Tag Archives: Senate minority leader Bruce Tarr
Gloucester celebrates its finest kind
The launch of Gloucester Fisheries Heritage Month in the city’s 400+ anniversary year in front of the Fishermen’s Memorial on Stacy Boulevard on Tuesday evening celebrated the finest kind of the nation’s oldest fishing port. About 200 people cheered for the fishermen ages 80 and older who sat in the front row of chairs, and who were given a commemorative Gloucester 400+ medal as a way to honor them. “I couldn’t think of any better way to kick off this month than to honor the gentlemen here in front of me. I just want you to know you are all very near and dear to my heart,” said Al Cottone, a commercial fisherman and the executive director of the Gloucester Fisheries Commission. “You blazed the trail for what this industry is and hopefully what it will be in the future, and I just want to say thank you all, and today is for you.” 6 photos, >click to read< 07:47
Saying ‘goodnight’ to St. Peter
The 2023 St. Peter’s Fiesta concluded late Sunday night with a raucous procession around the waterfront Fort neighborhood where the working-class Sicilian and Italian fishing community first started Fiesta in 1927. About 1,000 people took a loop around the Fort before the statue of St. Peter was returned to St. Peter’s Club and its place of honor in a window looking out onto Rogers Street. Older residents, many young adults and a dad carrying his young daughter on his shoulders marched along and cried “Viva!” Video, photos, >click to watch< 10:58
Fiesta: ‘What we are all about’
After a couple of days of carnival rides and musical entertainment, and a day of competition among seine boat crews and Greasy Pole walkers, America’s oldest seaport in its 400th year gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Friday night to officially kickoff the 96th St. Peter’s Fiesta. The celebration by the city’s Italian-American fishing community in the Fort neighborhood dates to 1927 and is hosted by the St. Peter’s Fiesta Committee. It’s held each year on the weekend closest to the Feast Day of St. Peter. The committee’s president, Joe Novello, took to the massive outdoor altar that Novello, an electrician by trade, wired. In opening the weekend’s festivities, he spoke about the thousands who have gathered in the neighborhood over the years to celebrate Fiesta and shout “Viva San Pietro!” Photos, >click to read< 97:47
Cape Seafoods nets nearly $500K to grow and diversify
The company has received a $395,542 loan from the CARES Act Revolving Loan Fund and an $86,458 equipment loan from MassDevelopment, the agency said in a prepared statement. Cape Seafoods’ sprawling Atlantic mackerel and herring processing plant, cold storage facility and wholesale bait shop dominate much of the Everett R. Jodrey State Fish Pier where Western Sea Fishing’s midwater trawlers FV Endeavour and FV Challenger are tied up. Western Sea Fishing is Cape Seafoods’ fishing partner. With the funding, MassDevelopment said Cape Seafoods plans to create an additional eight full-time jobs and 10 part-time jobs over the next three years. The company will use the funding to build and equip a new seafood processing room enabling it to process groundfish such as flounder, hake, halibut, and cod. >click to read< 10:37
‘It’s all about the people’ Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante said about her run
She’s a Gloucester native. Her parents came from immigrant families. She’s the only child of her father, Joseph, who worked as a fisherman until an injury forced him out of the job, and her mother, Frances, who worked in the schools’ libraries. She has her supporters. Helene Nicholson, “I think she brings the things to Gloucester like the waterfront and she works well with other candidates even though Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr is a Republican, you know, she works well across the aisles, which I like, and she’s a fair player. She’s honest.” Her father’s injury turned out to be a blessing in disguise. In 1994, a few months after his accident, the fishing vessel F/V Italian Gold sank. “That’s the boat my father would have been on. All four men were lost at sea,” Ferrante said. Her father asked her to promise him she would help those crew members’ families. >click to read< 12:14
Massachusetts: New relief fund would buoy lobster industry
A proposed state fund would provide financial relief to commercial lobstermen whose livelihoods are being impacted by state and federal regulations aimed at protecting critically endangered north Atlantic right whales. Tucked into a $52.7 billion state budget awaiting action by Gov. Charlie Baker is a proposal to create a new grant program with $500,000 in initial funding. The plan calls for providing grants of up to $5,000 to licensed lobstermen to help offset the cost of purchasing new gear and equipment needed to comply with the new whale protection rules. The grant money must be distributed in a “geographically equitable manner” under the proposal. Senate minority leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, who pushed for the funding, said it will help buoy lobstermen who are struggling to afford the expense of upgrading their gear and equipment. >click to read< 17:50
