New Bedford Massachusetts

Working Waterfront Festival

The Working Waterfront Festival takes place in New Bedford, America's largest commercial fishing port. This event showcases commercial fishing, America's oldest industry. The Working Waterfront Festival is held. The festival includes New England seafood as well as exhibits on the culture and traditions of the commercial fishing industry.

The Working Waterfront Festival is a project of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern MA, a non-profit organization. The FREE festival, a family friendly, educational celebration of New England's commercial fishing industry, features live maritime and ethnic music, fishermen's contests, fresh seafood, vessel tours, author readings, cooking demonstrations, kid's activities and more.

For more information visit www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org.

New Bedford Whaling Museum

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is the largest museum in America devoted to the history of the American whaling industry and its greatest port. Through exhibits, publications, and programs, the Museum brings to life the whaling era and the history of the local area. It houses the most extensive collection of art, artifacts, and manuscripts pertaining to American whaling in the age of sail.

New Bedford Art Museum

Since 1996, the New Bedford Art Museum has been a fixture in downtown New Bedford, offering engaging exhibitions of artwork from around the corner and across the ocean.

Waterfront Visitor Center

The Wharfinger building served as the auction house for the New Bedford fishing industry for many years. The building was also used as the harbormaster's office before being converted into the waterfront visitor center and the New Bedford Office of Tourism in 1994.
The building is located within The New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park at the foot of Pier 3 on the New Bedford waterfront.

Whaleman's Memorial

The inscription on this large bronze and granite statue reads "A Dead Whale or a Stove Boat;" The statue, which depicts a harpooner shown at the bow of a whaleboat, pays tribute to the whalers of the world's oceans.

New Bedford, Massachusetts is among the top US ports in terms of volume and dollar value of seafood.

According to NOAA's annual report on Fisheries of the United States, for calendar year 2009, New Bedford, Massachusetts remains #1 in value and is #8 in volume.

New Bedford has held the top US port for value of landings for a decade.

New Bedford brought in $249.2 million in 2009, an increase of $7.9 million over the previous year. The amount of fish landed was up by 23.6 million pounds, with scallops responsible for a large part of the high value.

In 2008, the port of New Bedford, Massachusetts claimed the top spot for value of landings primarily due to sea scallops, bringing in $241.3 million. The port had landings valued at more than $280 million for 2006.

Seafood landed in the port of New Bedford includes sea scallops, lobsters, crabs, surf clams and several species of groundfish. Officials at the port of New Bedford report a steady rise in the number of boats and docking there. In 2007, the port saw the arrival of 100 new boats and the port is planning significant expansion and investment in infrastructure.

The American sea scallop fishery is vital to New Bedford. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, scallop landings in the USA totaled more than 50 million pounds, making the Atlantic sea scallop fishery the world's largest scallop fishery by market value. A large portion of the nation's sea scallop harvests are landed in New Bedford. Commercial scalloping is conducted year round, primarily using New Bedford style dredges. Sea scallops are shucked on board and kept on ice until boats land their catch. Important markets include the USA and European Union members.

Visitors to New Bedford will find some of the nation's finest seafood, including fresh from the boat American lobster, coldwater shrimp, scallops, clams, oysters, cod, haddock, pollock, hake, whiting, flounder, monkfish, scup, swordfish and other seafood.