Tag Archives: Working waterfront
Stonington lobster co-op protects more of its working waterfront forever
The Stonington Lobster Co-op will add a preservation covenant to one of its wharves and use the resulting state funds to help it repair past storm damage. The cooperative in Maine’s busiest lobster port already updated one wharf and infrastructure through the state’s working waterfront protection program several years ago, according to members of the Land for Maine’s Future board, a state group that approved the new covenant Tuesday morning. That improved wharf was able to survive powerful back-to-back storms in early 2024 which caused extensive damage to working waterfronts across the state, which some businesses are still working to repair. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:57
Photos: Guided dock tours offer inside look at Oregon’s commercial fisheries
Cottage Grove residents planning a get-away to the Oregon Coast may want to take advantage of guided tours along the ocean waterfront. Coastal visitors and residents are invited to dive into Oregon’s commercial fishing culture this summer through the free, guided dockside tours. The walking tours, hosted by Oregon Sea Grant and Oregon State University Extension Service, are described as engaging opportunities offering a behind-the-scenes look at Oregon’s working waterfronts. Doerr is hopeful the tours make a difference. “I want people to understand that our fisheries are important for supporting our local economy, supporting local industry, but also the awareness that most of these boats are owned by community members. They are small businesses,” she said. “There is a lot of cooperation. Everyone is working together to make sure these are long-term sustainable fisheries. We want people to feel good about buying seafood and we want to stress the importance of shopping local.” Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 16:48
Longtime Outer Banks fish house opens doors to new facility
Long famous for its bountiful fishing, Hatteras Island now has a new state-of-the-art processing and packing facility that keeps Outer Banks fish local from sea to plate, while also enabling local fresh catch to be shipped directly to customers. And it’s owned by a local fishing family, to boot. “The thing was, all this fish used to go to Virginia to get processed,” owner Jeff Aiken said during a recent tour of Jeffrey’s Seafood, situated along Back Creek in Hatteras Village. The business officially opened May 21 during a ribbon-cutting celebration. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:43
Port Royal ousting old shrimp boats from dock.
Port Royal is moving ahead with a plan to demolish the town-owned dock,,, “I think we all want to see a working waterfront,” Town Manager Van Willis says of the effort. “We’re hoping with a new dock and state-of-art processing facility we’ll become a location to offload.” Owners of the old boats tied up at the dock have been given until April 15 to move. The town, however, will be responsible for moving abandoned boats or those that have sunk. Most of the boats never leave the dock. “Unfortunately, almost every single one doesn’t actually shrimp,” Willis says of the shrimp boats, some of them barely seaworthy, that are tied to an equally dilapidated dock. >click to read< 16:33
Working Waterfronts: Development threatens Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River fishing industry
The Great Lakes’ commercial fishery is nothing like what it was a hundred years ago. But from Lake Superior to Lake Ontario to the St. Lawrence River, there are still people who make their living catching and selling fish. However, they face increasing competition from hotels, condos and other developments for loading and docking space along the shoreline. One example,, The Minor family has been a long standing fishing family, they’re now in their third generation. And they recently had the experience of coming back from a day of fishing, and found that the place that they’ve been unloading fish for generations was suddenly unavailable, because there was new construction for a cruise ship dock going in. >click to read< 16:34
Family owned working waterfront fishing businesses displaced by waterfront developments on Great Lakes
For three generations, the Minor family, today brothers Carson and Landon and their father Paul, have been up before first light to board their fishing tug and make their way to their fishing grounds on Lake Erie. Most mornings, the Minors leave from Port Colborne, Ont., Each afternoon they return to the port to unload their fresh catch of perch and pickerel.,, Without warning, the unloading zone their family had used for more than 70 years was blocked off. They were forced to move to a new port further away from their fishing grounds, increasing travel time and putting them at greater risk during bad weather.,, The Minors’ story is not new, nor is it isolated. Working waterfront access is being affected by coastal gentrification, also called “coastal grabbing” >click to read< 16:47
