Saving Seafood

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

MASSACHSUETTS: Immigration raids have spread anxiety for some in New Bedford fishing industry: ‘We don’t know what’s gonna happen’

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.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: Offshore wind power contracts delayed, again, to 2026

July 1, 2025 — The next round of offshore wind power projects for Massachusetts moved even further out of reach Monday when state officials got word that project developers and utilities will not meet Monday’s already-delayed target for finalizing contracts and likely won’t submit contracts for state approval until 2026.

The delays affect two projects proposed off Massachusetts, SouthCoast Wind and New England Wind, both of which have plans to use the Port of New Bedford to support construction or long-term operations.

The latest delays are due to “federal level activities,” a letter to the state says — a reference to the Trump administration’s freeze of new offshore wind permits.

Massachusetts selected 2,678 megawatts of offshore wind power, spread across three projects, in September 2024, kicking off contract negotiations. One of those projects, Vineyard Wind 2, has since removed itself from consideration. Another, SouthCoast Wind, has announced a delay of at least two years. Massachusetts gets no meaningful energy from offshore wind, almost nine years after a clean energy law set the state on a path of decarbonization.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Does fishing have the potential for a quiet power shift?

June 4, 2025 — Fuel costs eat into narrow margins, and emissions regulations continue to tighten in the commercial fishing world. The idea of electrifying commercial fishing vessels is beginning to float.

But for Paul Nosworthy, owner of New England Marine Engineering and Supply Inc. in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the conversation isn’t just about swapping diesel for batteries; it’s about practicality, power, and the people doing the work.

“It takes a certain amount of power to operate a vessel- between propulsion and auxiliary generator plants,” Nosworthy said. “We attempt to size the generator plant as close to the practical load requirement as possible.”

While full electric propulsion remains hypothetical in New England’s commercial fleet, Nosworthy’s shop is already bridging the gap in quieter ways. “We now install soft start rectifiers on larger motors,” he explained. “It takes three times the running amps to start an electric motor. If a motor draws 30 amps running, it takes 90 amps to start. Using a rectifier, you can maintain the run amp load at startup. We maintain an inventory of these soft starters.”

That kind of upgrade may seem small, but it signals a larger trend- more boats exploring electric auxiliary systems, especially refrigeration, gensets, and potentially winches, before ever considering propulsion.

“Many boats are finding the need to install refrigeration to prevent the loss of their catch,” said Nosworthy. “A lot of smaller vessels have had to upgrade their generator plants. That’s costly. The smoke stack has to be enlarged, and so does the keel cooler.”

These changes trigger a cascade of other requirements: more ventilation, more airflow, and more space. “Engine room ventilation needs to be increased,” he added. “You need 3.5 CFM  (Cubic Feet per Minute) for each horsepower of the engine, which allows proper air and fuel mix to get to the cylinders, prolonging engine life and reducing fuel use.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford seafood processing workforce fearful of ICE raids, deportation after May arrests

June 3, 2025 — New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A., is one of the busiest seafood-processing hubs in the nation, but the workforce there – largely comprising migrants from Central America – is living in constant fear of deportation, a longtime seafood processing worker who has since left the industry told SeafoodSource.

The former worker, who spoke to SeafoodSource on the condition of anonymity, said that ever since two undocumented Guatemalan men without criminal records, who were workers at New Bedford-based seafood-processing company Oceans Fleet, were taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on 12 May, workers in the community are wondering if they will be the next ones to be arrested.

Read the full article at Massachusetts

UMass: valuable independent science for region’s fisheries

May 19, 2025 — Anyone who doubts the value of having UMass Dartmouth’s Center for Marine Science and Technology in New Bedford should take a look at the situation developing in the scalloping industry.

Directly because of survey data collected by CMAST, government regulators are being forced to do some hard re-thinking of their plans to cut back even further on the number of fishing days scallopers are allowed. It’s not a moment too soon Unless something changes, next year the fishing limit will be down to 51 days from the current 121 days. Sebastian O’Kelly, the National Marine Fisheries Service’s new ombudsman, was in New Bedford for a visit this week and said, “It would be a substantial cutback if that goes into effect and will have a substantial impact on New Bedford, no question.”

Read the full article at South Coast Today