Saving Seafood

‘A real tragedy’: Trump’s policies create sea of uncertainty for New Bedford’s offshore wind ambitions

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.”

Read the full article at The Boston Globe

Offshore wind labor force hoping for work that might not continue

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.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Scallopers press for reopening Northern Edge

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.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Work underway to expand New Bedford fishing wharf

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.

Read the full article at NBC 10 NEWS

MASSACHSUETTS: Introducing the Scallopalooza festival in Massachusetts’ ‘scallop capital of the world’

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.

MASSACHUSETTS: Local fishermen vie for title of top scallop shucker. A look at contest’s legacy, past winners

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.

Read the full article at The Standard-Times

MASSACHSUETTS: Don’t miss scallop shucking, link squeezing competitions at Scallopalooza. What to know

August 12, 2025 — The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is bringing back a favored tradition with its revival of a scallop shucking competition.

It will be hosting the inaugural Scallopalooza, a scallop celebration and shucking contest and free public event that will be held during the August AHA! Night from 5 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 14.

Over the years, the scallop shucking contest has been a landmark waterfront event in New Bedford and a showcase of New Bedford’s commercial scallop fishery from the Scallop Festival of the 1950s to the Working Waterfront Festival of the 2000s.

Read the full article at The Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford hosts Scallopalooza shucking contest

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.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman