Commercial Fishing boats as seen in New Bedford MA

Good morning, TGIF, and have a good day and weekend.

Today I will share a few photos of a selection of the commercial fishing boats here in New Bedford, MA.

Starting with the American Viking

The F/V American Viking is a 78.7-foot commercial scallop fishing vessel owned by Fleet Fisheries. Docked in New Bedford, Massachusetts, this bright red vessel (MMSI 368231750) measures about 29 meters long and operates out of the nation’s top-grossing commercial fishing port

The F/V Venture and F/V Vigilance are premier examples of modern commercial sea scallop draggers

Sea scallop draggers (or dredgers) operate by towing heavy, specialized steel frames equipped with collection bags along the ocean floor. This highly synchronized process combines heavy mechanical dragging with fast-paced manual labor

I was just thinking how do they do what they do so I looke dit up and found the following;

Outriggers or booms extend from the sides of the ship, and massive winches lower the steel dredges into the ocean The ship steams slowly at roughly 2.5 knots for 15 minutes to over an hour. As the dredge glides over the seabed, a flat steel cutting bar or a series of teeth "tickles" the surface to lift scallops into the collection bag

The hydraulic winches haul the heavy frames—often weighing over a ton when loaded—up to the deck. The bottom of the bag is released using a "club stick," dumping the entire pile of scallops, rocks, and debris onto the sorting deck

The crew works swiftly on deck to pick through the catch, tossing legal-sized sea scallops into baskets while shoveling stones and incidental catch back over the side into the ocean

Federal regulations prohibit vessels on extended trips from bringing scallops back to port in their shells. The crew manually opens each shell with a shucking knife, slicing out only the circular adductor muscle (the white meat we eat) and discarding the remaining shell and viscera back into the sea.

The harvested meats are thoroughly washed, packed into 50-pound cloth or muslin bags, and immediately buried in layers of fresh ice inside the ship's refrigerated hold to prevent spoilage

In this next photo, we have a mix of scallop boats, including the Osprey and some of the others are used to tow funnel-shaped trawl nets through the water column to catch groundfish like haddock, cod, and flounder

And to finish off another shot of the American Viking

And that’s all folks

unless stated otherwise all photos used in my posts are taken and owned by myself, if you wish to use any of my images please contact me.

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