The Gloucester Times reported (Feb 28, 2019) on how UMass Amherst is helping boost Massachusets’s economic growth opportunities in the commercial fishing industry. The following is an excerpt.

The city of Gloucester, which received a $1 million grant to renovate its harbormaster offices and construct a new visiting boater center at that site, wasn’t the only Cape Ann beneficiary of the Seaport Economic Council’s largesse on Wednesday.

The University of Massachusetts system, which includes UMass Amherst’s Gloucester Marine Station at Hodgkins Cove, received a $276,854 grant from the council to identify economic growth opportunities for the Massachusetts commercial fishing industry. …

In awarding the grant, the Seaport Economic Council touted the UMass system’s ability to “leverage the diverse expertise and research capacity of its five campuses to take an innovative, multidisciplinary approach” in addressing habitat, fishery management, marketing and economic forces.

“In doing so, Massachusetts will be able to improve its fishing industry by both reinvigorating traditional components of the system, including diversifying catches and increasing consumption of locally caught fish,” the council stated in awarding the grant.

It said the grant will enable the UMass system to focus on emerging segments of the developing seafood system incubator, such as value-added products, waste recovery, fuel-efficient vessels, environmental restoration and other initiatives.

 

“Given the serious challenges facing our commercial fishing industry, it makes good sense to fully engage the expertise and research capabilities of UMass to help those who depend on fishing to chart a course not only to survival, but to sustainability and prosperity,” —state Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester

Read on: UMass awarded $277K to help fishing industry

 


Source: Environmental Conservation News