Fishing's revival stirs waterfront debate

NEW BEDFORD -- Long lamented as a declining industry, fishing is making a surprising comeback in this old whaling town, creating jobs and sparking new investment, but also reviving tensions along the waterfront.

With the size of the catch nearly doubling since 1999, and its value growing 35 percent to $176 million, New Bedford is the nation's top seafood port in terms of the dollar value of its catch. Fishing industry employment in the New Bedford area has nearly doubled to more than 1,300 since then, while more than 60 new fishing businesses, a 40 percent increase, have sprung up, according to the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

As a result, New Bedford's harbor is bursting at the seams, with dock space at such a premium that boats, lashed side by side, sometimes extend four and five deep from the piers. Warren Alexander, who in the last year added five vessels to his fleet of scallopers, said the scarce dock space has become so costly and inconvenient that he may relocate his 13-vessel fleet -- and about 70 jobs -- to Cape May, N.J. ''If we go," he said, ''we're not coming back."

New Bedford's crowded harbor shows that despite government's best efforts to find new industries to create jobs, economic growth can come from unexpected -- and often overlooked -- places. It also provides an example of the tricky balance development officials must strike between supporting traditional industries and attracting new ones to expand the local economic base.

Driving fishing's revival here is a rebound in fish stocks, particularly scallops, and fueling it is New Bedford's working waterfront. With condominiums and restaurants spreading across many other harbors, New Bedford's network of businesses, services, and facilities that support the fishing industry is attracting vessels from around the Northeast. A single scallop boat can pump as much as $1 million a year into the local economy, including payroll and spending on supplies, fuel, and maintenance, according to vessel owners.

Now, vessel owners and marine businesses complain that the city and state have spent millions in recent years to boost tourism, ferry service, and cargo operations, but just a fraction of that to upgrade fishing piers. Today, more than 300 boats -- 40 more than two years ago -- vie for fewer than 70 docking berths, according to the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission.

''We're the number one fishing port in the country," said Fred Osborn, president of the Port of New Bedford Business Alliance, a coalition of marine businesses, ''but you can't find a place to tie up your boat."

Few people, of course, expected fishing to make much of a comeback after falling on hard times in the last decade, battered by declining stocks and federal regulations limiting the catch. Even with the rebound, development specialists say, it makes sense to diversify the local economy because fishing remains vulnerable to the forces that drove its earlier decline.

City officials added that the expansion of the first of the harbor's five existing commercial fishing piers is under design, although funding for this first expansion, estimated at $5 million, remains a question. They're hoping for federal help, but they've yet to find federal programs that might provide some money.

Federal fishing regulations, which limit the time vessels can spend at sea, contribute to the harbor squeeze, since boats necessarily spend more time at dock.

''We know we need more berthing facilities, more [pier] utilities," said Matthew Thomas, New Bedford city solicitor, ''but nobody in Washington has bothered to create a box for fishing infrastructure."

New Bedford, one of the state's poorest communities, has long sought a spark for its economy. Over the years, city and state officials considered a variety of development schemes, from casino gambling to a waterfront aquarium, but nothing seemed to connect.

In the meantime, as federal regulations restricted the catch and forced many fishermen out of business, some species began to recover. Scallops, which account for about 60 percent of the value of New Bedford's catch, have made a particularly strong comeback, allowing previously closed beds to be reopened to fishing, according to industry specialists. Other species, such as haddock, also are rebounding.

As fishing does better in New Bedford, so do the industries that support it. New Bedford's seafood processors, for example, have boosted employment 23 percent to nearly 1,100 since 2001, according to state statistics. In a waterfront industrial park recently developed by the city and its redevelopment authority, four processors already have invested an estimated $15 million, and others are expected to invest millions more. Anticipated jobs: 300.

Another processor, Northern Pelagic Group, LLC, known as NORPEL, has expanded twice since opening a mackerel and herring plant in 2002. American Pride Seafoods, a unit of American Seafoods Group LLC of Seattle, has also invested heavily in the past few years, upgrading wharves, expanding processing, and boosting employment 25 percent, to more than 200.

''With the scallop resources, the waterfront location, a very good industrywide infrastructure, it makes it seamless for us to be in New Bedford," said John Cummings, president of American Pride Seafoods.

Overall, economists expect the fishing industry to continue to consolidate as federal rules limit the harvest and technology-driven productivity gains allow fewer boats to catch more fish. But New Bedford is benefiting from the consolidation as its working waterfront attracts fishing vessels from gentrifying harbors.

Madeleine Hall-Arber, an anthropologist who studies fishing communities at MIT's Sea Grant program, described New Bedford as a ''hub port" offering a depth of services few US ports can match. Most are lucky to have a few processors, a couple of gear shops, and a single fueling service; New Bedford has an estimated 75 processors, several dozen gear shops, and four fuel companies, along with two shipyards, two ice plants, and 10 engine shops.

Alexander, the owner of a 13-boat fleet, came here a decade ago from New Jersey with a single boat, and decided to stay because of the wide array of businesses that support commercial fishing. ''Everything you need is so accessible here," he said.

Still, the dock shortage is starting to outweigh advantages, Alexander said. His boats are scattered around the harbor, sometimes requiring a half day of travel for maintenance and service. At least in Cape May, to where he's considering returning, he can dock his fleet in one place, he said.

The competition for space is reviving the debate over the future of New Bedford's waterfront. And that debate is not only focusing on the condition of existing commercial piers, but also on one of the last developable waterfront parcels: the property once slated for the aquarium known as the Oceanarium. The project failed to win sufficient funding.

With a long stretch of shoreline available for dock space, commercial fishing interests worry they'll lose a valuable section of waterfront to a tourist attraction. City officials say they have no specific plans for the property, only that they want the future use of the parcel to be decided in a public process. Whatever gets developed, they added, it will remain consistent with the 2002 harbor plan, which seeks to maintain the working waterfront, but diversify it with compatible water-dependent activities.

So far, the approach appears to show promise. For example, ferry service to Martha's Vineyard, which began in June, transported about 75,000 passengers in its first six months, exceeding initial projections of about 65,000, according to the operator.

Rick Armstrong, executive secretary of the state Seaport Advisory Council, added that reviving New Bedford as a cargo center also holds promise. Not only are Northeast transportation officials developing a water route for East Coast freight, but modern cargo facilities also will make it more competitive to ship New Bedford seafood to world markets.

''You need all the infrastructure, and the fishing industry is just a segment," he said. ''There is a balancing act."

But Osborn, the owner of a marine electrical firm, said the balance is out of whack if vessel owners like Alexander are thinking of leaving. Recently, as he drove by the newly renovated state ferry pier, Osborn wondered why governments put so much effort and money into finding new job generators, instead of helping old ones, such as fishing. ''They're looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," he said, ''but the pot of gold's already here."