New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center 9-28-2025

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That's right. Joe, which there's a presentation there, a free presentation. Why don't you tell us about it? Yeah. So we're very lucky on this coming AHA Night to be joined by local artist Michael Medeiros. Mike is going to be stopping by the center to talk about his new art installation that just opened on the south end of New Bedford called the Crystals of Guanine. And what it is, is it's a piece that sort of celebrates the history of New Bedford's maritime heritage, and also highlights the important impact that the commercial scallop fishery has had for the port of New Bedford throughout the years. So Mike, before he was an artist, as a young man, he is a native of New Bedford, and he actually worked on a bay scallop seeding barge off Sconicket Neck when he was younger. So he's kind of lived and breathed the commercial fishing industry, and that has gone on to inspire his artwork. So he's going to be talking a little bit about the inspiration and the installation process of that artwork. And he's also going to be doing a little bit of an artist's demo. So if you are interested in getting involved in some hands-on art, he's going to be showing how he actually created several of the scallop motifs that are along this piece of artwork, and allowing members of the public, if they so choose, to press their own clay scallops using a mold that he created for this piece of art. So that event's going to be at 6 p.m. That's when it's kicking off on October 9th, and it'll go until about 7 30 p.m. And of course, admission is free to the Fishing Heritage Center starting at 4 p.m. for AHA night. So it's a great opportunity, whether you're an old friend or if this is your first time coming to the Center, a great opportunity to check out a great free event, meet a great local artist, and check out all of our wonderful exhibits that are on display at the Fishing Heritage Center. Can you talk about some of the things that are coming up? I do want to mention your film screenings, which are resuming. That's right. The Heritage Center screens fishing-related films from October to April. I think it's through April. That's correct. And you take a break for the summer, and you come back once again. So this month, or coming month in October, there will be a new film. So tell us about the film in October. Yeah, so this is a film screening series. We call it Documentary. That's D-O-C-K. And this is a partnership program with the New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park. We're coming up, I think, on 19 years of collaborating on all of our programs and events. And we're really lucky to partner with them, not only because they're great folks over there, but they also allow us to use their 50-seat auditorium theater, which I will tell you have much more comfortable seats than we have over at the Fishing Heritage Center. So we're very pleased for that partnership. And of course, I always look forward to the film screenings we do. They're always one of my favorite programs that I schedule. So in October, we're going to be screening an old film. It's going to be a throwback film. It's called The Pearl of the Atlantic, which was produced right here in New Bedford by the New Bedford Seafood Council in 1963. And essentially what it is, is it's a film, kind of a nice little retro film that showcases the Atlantic scallop fishery and talks a little bit about the boat-to-table process. So how the scallops get from the Atlantic Ocean, from fishing vessels right here from New Bedford, through the auction to the seafood processing plants, and then on to seafood markets and restaurants around the country. Now the interesting thing about this film, Jim, was it was part of a larger marketing campaign. By the Seafood Council in New Bedford to promote the seafood industry and more specifically, promote scallops as a whole. Believe it or not, it boggles my mind to be in, you know, number one fishing port in the nation, where scallops are our main business here. The king. It is. But believe it or not, back in the 50s and 60s, they struggled to find a market for those. And scallops were so cheap, in fact, that they were selling them to schools. They were serving them in school cafeterias. They were selling them to hospitals. They couldn't get rid of them fast enough. Not the case today. Not the case today, certainly. And so organizations like the Seafood Council, like the Seafood Dealers Association, and the New Bedford Seafood Co-op all kind of came together with members of the seafood industry to promote the industry here. So we have these wonderful artifacts of that time, like the Pearl of the Atlantic. And we also have things like the New Bedford Scallop Festival that was hosted for the first time in 1958, ran through the end of the 60s. And in fact, this film that we're doing is a tie-in with one of our ongoing exhibits that we have at the Center called Ceremonies and Celebrations, which takes a look back at some festivals that were held here in New