Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Statement from New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell on NEFMC decision on Northern Edge

July 3, 2024 — The following statement was released by New Bedford, Massachusetts Mayor Jon Mitchell:

“I am disappointed by the New England Fishery Management Council’s decision last week after scant public notice to reverse itself and halt further discussion of the opening of the Northern Edge scallop access area. The decision comes less than three months after the Council voted to advance the opening of the Northern Edge, which was grounded in more than a decade of research showing that scallops are abundant in the area. Halting work on the Northern Edge so abruptly is an affront to scallop fishermen who were given every reason to believe that the council was working toward a fair, long-term solution.”

Police seize 3,000 pounds of illegal haddock in New Bedford

June 26, 2024 — Massachusetts Environmental Police (MEP) seized more than 3,000 pounds of illegally harvested haddock from a New Bedford processing plant on Thursday in the first commercial-scale bust of the groundfish season, MEP officials said.

Acting Col. Patrick Moran said he was carrying out a routine foot patrol inspecting processing plants on the New Bedford waterfront when he discovered what appeared to be undersized fish in an assembly line ready to be filleted. He ordered the processing plant to temporarily cease operations as he measured the fish, determining about 3,000 of the 11,000 total pounds of haddock were under the legal limit of 16 inches.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford State Pier proposal makes fishing a destination attraction. What to know.

June 25, 2024 — One of the seven proposals for New Bedford’s State Pier is really a two-fer.

It’s a joint proposal from Buyers and Sellers Exchange seafood and New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.

They say their $15 million proposal will promote economic growth and education, wrapped up in a destination-style attraction.

BASE, the seafood auction house founded in New Bedford in 1994, would off-load the incoming catch at the Pier, and then hold its daily seafood auctions before the scallops and fish are sent on their way to myriad outlets.

All in view of the visiting public.

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: For Bendiksen family, ‘Sea Stories’ are stories of their lives

May 30, 2024 — In the Bendiksen family kitchen, framed photos of the fishing boats they have owned hang on the wall. For Captain Reidar Bendiksen and his wife, Kirsten, these boats are like family members.

The most cherished memories of the Bendiksens’ lives — the day they first met, the births of their children — are deeply intertwined with the fishing industry.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford’s fishing heritage is online, thanks to this archivist and ‘history detective’

May 29, 2024 — Retired engineer John Ryan spent hours and hours at the hurricane barrier taking thousands of photographs of fishing vessels going in and out of New Bedford Harbor.

When his family found thousands of slides and photographs among his things after his death, they didn’t know what to do with them. When co-curator Phil Mello learned of this, he suggested the family take them to the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.

When archivist Connor Gaudet started his position at the Fishing Heritage Center, his priority was to get Ryan’s photograph collection in its new online database

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: After second dock collapse, troubles on New Bedford waterfront

May 28, 2024 — On April 26, a nearly 500-foot stretch of dock owned by top executives at Eastern Fisheries collapsed into the New Bedford harbor. It was the second such collapse in just six months — the first of which hospitalized two workers and has since caused significant challenges for some businesses operating at the port.

The sudden dock collapses have left waterfront business owners and city officials asking: what are the causes, who is responsible, and is it safe to operate heavy machinery on the busy but dilapidated northern wharf?

The city says the aging port needs an overhaul. It’s a challenging feat. Facing the costs, the Port Authority has sold some properties in recent years, transferring the burden of expensive repairs to the companies that use the infrastructure. But the patchwork of public and private properties along the northern wharf makes it difficult to carry out one comprehensive overhaul.

“This latest incident highlights the need for long-term solutions to aging infrastructure at different points in the port. Such solutions will require time and significant outside funding,” Gordon Carr, director of the New Bedford Port Authority, wrote in a statement to The Light. “The Port Authority continues to take its role in such an effort seriously and will support businesses and property owners in pursuing these solutions as we are able.”

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: What belongs on New Bedford State Pier? Here is what’s proposed.

May 14, 2024– A new “boat-to-table” seafood restaurant proposed for State Pier would employ 125 at peak season and bring thousands of people downtown.

That’s according to Servedwell Hospitality owner Steve Silverstein, who is proposing the new 6,500-square-foot restaurant that would seat 300, and feature roof-deck dining and two bars.

It would represent a $5 million investment by Servedwell Hospitality.

Silverstein made one of the seven presentations Monday night of what’s being proposed for the eight-acre State Pier’s redevelopment.

Meeting was held at New Bedford Whaling Museum

The meeting at the New Bedford Whaling Museum was hosted by MassDevelopment, the state’s development finance agency and land bank, which manages the state-owned property.

A MassDevelopment review committee will review the proposals and make recommendations.

The committee could recommend accepting the proposals in total or partially – none of which are mutually exclusive – or reject them all. Leases for successful RFPS could run up to 35 years.

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Improvements on the horizon in New Bedford Harbor. Feds see what their money is buying.

May 8, 2024 — On a tour of New Bedford Harbor on Tuesday, the administrator of the federal department that oversees federal programs to improve and modernize the nation’s maritime network saw for herself the progress on the city’s North Terminal and plans for Leonard’s Wharf.

Rear Admiral Ann C. Phillips, U.S. Navy (Ret.), administrator of the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration, met with Mayor Jon Mitchell, New Bedford Port Authority Executive Director Gordon Carr and other officials for an update on the federally funding projects.

The North Terminal is nearly completed, and Mitchell said work on Leonard’s Wharf has started with actual construction expected to begin in January 2025.

Phillips said it’s exciting to see that the North Terminal is almost completed, and welcomed the opportunity to tour the harbor and see for herself how the federal funding is making a difference.

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

Dutch Harbor and New Bedford named top fishing ports

May 7, 2024 — Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the top two commercial fishing ports in 2022. By volume, Dutch Harbor, Alaska, was the biggest, but by value, New Bedford, Mass was top.

According to the Kodiak Daily Mirror, a staggering 613.5 million pounds of seafood across various species was landed in Dutch Harbor in 2022. This diverse range of landings paints a vivid picture of the richness and variety of the seafood industry. Over the past 20 years, Dutch Harbor has consistently recorded the most landings by volume, a fact that speaks volumes about its importance. Empire-Venice, Louisiana, was listed as the second biggest port by volume, coming in at 489.8 million pounds of seafood.

New Bedford had landed $443.2 million worth of seafood, which has been at the top of NOAA’s revenue list for the past 20 years. The Kodiak Daily Mirror reported that 84% of the value comprised scallop landings. Naknek, AK, came in second with $298.2 million in 2022. The Mirror also shared that Kodiak has dropped out of the top five fishing ports in the U.S. in 2022 for the first time in the past 37 years.

Read the full story at National Fisherman