Bawn and raised in New Bedford, the city’s Fisheries Development Officer Martin S. Manley has an attitude and way of looking at life common to most lifelong fishermen.
It’s an inscrutable something, as much a part of a fisherman’s persona as sun-burnished skin, cards-close-to-the-chest mindset and eyes that hint of offshore experiences a simple landlubber could never fathom.
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Despite retiring after 38 years at sea and spending the last 13 or so years “working the shore,” fishing is as rampant in Manley’s blood as ever. It’s just that now this passion is more focused on preserving fishing for future generations and negotiating the industry through a new way of doing business that includes preservation efforts, government regulation, and cleaning up a “bad rep.”
”This is a shocker, that we survived so long,” Manley said, remembering the early days of stock management in the early ’90s when it appeared the fishermen themselves were the truly endangered species.
But New Bedford fishermen have not only survived, they’ve thrived, giving the city back last year (1999) its lofty title “King of the Sea” and reclaiming its status as number one dollar value port in all the United States.
“It’s because the regulations are working,” Manley continued, with not a little bit of irony, since when the clamor of disagreement regarding specie shortages began he was one of the industry’s staunchest opponents. “I was a loudmouth against all these regulations,” he admitted, regulations like closed areas, larger mesh and ring sizes, and fewer days at sea.
But “by God it’s worked,” Manley repeated, and not only are stocks rejuvenating but less fish coming into port means higher prices for the fishermen, good old “supply and demand,” plain and simple.
In 1999, New Bedford’s seafood catch totaled $129.9 million, most of it coming from the port’s top-dollar species, the sea scallop. This $129.9 million is nearly 39 percent higher than the $93.5 million catch that the port brought in for 1998 and comes despite an overall 10 percent decline in landings in the Northeast.
Pound-wise New Bedford also topped the Northeast region with 86.1 million pounds in landings, a quantity that’s just 1.5 percent less than 1998. New Bedford also captured nearly a third of all the value landed among the region’s leading ports and half of the value generated in Massachusetts.
More than half of New Bedford’s catch value comes from scallops, $69.3 million. (Other species, primarily groundfish, include monkfish, winter flounder, ocean quahog and yellowtail flounder.)
The enthusiasm and vigor now running through New Bedford docks is palpable said Manley, who’s forecasting an even better season for the year 2000. “I’ll make a prediction. We’ll do $160 [million] next year,” he said, gazing out at the bobbing masts among the more than 200 slips outside his office at Pope’s Marina, the city-run facility built eight years ago by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management.
What’s happened these last couple of years to turn the port around from paranoia and doom and gloom to visions of prosperity and success? Manley said one part might be having a couple of good years on scallops, but a larger reason has probably been the fishermen’s ability to finally “acclimate” to this brave new world and work with legislators and scientists in trying to protect the stock.
It’s a far cry from the unthinking and nearly rapacious attitude of the ’80s, when the drive in fishing was to build new and bigger, with more horsepower, larger crews and more gear. “We were our own worst enemy,” Manley said.
This new-found open-mindedness definitely contributed to the success of the industry’s Fisheries Survival Fund, a scalloping group representing owners along the Northeast, in getting Congress to re-open certain Georges Bank beds last year that were abundant with large scallops.
An industry survey coupled with UMass Dartmouth research showed beds in Closed Area II were so plentiful with scallops it was feared they’d die off. National Marine Fisheries Service scientists “never realized there were that many scallops out there,” Manley said, talking quickly and authoritatively, passing off reports of these findings to his accomplished and much-touted secretary Mona to copy. “It’s not an easy subject, believe me.”
Three of Manley’s five sons are fishermen and one, Timothy, is a partner with his dad in the $1 million vessel Mary Anne, an 18-year-old scalloper named after Manley’s daughter. Of New Bedford’s approximately 230 boats between 90 and 100 are scallopers.
The younger breed of fishermen today are entrepreneurs in the truest sense, said Manley, 67, remembering buying his first boat for $45,000 and attributing his shock of silvery hair to that experience.
The American Dream lives on in New Bedford, he said, with most fisherman looking to some day own their own boat, the less motivated having been weeded out thanks to the same regulations that are saving the fishing stocks.
A few individuals in the port may own a half a dozen vessels but most are single owners, “a lot of young entrepreneurs” like Manley’s own sons looking to get into a good thing. “You ought to see the homes these guys have,” Manley said, proudly.
It’s estimated that New Bedford’s fishing industry, the city’s main industry, and its allied businesses support 3,600 workers and generate between $600 million and $800 million to the local economy. There used to be a lot of barrooms on the waterfront, but it’s been cleaned up, Manley said, and because this new crop of scallopers only get some 120 days at sea, compared to 240, 10 trips is about the size of it for a year.
That means it’s possible not only to have a family life but fishermen are eligible for unemployment as well. Even deckhands in the business are able to earn $50,000 a year, “so it’s not a bad living.”
According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, Point Judith was the Northeast region’s second leading port, landing $51.2 million and 72.5 million pounds and Portland, Maine came in third with $42.4 million and 55.5 million pounds. Among states, Maine came in first with a $323.8 million harvest and Massachusetts second, with $260 million and 198 million pounds. The Northeast region includes Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey, Rhode Island – which came in fifth – New York, Maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Delaware.