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr wants more MEP whale patrols to reduce entanglement, prevent shutdowns
A state senator wants to step up marine patrols for endangered North Atlantic right whales to reduce collisions with boats, entanglements with fishing gear and prevent shutdowns of the state’s lobster fishery. An amendment to the $47 billion state budget, offered by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, would earmark another $250,000 for the Massachusetts Environmental Police to conduct more whale patrols in state waters. >click to read< 14:16
NE Groundfish Fishery in Hail Mary mode – Monitor vote could be death knell for fleet
A quick recap: The council has been working on Amendment 23 for more than two years. It seems like 50. The amendment will set future monitoring levels for sector-based groundfish vessels. The council faces four alternatives: Monitors aboard 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of groundfish trips. The council has chosen 100% coverage as its preferred alternative. That’s not good for the groundfishermen. Once the federal government stops harvesting spare change from between the sofa cushions to keep reimbursing the fleet for at-sea monitoring, the onus for paying falls on the fishermen at a current tune of about $700 per day per vessel. >click to read< Online access to the meeting is available by >clicking this link< 10:24
Lobster processing claws its way into Mass. law
The long-sought measure to expand and modernize lobster processing regulations in Massachusetts is now law, as of Gov. Charlie Baker’s signature on Wednesday.,,, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, who has championed the measure through more than four frustrating legislative cycles, estimated that up to 80 percent of lobsters landed in Massachusetts — the nation’s second-largest harvester of American lobsters, behind Maine — are transported to out-of-state processors only to see them return here as value-added products for retail and restaurant consumers. >click to read< 09:11
Cape Ann Seafood Exchange plans to reopen Tuesday
The Cape Ann Seafood Exchange expects to resume landing fish Tuesday, almost two weeks after the U.S. Labor Department effectively shuttered the business by seizing its bank accounts because of unpaid court-ordered damages. Kristian Kristensen, the owner of the fish auction on 27 Harbor Loop, said Thursday night that he had received final paper work from Labor Department officials that unfroze his business and personal bank accounts. “Now we can start putting things back in order, pay some people and hopefully start landing fish again on Tuesday, the day after the holiday,” Kristensen said. “That’s the plan.” >click to read<15:54
Lobster processing bill OK’d by Mass State Senate
“Massachusetts has the second largest lobster catch in the country,” Tarr said in a statement. “To keep from being left behind, we should expand our ability to process raw and frozen lobster parts. American lobsters are being harvested here and should be prepared for market here instead of Canada or Maine.” The expansion of allowed processing practices, according to Tarr, would enhance local economies in Massachusetts coastal communities such as Gloucester, which is the state’s most lucrative lobster port, and provide local restaurants and food stores with “superior access to the best lobster parts for their customers.” >click to read<19:26
Sale of shell-on lobster claws bound for Mass Senate floor
Massachusetts lobstermen could get a leg-up if a Senate bill set for consideration next Thursday becomes law. Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican who sponsored the bill (S 469), said it would allow for shell-on lobster claws to be processed and sold in Massachusetts. Tarr said the bill would expand on a recent law allowing for the processing and sale of shell-on lobster tail in Massachusetts. The prohibition on the sale of shell-on lobster parts stemmed from concern that lobsters that don’t meet state specifications could be split apart into tails and claws onboard a vessel to “avoid detection,” Read the article here 18:10
Mass Governor Elect Baker wants broader input on cod regulations
Questioning the federal estimates used to essentially ban commercial cod fishing in the Gulf of Maine, Governor-elect Charlie Baker said it is time for other scientists to have a say. Baker and Senate minority leader Bruce Tarr, who represents Gloucester, said Massachusetts must do its own analysis of what is happening with the cod population in,,, Read the rest here 12:23
