The Working Waterfront Festival In The News
Fishing Facts
The fishing industry employees over 15,000 people in New England and 3,500 people in New Bedford, Fairhaven, Dartmouth and surrounding towns.
Seafood harvesting and processing contributes $5.5 billion to the New England economy and $850 million to our local economy.
Fish is a healthy food source. It is high in protein and low in fat. Harvested from the ocean, wild fish is free of the antibiotics, pesticides, preservatives and dyes found in many other foods.
Many people who work in the fishing industry are from families who have fished or done fishing related work for generations.
New England's fishing industry employs people from many ethnic communities.
Fishermen are conservationists.
They have designed and supported many measures to conserve the resource:
- Seasonal and year-round area closures
- Limited days at sea
- Fishing gear restrictions
- Minimum fish sizes
- Marine mammal protection
- Fishermen are now fishing under a TAC (Total Allowable Catch) on Georges Bank.
- A SAP (Special Access Program) is being used to regulate the haddock fishery. Fishermen now use a haddock separator trawl that separates haddock from other species thereby significantly reducing by-catch.
- US fishermen use the largest size mesh openings (6.5" for
groundfish) in the world; this allows juvenile fish to escape.
- Fishermen now attend 6 days of science and management seminars which teach them to better understand the science and management side of the industry.
These Regulations are working.
- Fish populations have tripled since 1995
- Scallop stocks are at 450 million pounds
Safety
The industry is committed to improving safety at sea:
- 755 fishermen have taken advantage of Phase I basic safety and survival training.
- 101 fishermen have completed Phase II which makes them a certified Drill Conductor able to conduct monthly safety drills on their boats.
