December 10, 2025 — To walk down New Bedford’s Pier 3 is to view a time capsule of the historic fishing town, memorialized not just by plaques and monuments but by the decades-old, rusted trawlers parked stern to stern on the cramped commercial harbor.

By design, these boats spend more time tied up at the docks than they do on the open ocean. Some scallopers are trying to put them back on the water.

“You wouldn’t dare keep a plane grounded for 30, 40, or 300-plus days,” New Bedford scallop vessel manager and owner Tony Alvernaz said. “Boats are no different.”

For decades, scalloping permits have been tied to individual vessels, while regulations limit the number of days a particular boat can spend at sea. Now, a new proposal would allow owners of two or more boats to “stack” their scalloping permits on a single boat. With permit-stacking, a crew could take multiple trips on one vessel, and the boats’ owner could either sell or refurbish the oldest members of their fleet. Permit-stacking already exists in other fisheries, but for decades it has languished among scallopers, who fear stacking could lead to further industry consolidation.

In October, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell penned a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expressing early support for the new proposal to allow permit-stacking in scallop fisheries.

“Even the casual observer can’t help but notice that we have lots of boats in the dock,” Mitchell told The Light in an interview. “It’s pretty crowded, and so people wonder, ‘Well, why are they all there?’ Part of the answer is, ‘Well, they don’t fish all that much.’”

Mitchell’s endorsement of scallop permit-stacking contrasts with his position on a similar question three years ago.

In 2022, the New England Fisheries Management Council overwhelmingly struck down a similar proposal that would have allowed scallop permit holders to lease their scalloping permits to other vessel owners, essentially “stacking” multiple permits on a temporary basis.

Critics at the time worried that leasing would lead to greater industry consolidation as larger ventures bought up licenses, crowding out independent scallopers. Others worried that vessel owners would pass down the additional costs of leasing to their crews, as had already happened in the groundfish industry.

Mitchell was among those strongly opposed to the 2022 leasing proposal, traveling two hours to the Council meeting in Gloucester to speak out against it.

“This is at least the third time in the last decade that the largest ownership interests in the scallop industry have urged the Council to undo the bedrock one-boat-one-permit rule to reduce costs and increase profits,” Mitchell said in his 2022 testimony. “I oppose the proposal because it will inevitably lead to consolidation in the industry, and thereby reduce the industry’s workforce and lower demand for shore side services.”

What changed in three years? For one, the future of the scallop industry looks very different now than it did three years ago.

The 2022 leasing proposal came during a marked boom period for New Bedford scallopers. Three years later, scallop numbers have plummeted far below the brief heyday experienced in 2022, let alone the industry’s glory days of single-boat owner-operators in the 1990s. A growing starfish population — one of the sea scallop’s main predators — and overly optimistic resource management are the main causes of the scallop decline.

Under current conditions, the boats at Pier 3 will spend over 300 days of the next year at the docks, fishing for fewer days to catch fewer shellfish.

In his October letter, Mitchell outlined what he felt was different about the current proposal and why he was less concerned about consolidation under the new stipulations. His main concern, he said, was that the current situation — boats lined up rafted one against another — was untenable.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman