The Infamous Cape Pond Ice and Gloucester’s Fishing Infrastructure is Struggling.
In this, the summer of the 25th anniversary of the Perfect Storm that gave rise to Cape Pond Ice’s cult-like cache, the venerable ice making plant in Gloucester’s Fort neighborhood is being battered by its own series of man-made and natural forces. The 168-year-old company, the chief supplier of essential ice to what remains of Gloucester’s fishing fleet, as well as a host of other commercial customers, has been crippled by mechanical problems and last week’s historic run of record heat that has been anything but kind to the final product. The myriad problems besetting Cape Pond Ice are a startling reminder of how losing one link in the symbiotic chain connecting the fishing fleet with its shoreside infrastructure can upset the fragile balance that has come to define commercial fishing. They also are a reflection of the greatest fears of public officials and fishing stakeholders — that the continued demise of the commercial fishing industry is exerting escalating financial pressures on shoreside, fishing-related businesses that have long depended on the fleet. Read the story here 07:52
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