Tag Archives: Daniel McKiernan

Captains hope to replace coronavirus-related restaurant closures with direct customers

With their normal markets shrinking amid the coronavirus outbreak, South Coast fishermen are coming up with creative ways to sell their catch directly to consumers. Troy Durr created the Facebook group “South Coast Direct Source Seafood” “A lot of the fish houses are not buying from the boats, which left them in a situation to stop working or figure out their own way to sell,” (Troy) Durr said. The new way to sell is directly off their boats.,, Two boats went out on April 4 and sold lobsters at Union Wharf in Fairhaven for $6 per pound. “Today we had our first sell date,” Durr said in a post, “Two locally owned and operated lobster boats sold out of 600 lbs of lobsters in an hour and a half right at Union Wharf in Fairhaven.” >click to read< 17:03

‘Too early to tell’ impact of Coronavirus on New Bedford fishing industry

Since the fishing industry was deemed part of the food supply chain, it is allowed to keep operating as an essential service under Gov. Charlie Baker’s stay-at-home advisory. “Immediate impacts have been minimal,” scalloper Eric Hansen said Thursday, “The market is a little bit depressed but nothing crazy. My bigger concern is the future, what’s going to happen in the next couple of months.” What worries Hansen about the future is the April 1 start of the next scalloping season, which will bring back scallopers that hadn’t been fishing because they used up their 2019 allocations. >click to read< 09:16