New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center To Interview Shore-Side Workers

Interviews will begin this fall in New Bedford with workers in shore-side industries that support commercial fishing.

The work is being done by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, on behalf of the Library of Congress which is funding the project.

Heritage Center Director Laura Orleans says her team expects to begin interviews in the fall. "We will transcribe everything that we do in terms of interviews and log all of the photographs. All of those things will become part of the Library of Congress and be part of a collection called "Workers On The New Bedford Waterfront," said Orleans.

Orleans says the Library of Congress wants oral histories about professions that are rarely documented like fish processing, marine electronics, workers on fuel barges, and makers of fishing gear.

She says the information gathered will also be invaluable for the Fishing Heritage Center in New Bedford.