The following letter to the editor was published in the June 19th Gloucester Daily Times

Residents of this port may be unaware that we recently celebrated another successful Gloucester fishing event – scallop season.  This Spring derby-style fishery has been taking place for over two decades and provides a meaningful boost to the kick-off of the summer fishing season.

The results this year are noteworthy.   In April, there were more than 100 scallop boats in our harbor, according to Gloucester Harbormaster Chris Lucido. Under the Northern Gulf of Maine scalloping regulations, each boat is allowed to harvest as much as 200 lbs. per day. Boats from the northern tip of Maine to the southern shores of Rhode Island called the Gulf of Maine their backyard and Gloucester their home port.

There were 207 vessels that actively participated in this year’s scallop season, averaging 165 trips per day. Many of the vessels making the total 2,325 trips were smaller day-trip lobstering and fishing vessels, outfitted in April for scalloping.

Of the 442,247 pounds landed, 64% of the total (284,189 pounds) went to Gloucester. The total value in Gloucester? $8,511,155 at last count, according to the New England Fishery Management Council.

They were delivered shucked and ready to be sold to local companies such as Fisherman’s Wharf, Cape Ann Lobster, Capt. Joe and Sons, Intershell, Turner’s Seafood, North Atlantic Pacific Seafood (NAPS) and other buyers.

The dollars delivered to the docks on Rogers Street, Commercial Street and East Main Street didn’t stop there. The City benefitted from 18 mooring reservations for the entire month of April, typically a quiet month.  Fishers could be seen all over town from Cape Ann Marina and Rockport Inn & Suites to Market Basket and Dollar Store, Rose’s Marine and Rocky Neck Railways, and local eateries and beverage dispensers.  Using an economic multiplier of 3X, we can estimate that some $25 million in economic value may have been added to America’s oldest seaport.

While the great tradition of “fishing out of Gloucester” continues, albeit with a much smaller groundfishing fleet, the scallop seasonal fishery reminds us that Gloucester is – and can continue to be – an ocean hub that offers processing, branding, and supply chain access and distribution through Logan Airport as well as the northeast. For every seafood, there is a season.

Tom Balf

On behalf of the Gloucester Economic Development and Industrial Corporation (EDIC)