To the editor:
Reading the Fiesta coverage in Monday's paper (Times, June 22) caused me to do a double take.
In the story, Angela Sanfilippo was quoted as saying that the Fisherman's Wives had started the New Fish Festival.
Now let me say that I believe that the Fisherman's Wives is a great organization, and has done a lot to promote the fishing industry. But what is right is right — and the New Fish Festival was started by Fish-Aid Inc. in October 1986.
Here is a brief history for those not in the know.
In the summer of 1986, I was having a beer with my friend, David Brown. David was playing guitar at the time for Billy Joel and had just come back from playing at the national benefit Farm Aid. David wondered why something similar couldn't be done for the fishermen.
I then wrote a letter to the Times stating the same. It wasn't long before letters supporting the idea started flooding the paper.
To cut to the chase, a grass-roots organization was formed called Fish-Aid Inc. It was a non-profit corporation with a board of directors, officers and our own accountant, Frank McCarthy. Our primary goal was to promote the fishing industry, in particular underutilized fish species.
In 1986, as president of Fish-Aid Inc., I was invited to what was called a Trash Fish Banquet. It was sponsored by the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown. I sent board members Lisa Standish, Jeff Crawford, Tina Salah, Dave Vincent and Jane Gardner in my place to research the event, as we were in the planning stages to put on a similar event.
At our next board meeting, we discussed what they had seen and compared notes with our goals. We decided to have our event at Gloucester on a waterfront site owned by board member Jeff Crawford, and scheduled it for October.
We first had to come up with a name. Trash Fish did not seem very appetizing, but then somebody suggested "New Fish." It was a nice "hook," and made people ask what did we mean by "new fish," thus creating an interest and a buzz.
That first night, we had about 150 people. It was covered by WBZ-TV reporter Liz Gonzalez, and was the feature story on that night's 11 p.m. newscast. That newscast followed the Red Sox-Mets World Series game, which gave us a lot of publicity.
I was interviewed by Liz Gonzalez and the Gloucester Daily Times, and the next day we experienced a media blitz.
I would be happy to provide more info on the event for those interested or debate anyone who thinks the festival was started by anyone other than Fish-Aid Inc. We were fortunate that we had two board members, Grace Cottone and Rosalie Vitale who were members of the Fishermen's Wives Association. We even had the legendary Lena Novello join the festival in the second or third year.
We had great support from the fisherman themselves who provided us as much fish as we needed. The late Capt. Billy Crossen, Dean Decoste, and Sam Favorlora as well as John, Joe and Tommy Testeverde led the charge and got many more fisherman to help out.
This is the 24th year of the festival and its success should be credited to Mike Costello and the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, as well as Lenny Linquata and The Gloucester House, which hosted this year's festival last night.
I'm sure as we approach a quarter of a century the Fisherman's Wives will continue the success of the festival and I urge the public to continue to support this great event.
But make no mistake about it. The Gloucester New Fish Festival was started by one organization and one organization only. The grass roots organization, Fish-Aid Inc, now disbanded, started this great event and the hard-working people who started this event are the ones who should be properly credited with it.
Mick Verga
Gloucester
Founder, past president, Fish-Aid Inc.
