Last month, NOAA reported that the value of seafood landed in Gloucester was the highest of the past 30 years, at $54.2 million, and more pounds were landed than in any year since 1990.
These landings and revenue numbers tell an important story for Gloucester and other fishing communities.
We often think of measuring the health of the fishery by how much seafood is landed. However, the value of the landings to the port of Gloucester is not only a matter of pounds. It is also a matter of price and which species dominate the landings.
At least 63 seafood species were landed in Gloucester in 2008, compared with 41 in 1980, the high years for pounds landed. These species include crabs, clams and hagfish — a fish used for food and leather goods that was not harvested here in 1980. Also, Gloucester took in nearly 20 times the lobster it did in 1980, adding $8.6 million to 2008 revenues.
Bottom line: the more diverse the Gloucester fleet becomes, the stronger and more resilient it will be as business and stock conditions change.
That's been the case over the past 100 years as the fishery adapted from sail to steam to diesel-powered boats; from salt to ice for preserving; and from brokers to auction to direct fresh sales and a combination of marketing to ensure the best value at the best prices.
The port of Gloucester has other things going for it right now.
There are improvements in fish stocks that are recovering from hard fishing and depletions that stretch back to the 1960s. Conditions are better now for many Northeastern fish stocks than they have been at any time in the past 30 years — including haddock, sea scallops, redfish, and cod in the Gulf of Maine. That's a testament to fishery management and the hard choices people in the fishing industry have made on their own behalf through the fishery management councils.
Gloucester is also one of the region's few full-service ports, regularly attracting business and landings not only from local vessels but also from those home-ported elsewhere. This is reflected in the increasing share of regional fish landings that are made in Gloucester. Like other ports designated under the state's Public Waterfront Act, Gloucester's maritime industrial activities and supporting industries are protected by statute, an important safety net that few other states provide to shelter working waterfronts from other kinds of uses.
Looking over the past 30 years of change, and especially the improvements of the past decade, I am optimistic for the future and am confident that Gloucester and those working in its fisheries have the courage and leadership to move toward a strong future.
I welcome your comments. Please send them to me at public.concerns.groundfish@noaa.gov.
Dr. Jim Balsiger is acting assistant administrator for NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.
