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Story and photos by Steven Kennedy
NEW BEDFORD, MA - The fishing port of New Bedford has seen more than its share of ups and downs over the years, from the heady days of the early '80s with their terrific landings and new boats, to the mid '90s, with their government vessel buyback program, fishing ground closures, and business shutdowns. It seems the only thing constant is change.
Now, again, it is a new day in the Whaling City, and a new optimism is in the air. The changes appear subtle at first. But look below the surface. Not so long ago, the talk on the waterfront was of days-at-sea cuts, quotas, and leaving the industry.
Today, the picture is brightening considerably evidenced by fleet additions and rejuvenated businesses. Helping to fuel the new confidence are the recovery of scallop stocks and the comeback of yellowtail and haddock.
New vessels hadn't been seen at New Bedford in a long time. These days the harbor is welcoming not only refurbished boats from other ports and fisheries, but also new vessels freshly launched from southern yards.
New construction
The first new dragger to show up here since the late '80s was the steel Inheritance owned by Joe Rogers Jr. She was built at Rodriguez Boat Builders in Bayou La Batre, AL as an upgrade of Rogers's last vessel, Elizabeth. Inheritance is 72'x22'x12', small enough to be able to fish state waters, but big enough to handle the weather of a winter day on Georges Bank. Rogers is pleased with his new boat, which arrived in port in January.
Skipper Joe Rogers III said, "Everything is going good, just a few small bugs that all boats have." Rogers targets groundfish and squid in season.
Another new boat built last summer at the same yard, and somewhat of a sister ship to Inheritance, is Frank Weckesser's Freedom 2000. At 72'x26'x12', Freedom is very similar to Inheritance but with more beam. Both are powered by 3412 Caterpillar diesels, though the model aboard the Freedom develops a little more horsepower.
Freedom is the first new scalloper in New Bedford in at least 10 years. Weckesser had also built the Titan three years ago. That boat has been sold out of the New Bedford fisheries.
New arrivals
Adding to the rejuvenation of the waterfront are the continuing arrival of boats bought from other places by New Bedford-based owners. Usually, work is needed to ready these vessels for the scallop or groundfish fisheries, and that activity, too, has been a boost for local shoreside businesses.
Sunflower is one of the latest fleet additions and work is ongoing to convert her from a shrimper to a fish dragger. Green Acres is another of the 75' or so type draggers. She has recently started to actively fish after preparations that took over a year.
It has been over three years since
K&K Fisheries lost its dragger Shelagh K. in a sinking. It's a new day for the family-owned operation, though, with the acquisition of a 99' vessel out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, renamed Mora K. Built in Mobile, AL in 1988, Mora K. will fish for multispecies.
Other recent arrivals include: Baltic, Let It Ride (formerly Osprey out of Newport, RI), Stardust, Kathleen & Mary, Columbus, Victory, and Jorge Carvalho's Jillian Too, a St. Augustine-style wood hull scalloper.
Fleet Fisheries's new eastern rig Seeker is formerly the Morning Star, a side trawler out of Gloucester. Converted to fish for scallops, this vessel suffered a major wheelhouse fire in 1999 and was completely rebuilt.
From the same fleet, the eastern rig Aggressor is also undergoing work for conversion to the scallop fishery.
For Eastern Fisheries Inc., new acquisitions include Foremost, formerly a Cape May scalloper; Expectation, formerly Act II; and, one of the most interesting "new" boats of all, Pursuit. She was brought down from Alaska, and when she arrived, she still had the Alaska permit on the wheelhouse.
That Pursuit is eastern rigged isn't unusual, but her age is: built in 1919,
she's one of the country's oldest working steel-hulled fishing boats over 79'. The boat was formerly riveted. Over the years, she has been rewelded, given thicker steel, and presently is having a new winch installed.
Among the fleet additions are also vessels of a smaller size, including scallopers Lussin (formerly from nearby Sandwich) and Seldom Home and the dragger Matthew & Lisa.
Lobster boats have also been arriving in port. Roundabout, Miss Molly, and Never Home are some of the newly built fiberglass boats, and all call Fairhaven home.
Adding power to New Bedford's economic bottom line are transient vessels: they offload product, buy supplies and fuel, do maintenance as needed, but are not permanent additions to the local fleet.
Southern vessels are frequent
visitors, some for the summer, some to fish
year-round. Boats come up from Wanchese, Mann's Harbor, and Oriental,
all in North Carolina. Seen around the docks have been: Capt Ralph, Hen-Lee, Capt Garland, Capt Cecil, Vickie,
Richard Wayne, C-Venture, Chaz's Toy, and Joyce D.
