners and shore-side businesses,” yielding “broader understanding and support in New Bedford,” the mayor wrote.
Not yet an endorsement, but a clear direction
“While it would be premature for me to explicitly endorse the proposal, as the precise language has yet to be settled on, it is clear that the status quo is untenable,” the mayor wrote.
Four caveats from the mayor’s letter
Before any action is taken, the letter sets out four caveats that should accompany the proposal:
October 7, 2025 — A research project that would have studied how New England offshore wind projects affect commercial fish species is now dead in the water.
The canceled study, which would have employed New Bedford fishermen, is one casualty of $7.5 billion in clean-energy funding cuts in mostly Democrat-led states, announced last week by the Department of Energy.
Coonamessett Farm Foundation, a Falmouth-based scientific research nonprofit, was awarded $3.5 million by the Energy Department in 2021 to survey commercial fish species in wind farm areas before, during and after construction. The surveys, which were scheduled to begin this year, would have helped fill large information gaps on how wind farms on the Atlantic Coast could affect fished species.
Wind developers already collect this type of data (to varying degrees), but the companies largely keep the data private. The project would have published open-source data, and would have paid a handful of fishermen — most from New Bedford — to assist in the project by towing or deploying specialized survey equipment through the waters in and around the wind leases.
September 29, 2025 — The wind howled as Sonia Brito, clad in a white hard hat and yellow vest, looked out at scallopers, lobster boats, and trawlers crowding the waterfront of New England’s premier fishing port.
Not long ago, the fishing fleet was one of the few sources of good-paying jobs in New Bedford for blue-collar workers such as Brito. But here at the top of a white, 250-foot pillar, Brito had found a different way to earn a living as a millwright: connecting massive blades and tower sections for wind farms off the coast of Massachusetts.
“For kids like myself who went to a vocational school, this is a perfect industry that the United States needs,” said Brito, 22, of New Bedford. “All we really have here is fishing, so you either become a fisherman or leave. This gives people another option.”
September 26, 2025 — On a warm September day, Sonia Brito stood on a platform more than 200 feet high, securing a “gripper” atop a wind turbine tower with the help of a few of her millwright and ironworker brothers. It’s something they’ve done dozens of times to ready the towers to be grabbed by a crane, placed onto barges and shipped to sea.
The staging terminal, previously packed with blades, nacelles and towers for Vineyard Wind, has grown sparse, a result of a steady workflow during summer’s prime seafaring conditions — and a slowdown, workers say, of international shipments amid the Trump administration’s tariffs.
A Portuguese immigrant who grew up in New Bedford, Brito, 22, says she feels lucky to have happened upon an opportunity like Vineyard Wind. It has allowed her to work in her hometown and build a project that she thinks will have positive impacts for her city and the country’s climate future.
But since the federal government abruptly halted construction at Empire Wind for one month in the spring, and then Revolution Wind in August, workers supporting the buildout of offshore wind in New England have grown worried about the industry’s future — and theirs.
September 8, 2025 — The New Bedford scallop fleet and supporters continue to push for a reopening of the Northern Edge scallop access area, a year after the New England Fishery Management Council decided to continue the 30-year closure.
The Northern Edge of Georges Bank is seen by the council as a critical area for juvenile cod, lobster and herring, and the closure has been touted as habitat protection for those species and the scallop biomass.
In April 2025 the Fisheries Survival Fund, representing East Coast scallop fishermen, filed a petition urging U.S Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to reopen the Northern Edge. Their pitch echoed arguments the Fisheries Survival Fund made, unsuccessfully, to the New England council in June 2024.
August 22, 2025 — Work is progressing on a huge $44 million infrastructure project in New Bedford.
The Leonard’s Wharf right along the state pier will be expanding.
“It’s one of our most important infrastructure projects, that we kicked off earlier this year,” said Gordon Carr, the executive director of Port Authority. “We want to reconstruct and extend one of our largest fishing wharfs in the harbor.
Leonard’s Wharf has a long history in the city. In the 19th century it originally began as a whaling pier and then continued to expand into a large commercial fishing port.
August 18, 2025 — The following transcript is by WKU:
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
New Bedford, Massachusetts, calls itself the scallop capital of the world, and on Thursday, the city celebrated Scallopalooza. It’s an event close to the city’s working waterfront that celebrates the Atlantic sea scallop and the people who work on the boats. Caroline Losneck has this audio postcard.
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: So while we’re setting up for our scallop shucking contest, which is…
CAROLINE LOSNECK: Like most festivals, Scallopalooza’s fun, but scallops are serious business here. They’re central to the city’s identity and culture. The highlight is a raucous shucking contest where over a dozen local scallopers face off in heats, all up on a stage, to see who can remove the meat from the shell the cleanest and fastest. And spectators in the front rows probably even get some scallop parts on them as a memento.
JOE RITTER: We certainly hope people are going to have a shucking good time at this event.
LOSNECK: Joe Ritter works at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center and helped organize Scallopalooza.
RITTER: And the top fisherman from each round is going to go up in the finals, and they’re going to compete for the title of New Bedford’s best shucker. They’re going to get a trophy, and they’re going to get bragging rights, too.
LOSNECK: The impact of the species here is massive. About 80% of the seafood by value that arrives on the docks are from scallops.
RITTER: I would say scallops are to New Bedford like corn and soybeans are to Illinois or Indiana.
August 13, 2025 — Fifteen local scallop fishermen will compete Thursday night, Aug. 14, for the title of New Bedford’s top shucker.
The 2025 Scallopalooza champ will receive a trophy, but being known as the fastest shucker of the resurgent contest this year will start a new tradition of winners to keep track of for posterity.
Only scallop fishermen are participating in the shucking contest — last held in 2017 — and a total of 900 scallops will be shucked when all is said and done.
New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center Executive Director Laura Orleans said it’s the scalloper’s job while out at sea to process the scallops, but they will be on land for this contest in the New Bedford Seaport Historic District.
The shucking contest will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 14 in the Fishing Heritage Center parking lot at 38 Bethel St. during the August AHA! Night, which will take place from 5 to 8 p.m.