Imagine yourself on the widow's walk of a gracious New England home overlooking New Bedford harbor. More than a hundred years ago, a captain's wife stood here, watching for the first sign of her husband's whaler. When the maintop hove into view, riding beneath was a full ship, heavy with products of her labor. For New Bedford was a leader, capital of the whaling trade.
The whalers are now gone, but from your vantage point, you can still see a bustling harbor. Today's boats are powerful, modern trawlers, and the quarry has changed, but some things have not changed: New Bedford is still a leading player with the most valuable landings on the entire Atlantic Coast. The reason for this value is the emphasis New Bedford fishermen place on quality. They seek only the best from the sea: flounder, cod fish, haddock, sea scallops and more. Each day boats return to dockside to land their catch. Then the processors take over, determined to protect the fine quality of this harvest.
New Bedford has introduced more and more Americans to the delicious taste and dietary delights of fresh seafood. This southern New England City is homeport to the largest commercial fishing fleet on the East Coast of America, in which over 250 vessels and 2,000 fishermen call home. For most of this century, local fishermen have built up a solid reputation for their ability to land only the best in seafood from the rich Atlantic waters. Today's commercial fishermen carry on the unique New Bedford tradition of living and working off the sea, much like the seafarers of the mighty whaling days.
The city docks, located within the eastern parameter of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, continue to be a busy area where beautifully crafted wooden deep-sea scallop boats are tied side by side with modern steel-hulled ground fish vessels. During most daylight hours, fishermen who are in port are busy at dockside repairing their nets and a variety of deck equipment. If they are ready to head to sea they would on-load chipped ice used to keep their catches fresh or deliver box after box of grocery (grub) supplies on board. You might even witness the special emotions from family members departing their farewell's to the loved one's trip out to sea or the happy greetings as the boat returns from fishing.
But as you may have heard from widespread media accounts, present day fishermen are facing many new and serious challenges to ply their trade as harvesters of the sea. They are working with a wide range of fishing conservation measures imposed by the federal government to help rebuild fish stocks to sustainable yields for the benefit of future generations. These rules include limits on how many days they are allowed to fish as well as certain fishing ground closures and gear restrictions. Fishermen find these days to be trying times each day they set sail miles off the New England coast to harvest sea scallops, ground fish, shell fish and lobsters.
The fishing fleet built up dramatically over the entire 20th century. It wasn't too long following the demise of the mighty New Bedford whaling industry that local seafarers continued on the tradition of harvesting from the sea. In the 1920's and 1930's, fishermen didn't need to go far to catch fish, plentiful in local waters in and around Cape Cod and the Islands. A wave of Norwegian and Newfoundlanders arrived in the 30's and 40's to build larger vessels and develop better gear innovations which enabled them to steam further out to sea in search of more fish varieties. The then-underutilized fish species, such as the sea scallop was harvested, landed, promoted and marketed to the point of becoming the most valued product landed in the 1960's to the present day.
The fleet was officially industrialized during the 60's, thanks to aggressive marketing campaigns and better seafood processing and delivery techniques. At the same time, a large wave of Portuguese immigration and government economic loan programs fueled the dramatic development of the ground fishing fleet. Fishermen from New Bedford landed the top spot in the nation as the richest port for seafood landed in the 1980's. Today, over 100,000 pounds of sea scallops, lobsters, cod fish, haddock, flounders and a wide variety of lesser known fish species continue to land daily.
When you plan to visit New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park you may not see Captain Ahab or Queequeg from the Herman Melville's Moby-Dick whaling days strolling the wharf, but you'll still see hard working captains, mates, fishermen, welders, shipyard workers, grub deliveries, all busy readying their vessels for the next trip out.
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