Boats from New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island have offloaded at local buyers. The Susan Rose from Cape May, NJ is an example. Seafarer, Vic-Ter-Rae, Second Wind, heritage, and Jason & Danielle have been among the Point Judith boats.
The 150' red crab catcher/processor Canyon Enterprise was relocated from the West Coast to New Bedford late in 2000. It is operated by Sanko Fisheries.
Out-of-town boats were especially attracted to New Bedford when scallopers first gained controlled access to Closed Area II on Georges Bank in the summer of 1999. Those scallop landings, as well as the catch as additional controlled access was allowed in other closed areas, helped to propel New Bedford to the position of the nation's #2 port in terms of value of catch in 2000.
Some of the transient as well as local scallop boats have moved south with the May 1 controlled opening of Mid-Atlantic closed areas as well as the resurgence of stocks outside the closed areas.
Shoreside business
On the business end of things, the cutting edge of latest electronic technology is utilized every day at the Whaling City Seafood Display Auction. Using technology developed in Iceland, Raymond and Richard Canastra conduct a live electronic auction, allowing boats to receive the best price for the day.
Buyers from all over the Northeast have access to the online system BASE, buyers and sellers exchange.
The auction serves about 100 New Bedford-based draggers, as well as
100 vessels out of other ports, such as Provincetown Plymouth, Scituate, Gloucester, and Marshfield. The auction is conducted on the New Bedford waterfront, and buyers have access to the fish, inspection time being 5 am-7 am.
The scallopers are a littler slower to arrive.
"There's been no auction for scallops for 12 years," said Raymond, "but those who do (use it) receive a fair price."
"The boats are steering the ship," added Richard Canastra. "It's up to the vessels to make this work. All the key buyers are here."
Eastern Fisheries is coming off one of its best years ever, and recently opened a new "Fresh Division" scallop offloading and fillet house at the south end docks off Hassey St., hoping to attract fish draggers as well as serve its own fleet. The North End Terminal will still be used for dockside repairs, dockage, and cold storage for imported product.
Eastern Fisheries president Roy Enoksen has been a constant in the scalloping industry, and said in a recent interview, "Things are great. The resource is in as good of shape as I've ever seen it."
While he views the closed area situation with mixed feelings, he said, "Days-at-sea limits, escapement ring sizes, restriction on crew size, all of these things are beneficial. It used to be boom to bust." The management measures have helped to stabilize the industry, he said.
Enoksen started out as a boy fishing summers with his father, Olaf, on the old eastern rig scalloper Porpoise. Later, he went on to own Sea Trek, another big wooden boat.
Eastern Fisheries has grown over the years since then to become a 10-boat fleet, with over $80 million in sales in 2000.
Business is on the upswing for the
D.N. Kelley Shipyard as well. Having purchased the old Norlantic yard, the Kelleys have torn down some of the old buildings, repaved the area, and are busy expanding their ship repair business. There is more room for boat storage now, and three railways are there to serve fishing vessels, as well as tugs, yachts, and ferries up to 200' and of moderate draft.
"The fisheries are good," said David Kelley, who added that he also sees the revival of the waterfront and its attendant business.
Vessel owners, captains, and crews feel things are on the upswing. There is a confidence in the industry, as vessels receive maintenance put off for lack of funds. There have been tremendous catches of yellowtails and the scallop recovery in closed areas has been well-documented.
"The scallops are growing faster than we can catch them," said one boat owner.
If there is a concern, it is over the reactivation of multispecies permits, which have not been fished since the severe management restrictions started in the mid '90s.
Some boat owners are alarmed about the science the government is using, and feel the industry needs to see science it can believe in. Things seem very different on the grounds, they say, compared to in the offices of fisheries managers.
Positive things are said, however, of the effectiveness of the research work with SMAST (the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's School of Marine Science and Technology) on the scallop biomass.
Danny Eilertsen, interviewed on the dock by his scalloper Liberty, said, "Management has done its job. The
days-at-sea limits and men per boat are by far the best factors. There are better scallop sizes, 15 count instead of 50 count."
He pointed to his other boat, Justice, and said, "You wouldn't have seen that a few years age." The boat was being painted by a hired crew.
Yes, "the times they are a changin'," as the song goes, and, for New Bedford, that is a good thing.