McClellanville receives $25K grant to help preserve its working waterfront
McClellanville is one of 12 towns recently awarded the Hometown Economic Development Grant from the Municipal Association of South Carolina. The $25,000 grant will go towards an economic development plan to keep and preserve it’s working waterfront, the main economic and cultural aspect of the town.,, “It’ll help the whole town out, this is a shrimping and fishing village, so that working waterfront, probably about half of that town relies on that working waterfront,” >Video, click to read< 09:49
Measure to help protect, enhance working waterfronts passes U.S. House
The measure, introduced by Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, D-1st District, would provide $24 million in federal grants and loans to states, which could allocate funding to municipalities, nonprofits and fishing co-ops for projects that preserve or improve working waterfront infrastructure. If approved by the Senate, it also would create a task force at the Commerce Department charged with identifying threats to working waterfronts, including climate change and marketplace pressures. >click to read< 09:02
Vineyard Haven’s Vital Working Waterfront
Stretching from the Steamship Authority terminal at the north end of Water street in Vineyard Haven, to the R.M. Packer Co. on the far edge of Beach Road, is the only unimpeded, half-mile expanse of year-round working waterfront on the Island. The area is rife with docks, silos, slips and sloops. For some it is ugly. For others, it is barely noticeable. For all, it is vital. >click to read< 08:29
Lobster co-op, lobster town get working waterfront grants
There’s good news from Augusta for two Downeast towns. Last week, the Land for Maine’s Future Board announced funding for six projects that will help protect and sustain the state’s dwindling working waterfront resources. Two of the projects are in eastern Maine. The Stonington Lobster Co-op has received a preliminary allocation of $216,250 from the program,,, Up the road in Washington County, the town of Jonesport,,, >click to read< 08:36
Suffolk County Officially Transfers Ownership of Shinnecock Commercial Dock To Southampton Town
Tuesday, Suffolk County officially signed over full ownership of the commercial fishing dock to the Town of Southampton, according to a press release. Additionally, the transfer included an 11-acre stretch of beachfront along Shinnecock Bay just west of the dock. Prior to the transfer, the costs of repairing or upgrading the dock were evenly split between the town and the county. Under an inter-municipal agreement, signed by both parties in 2002, any repairs or upgrades required approvals from both town and county officials. Southampton Town Councilwoman Julie Lofstad, who co-owns a commercial fishing boat with her husband, Raymond Lofstad, explained that the added layers of government approval only complicated things. >click to read<11:45
Working Waterfront – One of last SC commercial fishing hubs could close. Land trust seeks funds to save it.
Larry Mcclellan can look from the porch of his century old farmhouse out across Jeremy Creek where the shrimp boats rock under their hanging nets. Mcclellan captains one of the boats there and his son captains another. The creek, which leads to the rich Bulls Bay shellfish waters, is his livelihood and his life. The hub of it all, where the boats are moored, is the Carolina Seafood dock. That’s how integral Carolina Seafood owner Rutledge Leland’s business is to McClellanville, the modest fishing village north of Charleston. >click to read<12:44
McClellanville working to preserve working waterfront
McClellanville is a small town working towards a big catch. The town is trying to protect one of last working waterfronts in the Lowcountry. Fishing and shrimping remain a major source of income for many residents. However, the future of the local docks is uncertain. The docks sit along Jeremy Creek, ushering in boats from sun up to sun down. The town has been partnering with the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, Carolina Common Enterprise, and the East Cooper Land Trust, on developing a plan to save the docks. >click to read<18:01
Developer withdraws plan for waterfront hotel in Portland, citing concerns by fishermen
