Commercial fishing

NOAA regional administrator John Bullard tells WBSM News that shutting down Sector IX isn't about any kind of sanctions or punitive actions for Carlos Rafael's overfishing scheme, but rather for cleaning up the mess he left behind.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell says as many as 80 fishermen could be affected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's decision to withdraw the operations plan for Sector IX earlier this week and halt all groundfishing in that sector immediately.

UMass Dartmouth is gearing up to lead a five-year, $1 million initiative to examine how offshore wind farms can coexist with commercial fishing and other industries.

Our local fishermen have been working for 10 years under a fishing grounds rebuilding plan that is arbitrary and without any support or foundation in good science. There are so many conflicts with it. On Wednesday, the spotlight is on the fishermen paying for monitors that could likely put the fishermen out of business...

Some scientists believe that climate change is having a significant impact on New Bedford's number one industry, commercial fishing. Its thought that warmer water temperatures in the Atlantic is behind the drop off in cod stocks in the region, but Professor Kevin Stokesbury of the UMass School of Marine Science and Technology in New Bedford tells WBSM News, while cod is on the decline, other stock

It was sad news to hear the Working Waterfront Festival will become a biennial event. For 12 years, this unique attraction brought visibility to the commercial fishing industry and provided a the industry an opportunity to tell its story to the public...

Commercial fishing in New Bedford, past and present, will be the focus of a new Downtown attraction coming in 2016. The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center has been formed, and Laura Orleans of the Working Waterfront Festival has been named Executive Director...