Bedford, including the New Bedford Scallop Festival. So I encourage you to come watch the film. That's going to be on Friday, October 17th. And then if you like what you see there, come by the Fishing Heritage Center and explore that exhibit. Learn a little bit more about the Scallop Festival and that marketing campaign. Has the process of scalloping changed much from 1963 to 2025? In other words, on the vessels themselves, the same process really goes on. They shuck out the scallop, put it on ice, get it to an auction, I guess, and sell it. Yeah, that's right. That process, by and large, is still the same now. Obviously, of course, as we know, the fishing industry, the biggest change that we've seen over the course of decades here, of course, is the regulation of that, in one way set up to protect the environment and the fishery, make it more sustainable. But that has changed the nature of the business a little bit, specifically on the number of days that fishermen have out at sea to collect the scallops, where they can go to harvest the scallops, and even the number of people they have on board. So I think today it's set with about seven crew members that you can have on board a scallop fishing vessel. Before that, during the time when this documentary was filmed, I think they were going with as many as 10 or 12 guys on board a vessel. I think you're right. I think you're right. Any word about the screening in November? Yes, certainly, certainly. So we're going to be very lucky to be joined by a couple of filmmakers for that screening. So that screening will be on November 21st, that's a Friday. And at 7pm, we're going to be joined by two veteran storytellers and filmmakers, Caroline Losnek and Christoph Gelfand. And what they're going to be doing is introducing two of their short films that they have made about the maritime world here on the East Coast. And then they'll be sticking around after those two films to do a Q&A with the audience. So you'll have a chance to learn a little bit about their creative process, the work that went into creating these films, and ask any other questions that you like. So they're going to be showing—the first film is called Diving for Scallops, which is a short documentary they made, which was actually featured in the New York Times a couple of years ago. And the film profiles a fisherman up in Maine who practices kind of a fading craft, which is diving for sea scallops on the ocean floor. So they're going to talk about his life, his background in the industry, and how he goes about this kind of unique method that we don't see a lot here in New England and in the United States. They're also going to be showing one of their short films that's taken a look back at some more maritime history in New England. It's called Keeper, and it's a short documentary film about the life and mythology of lighthouse keepers, past and present. So I think that one, again, is kind of situated, localized, kind of in Maine, again, which is where certainly Caroline Lossnack is based herself. She's a documentarian, radio podcast producer, and filmmaker. So you've seen her, you've heard her work in the New York Times, you've heard her work in National Public Radio. And in fact, she recently just covered one of our events on National Public Radio. She talked about the scallop-losing-shucking contest back in August, which is how we met, and how she told me a little bit about her films and her filmmaking. And I knew we just wanted to include her this year in the process. Speaking of the scallop-losing-shucking, it was the picture's big success. Humongous success. Yeah, we were blown away, Jim, by the amount of people who showed up. I think we estimated about 500 people throughout the night came to watch the event, came to learn about the industry, and check out what we have to offer at the Fishing Heritage Center. So it was an incredible night of music, of seafood, of camaraderie, and of course, of competition, too. We had a number of scallopers competing for the title, and it certainly became quite a rowdy competition at the end. I do want to point out, too, because otherwise my boss will kill me when I get back, if I don't give a special shout out to all of the wonderful donors and supporters from that event. We had over 70 fishing vessels from the Port of New Bedford who came out and sponsored and gave money for that event to happen. So we asked the fishing industry for their support, and they showed up big time. I specifically want to call out a lovely group of people at the Sustainable Scalloping Fund. They really helped from the initial thoughts and planning of this event all the way to staffing it and volunteering their time to help make this happen this year. I also want to give a shout out to the Atlantic Shellfish Company on the Fairhaven side of the dock, and the fishing vessel Amber Nicole, who donated the scallops both for the competition itself, as well as scallops that were actually fried up and served in one of the food trucks here. So we literally could not have done it without the support of the industry. Sounds like a