A hotel will no longer be included in a developer’s plan for one of Portland’s wharfs, the city manager announced Friday. The news that developer David Bateman of Fishermen’s Wharf Portland LLC is dropping its pursuit of a hotel comes as the city grapples with concerns by fishermen over the future of Portland’s working waterfront. A group led by local fishermen has argued non-marine development on and around the city’s piers has squeezed out the working waterfront,,, >click to read<19:59
Letter: Fishermen need federal help
It is time to wake up. I read in Fishery Nation about protesters and fishermen opposed to a hotel on the waterfront in Portland, Maine. It seems their city fathers are having a difficult time turning those developers down due to less commercial fishing in their town. I can understand it is hard for them to turn down hotels and other businesses. We in Gloucester face the same. Our fisherman can be displaced and new developments can perhaps provide more tax dollars to the city, but at our fisherman’s expense. >click to read<09:23
Working waterfront to be preserved in Boothbay Harbor
On Aug. 12, Deanne Tibbetts, a resident of Boothbay Harbor, invited a small group of area residents to meet and discuss concerns about the potential loss of working waterfront and, along with that, an important part of their local identity and their maritime heritage. Tibbetts is a descendant of many generations of fishermen from Southport. The purpose of this meeting was not to debate progress, change, economic development, or any specific plans for the east side of Boothbay Harbor but rather to insure that working waterfront and those people that depend on it and care about it have a seat at the table. >click to read<09:04
Capt. Mark Phillips and the Illusion, the last of its kind
‘It’s not fish you’re buying – it’s men’s lives.’’ – Sir Walter Scott. The Predator sits dockside in Greenport, behind Alice’s Fish Market, a rusting hulk of a fishing trawler, 75 feet long and with no certain future to speak of. It is Mark Phillips’ boat, but he is away most days trolling offshore for squid in his other trawler, the Illusion. “It is not going to sea anytime soon,” Phillips said by cellphone, an edge of weary disgust in his voice. “The Predator’s days have come and gone.” The Illusion was dragging for squid near Nantucket on a hot day in mid-July. Phillips had started that week near Jones Inlet on western Long Island, but the ocean had heated up and the squid, which don’t like warm water, were scarce, so he moved the Illusion farther east in pursuit of success. >click to read<09:41
Fishermen of Newport to Honor Ronnie Fatulli this Thursday
On Thursday, June 21, 2018, the Newport Lobster Shack and Fishermen of Newport will honor Ronnie Fatulli for his lifelong commitment to the commercial fishing industry of Newport, his love of the working waterfront and his successful efforts to insure a permanent commercial pier in the City of Newport. Business owners, locals and tourists alike are invited to join in the celebration at State Pier #9 located at 150 Long Warf, Newport, RI. The ceremony will begin promptly at 11:00AM and will feature speeches by Mayor Harry Winthrop, Director of the DEM, Janet Coit, Bill Palumbo and Alan Eagles. >click to read<08:04
Portraits of the modern shrimper
San Carlos Island is home to one of the few remaining working waterfronts in Florida, and one of the last shrimping fleets in the country. The shrimping docks used to house hundreds of boats, but now, two businesses and a handful of independent fishers are left to sustain the industry. During a recent community visioning meeting, Lee County asked San Carlos Island stakeholders to discuss what made the island special – and almost every focus group said it was important to preserve and promote the commercial working waterfront, a piece of the county’s culture. >click to read< 15:31
Save the Working Waterfront: Fishermen resist as proposals for Portland waterfront projects mount
A spurt of hotel, office and shopping developments planned for Portland’s waterfront is rekindling concerns that space for fishermen and other traditional marine businesses is disappearing as Commercial Street becomes a shopping and dining mecca. Commercial fishermen who have unloaded lobster and groundfish on Portland’s wharves for decades see the changes as the next step in a long process to change the face of the waterfront, to their disadvantage. “They just don’t get it,” said Willis Spear, who has berthed his lobster boat on Custom House Wharf for 40 years. “We said in the beginning that this would happen, we’d just get squeezed out. It is going way faster than anyone knows.” click here to read the story 10:56
Is the Gulf Seafood Fish House deal close?
