The Gulf of Maine Ocean Resource Alliance Inc is a Massachusetts non-profit corporation formed by and for New England family fishermen who seek a way to continue fishing. support their families, and assure the continued health and abundance of fish stocks in the Gulf of Maine.
Our founder is Captain Sam Novello whose family has fished out of Gloucester MA for four generations. Sam considers himself an environmentalist. As he says, “Who wants to see fish continue to survive more than fishermen?”
Sam believes that the number of boats like his still fishing in the Gulf of Maine has dwindled to the point that they are no longer a threat to fish species. Instead, the threat is that these remaining boats will be driven out of business by quotas, regulations, and penalties that are out of sync with the increasing quantities of fish they are seeing. Once they are gone, Their communities will no longer exist either – at least, not as the historic centers of fishing they once were.
Sam wants the Alliance to bring together fishermen, scientists, environmentalists, and regulators to establish an experimental conservatory for sustainable fishing in the Western Gulf of Maine in which fishermen are guaranteed survival, gear and techniques are limited to assure survival of the fish, and comprehensive, detailed data are collected on the actual condition of stocks in the area to aid in more intelligent management of the fisheries.
“This should not be a hard thing to do,” Sam says, “because everyone agrees that it is what we are all working toward. But it has to start now, because the fishermen won’t be here in another five years if we don’t.”