Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Greater New Bedford Sees $2.3 Million in State Seaport Grants

December 15, 2022 — The Greater New Bedford area — including the towns of Dartmouth and Fairhaven — is set to receive more than $2.3 million in state Seaport Economic Council grants for projects relating to coastal access and the maritime industry.

According to an announcement from the outgoing Baker-Polito administration on Tuesday, New Bedford itself will see more than $1.2 million in funding for maritime projects.

These include $880,000 for the New Bedford Port Authority for design, engineering, and permitting to eventually replace Homer’s Wharf, as well as a $320,000 grant for the port authority to split with the town of Fairhaven to update the municipal harbor plan.

It also includes $50,000 in funding for a feasibility study on expanding the Community Boating Center of New Bedford.

Fairhaven is also set to receive a $1 million grant for the final phase of the 10-year effort to reconstruct Union Wharf to modern standards.

Read the full story at WBSM

MASSACHUSETTS: A meeting of the minds on the future of the fisheries

August 3, 2017 — For some, the focus was on collaboration and the need to build sustainable seafood partnerships.

“Much of what we have already learned comes from the farming sector,” said Jack Wiggin, head of the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Urban Harbors Institute. Opening a Wednesday morning conference on the seafood industry at The Gloucester House, he noted cited parallels between harvesting America’s farms and seas.

To Anamarija Frankic, however, the future of the seafood industry is tied to a more basic approach.

“It’s like the chicken and egg,” said Frankic, a UMass-Boston teacher of biomimicry — the science of seeking solutions based on time-tested patterns and models. “How can you have aquaculture? How can you sustain seafood without protecting the ocean (waters), not just in the harbors but in watersheds? Much of what we do is very specific, protecting and rebuilding specific species or specific habitat, but we have to work to sustain the entire coastal habitat.”

Those were just two of the ideas raised over the course of the daylong conference, which was funded by the state’s Seaport Economic Council and drew more than 50 experts representing government agencies, fishermen, seafood processors and community leaders.

“This is a summit — I would call it that,” Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said in welcoming the group to Gloucester. “We haven’t truly had something like this in 20 years.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Coastal commerce impacts tackled in new report

April 5, 2017 — Settled four centuries ago by seafaring pilgrims, Massachusetts continues to draw sustenance from the water as more than 90,000 people are employed in its maritime economy, according to a new report.

The Bay State’s maritime economy accounts for $6.4 billion, or 1.3 percent, of its gross state product, and it has outpaced other industries, according to a report commissioned by the Seaport Economic Council.

Fishing, marine transportation and tourism are some of the fields that make up the sector, according to the report produced by the UMass Public Policy Center’s Massachusetts Maritime Economy Study. The study highlighted offshore wind and aquaculture as “two opportunities” for the marine economy. In 2013, Massachusetts had an estimated 145 aquaculture operations generating $18 million in revenue, and while no offshore wind has yet been installed off the coast of Massachusetts, it has “the largest offshore wind potential of any U.S. state,” according to the report.

The report will inform the council in its work to promote job growth on the coast and prepare for sea-level rise. The council anticipates awarding about $8 million in grants over the next year and a half, according to the Baker administration.

“This council is focused on the economics of our coastline and the waters that exist here and leveraging those natural assets and those infrastructure assets for more jobs and more economic development,” said Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, who chairs the council and said it has given out about $20 million in grants. “My hope is that we continue to protect and preserve our resources and at the same time build a talent pool that can really fuel these emerging industries and promote what we have here in our Commonwealth.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Massachusetts to invest $1.1M on Jodrey fish pier renovations

July 8, 2016 — The Jodrey State Fish Pier is the best performing and most well-run of the state’s four fish piers, emerging as a model for potential changes to Massachusetts’ other three fish piers, according to an evaluation of the state fish pier system by the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker.

The evaluation, funded by the Seaport Economic Council and performed by a working group of representatives from a number of state agencies, has resulted in two positives for the 78-year-old fish pier named for Edward R. Jodrey, the Gloucester barber who championed its construction in 1930s:

The Baker administration announced this week it will fund $1.1 million in renovations at the pier that covers approximately 8 acres at the head of the harbor, part of what the administration says is its continued “commitment to deepening the economic impact of state maritime facilities.”

Those funds will be used to repair the deteriorating roof atop the 40,000-square-foot cold storage and freezing operation that is one of the array of businesses housed in the three buildings on the pier.

Perhaps more important in the long run, the evaluation showed the Jodrey State Fish Pier, which is operated at a profit by MassDevelopment, is at the top of the class among the state’s four fish piers, an operations model for those located in New Bedford, Fall River and Plymouth.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: A win for Gloucester Fresh

February 24, 2016 — For former Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk, it was a rare home game in her role as the executive secretary of the state’s Seaport Economic Council. For the city, it was another step forward in its efforts to brand and market its seafood and seafood businesses.

The Seaport Economic Council and its chairwoman, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, rolled into Gloucester on Tuesday morning, meeting for more than two hours at the Tavern on the Harbor and awarding 10 state grants worth $5.15 million to 10 Massachusetts entities — including $151,000 to the city’s Gloucester Fresh Seafood Innovation Program.

The Gloucester grant, according to city Economic Development Director Sal Di Stefano, will help the city expand its campaign to promote its seafood harvest locally, regionally and nationally. That expansion includes the nine-day rental of two digital billboards along Route 1 in advance of the city’s participation in the annual Seafood Expo North America in Boston during the first week of March.

Di Stefano said the billboards alone are expected to convey the city’s branding message to at least 400,000 commuters during the city’s run on them.

He said the grant money also will be used to defray the city’s overall costs of participating in the Seafood Expo North America show and the Boston Seafood Festival in each of the next two years.

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times