What was once the Gulf Seafood fish house on Stock Island may become Gulf Seafood again in the near future. “We think it’s going to happen, that it will be preserved in perpetuity for commercial fishing,” said lobster fisherman Simon Stafford. “That’s the real goal. It would be something unique to the Lower Keys.” Monroe County staffers have been working with the Florida Communities Trust to acquire the eight-acre property at 6011 Peninsular Ave. for several years. If the purchase goes through, the concept is to keep the property dedicated as a publicly owned “working waterfront” with a focus on commercial fishing. “We can say it’s moving forward in a positive way,” Lisa Tennyson, county director of legislative affairs and grants acquisition, said. “We can’t say much beyond that.” click here to read the story 14:35
Working Waterfront: Blaine Harbor’s Community Presence
With deeply-rooted ties to the commercial fishing industry, Blaine Harbor sees commercial fishing vessels as an important part of the waterfront. Today, a smaller fleet sets out each day to harvest Dungeness crab and salmon during those respective seasons and supplies to four local seafood buyers. Port Commissioner, Bobby Briscoe, and his wife call Blaine home. Briscoe, a fourth-generation fisherman born and raised in Bellingham has operated commercial fishing vessels for over forty years in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California. “Being a maritime family, a part of the Blaine community and now Port Commissioner gives me a unique perspective. As the gateway to the Pacific Northwest, Blaine harbor and the local commercial fishing fleet are an integral part of this hard working picturesque seaside community.” click here to read the story 11:23
From Port to Plate: A journey of New Bedford’s most profitable product
Who knew that a silver dollar-sized scallop could provide such bang for a buck? As the most profitable item turned over in the most profitable port in the country, this milk-colored mollusk has almost been solely responsible for the re-birth of New Bedford’s working waterfront since the turn of the century. While other New England ports have shrunk or been gentrified from a working waterfront to high rise condos and upscale restaurants, New Bedford has thrived. OUT AT SEA- Captain Earl Chor Sr. described an early 12-day April trip to the Elephant Trunk Flex Access Area as “smooth” despite working around a few days of harsh weather.,, TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER- In the damp and hollowed display room of BASE there are dozens of tall cardboard bins filled with ice and bagged scallops, known as lots, lining the room.,, SPANNING THE GLOBE- click here to read this big story 08:51
Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival celebrates its working waterfront with Blessing of the Fleet
In a tradition that stretches back nearly 60 years, local fishermen gathered their fleet off Doran Spit on Sunday to receive a blessing for bountiful catches and safe returns. Skippers, aboard boats sporting colorful maritime decorations in their rigging, tuned their VHF radios to channel 09 and cranked up the volume so their crews, friends and family aboard could hear local clergy pray for them in the annual blessing of the fleet. “We praise you for the vast abundance of the sea,” said Pastor Neal Miller of the Fisherman’s Chapel in prayer. Miller was joined aboard the New Sea Angler by Pastor Jerry Lites of Bodega Bay Church and Father Gary Moore of the Diocese of Santa Rosa. After a few lean years, the Bodega Bay fleet is praying the Lord will manifest that abundance onto their hooks and into their crab pots. The blessing of the fleet, which has taken place every year since 1958, is appreciated by both captains and crew. 14 great images, click here to read the story 13:12
Vineyard Fishermen Warn of Ruin If Conch Rule Enacted
Martha’s Vineyard commercial fishermen spent more than two and a half hours Wednesday letting the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries know what they think of 18 proposed rule updates and new regulations. Some of the changes are minor tweaks to clarify existing rules, but others, if enacted, would affect the Vineyard’s fishing industry more significantly. Island speakers vehemently opposed a draft proposal to increase the minimum size of knobbed and channeled whelk, generally called conch, by three sixteenths of an inch in 2017. “That is a horrifying number,” said Tom Turner, a longtime Edgartown fisherman. “You’re guaranteeing the death of a fishery, and that would happen within two years of a three-sixteenth increase.” Continue reading the story here 15:16
The struggle to preserve Charleston’s ‘working waterfront’
In McClellanville, longtime commercial fishing businessman Rutledge Leland is mulling retirement from Carolina Seafoods and talking to the town’s cadre of shrimpers and other fishing professionals about forming a co-op along Jeremy Creek. In Mount Pleasant, town officials stepped in to moderate an intensifying feud among residents, recreational boaters, commercial fishing interests and others over just what to do about Shem Creek. The town formed an ad hoc committee from among them. At issue is whether the working waterfront can be saved. As those two towns suggest, the answer might just vary from spot to spot. Read the story here 07:59
South Carolina Working Waterfront: Rural attitude, commercial fishing still embraced in McClellanville
McClellanville stands apart from other working waterfronts in South Carolina in a couple of important ways. Its geographic isolation has helped maintain a rural attitude, and commercial fishing remains the economic driver for the community. These days, the town that got its start as a summer resort for plantation owners has the least touristy feel of South Carolina coastal communities. The small commercial section of the Jeremy Creek waterfront is dominated by two commercial docks—at Carolina Seafood and Livingston’s Bulls Bay Seafood. A public boat landing with limited parking spaces gets crowded on weekends and during the public shrimp-baiting season in the fall, but most of those boats head into the Intracoastal Waterway and leave the working waterfront behind. Read the rest of the story here 12:06
Is the Montauk Working Waterfront Threatened? Major Changes Waiting In Wings
For all the talk about how much Montauk has changed with the influx of wealthy part-timers, the planning consultants conducting the town’s hamlet studies say that what’s happened so far in the easternmost hamlet is a mere flicker of what is coming. And no place in Montauk has more potential for new development and large-scale redevelopment than the harbor area. Several large tracts of vacant commercial land—many of which are already for sale,,, Throughout the four days of charrettes—a semi free-form discussion between the development experts and residents common in long-term planning studies, the fishing industry’s root role in the Montauk harbor region was the anchor issue. Despite the upswell of surfing chic in recent years, the down-to-earth culture, economics and aesthetic of the fishing industry is Montauk’s defining characteristic and must be preserved, residents told the consultants repeatedly. “To lose the commercial fishing docks is to lose the essence of Montauk,” resident Andy Harris said. “The economic contribution of the commercial fishing industry in this town is incredible. They live in this town, they shop in this town, and they don’t go out to eat at restaurant groups that send the money back to New York City.” Read the story here 13:33
Working Waterfront: Are Morro Bay officials attempting to chip away at Measure D?
In 1981, Morro Bay fishermen Joe Giannini and Ed Ewing crafted Measure D to protect the local fishing industry. The measure sets aside the waterfront lease sites between Beach Street and Target Rock for uses “primarily for the purpose of serving or facilitating licensed commercial fishing activities or noncommercial recreational fishing activities, or is clearly incidental thereto.” Arguments in favor of the measure included: “This area is known throughout the world as the essence of Morro Bay, and its future should not be left to five council members subject to changing political pressures and self-interests. Measure D is short, direct, and easily understandable. The opponents know what it means and they fear it because it takes away their power to give financial favors to their friends.” Voters agreed and the measure passed and became part of the Morro Bay Municipal Code. It appeared that Giannini and Ewing had scored a major victory. Unfortunately, they hadn’t counted on opposition tactics that have been used repeatedly over the years. Read the story here 08:54
Working Waterfront: Gulf Seafood on county’s agenda today
The Monroe County Commission will take the first significant step today in purchasing the former Gulf Seafood commercial working waterfront on Stock Island. The commission will vote to accept a $2.2 million state grant that would go toward the roughly $7 million purchase of the waterfront property, which is currently home to about a dozen fishermen. The county set aside $5 million in sales tax revenue for the purchase more than a year ago. The project could accomplish the goal of protecting commercial fishing in an area that has seen a tremendous growth in waterfront hotels, resorts and upscale marinas recently, fishermen said. Lower Keys commercial fisherman Daniel Padron called the purchase “monumental” for protecting commercial fishing in the Lower Keys. Read the rest here 10:17