keeper, Joe. It was incredible. I think people would be furious if we didn't offer this in some way again, so keep an eye out. 2026, Scalloppalooza. We're thinking about it. All right, you're listening to Town Square Sunday. I'm Jim Phillips, my guest Joe Ritter from the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center. Their big fundraiser, Seafood Soiree, was held in September, and big success, good success. All told, really big success. Again, we love our seafood, Jim, so another big night of music, but most importantly, seafood. We had 18 chefs from around the area cooking up their signature seafood dishes. So we had scallops, we had monkfish, we had crab, we had locally grown cultivated oysters, we had fluke and flounder and haddock, even some skates, so some new things on the menu. We had a lot of returning chefs, which is always great to people like the folks from Turk Seafood and our friends at New Bedford Vocational School, whose culinary instructor, Henry Bousquet, always comes and makes a wonderful dish. Then we had a number of new chefs this year, too. Places like Destination Soups came and made a great chowder. Magic Kitchen in New Bedford cooked up some wonderful jambalaya, our seafood jambalaya for the night. Again, we're blessed at the Fishing Heritage Center with a number of wonderful sponsors and corporate members who really do help us put on events like that. First and foremost is the gang over at Cisco New Bedford and Served Well Hospitality as a whole. They donate the space, the venue, over at Cisco, and they donate the drink tickets as well. So if it wasn't for them and the hardworking staff over there, this event would look a lot different than it does. What an incredible atmosphere and ambiance for that event right down at the water at Cisco. So give them some love. Go patronize their business. Hauling Back is the name of an exhibit at the Fishing Heritage Center highlighting fishing families and their history, their legacy in New Bedford. Who are you centering on in October? In October, we are going to be doing a family you might have heard of. They're pretty well known here in New Bedford. We're going to be looking at the Bendixson family. The patriarch of that family is Radar Bendixson, who's been a staple here in the New Bedford fishing industry since the 1960s. He came here from Norway with his family to fish, which he did for many years. Then he came ashore and worked and began Radar's trawl and gear manufacturing shop in New Bedford and Fairhaven for a little while, where they continue to be innovators for the ground fishing industry and the scallop industry as well. So we're going to be taking a look at Radar, his wife Kirsten, as well as their children Tor, Hans, and Tova, all of whom have been involved in the industry but have been key supporters as well of the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center and its precursor, the Working Waterfront Festival. So we're hoping to open that by the time of our October AHA night. So while you're there checking out our AHA night, you'll be able to check out this new exhibit about the Bendixsons as well. You can find more information about all of the families we've talked about so far. This will be exhibit number six, I believe. You can learn more about all of the other families and see more, read more about their interviews, look at photographs on our website, fishingheritagecenter.org. A quick mention, November, you have that family picked out yet? For November, no. That one we're still working on. So check back soon. School programs, a quick mention. If you are a teacher of what grades? Any grade. Any grade. We'll work with you. You're a teacher with students who are interested or interested in maritime industries and fishing industries and habitats and all of that, safety, what goes into making a fishing trip. You can learn a lot at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center and people can now register. Is that right? That's right. Right through our website, fishingheritagecenter.org. So we offer a number of standards-based educational programs and activities for kids of all age, whether you are a young tyke or you are a fisherman in training, coming out of high school or in college. We hope to provide some programs that cover all sorts of topics from history to science and technology, even to art and talking about, again, the boat-to-table process, how your seafood gets from boat to table. So you can do stuff in our exhibit space and learn a little bit more about the history and transition of the fleet and the shoreside businesses. You also have the opportunity to engage with members of the fishing community, talk with active fishermen on the waterfront, and take a tour of the New Bedford's Working Waterfront as well, which are also great opportunities. October 18th, Ball Festival. That's right. New Bedford, Inc. is sponsoring today. Activity, I believe it's Saturday. Yeah, what's going to be happening there? You're going to be open. We're going to be open and the best news is we're going to be open for free in the afternoon as part of these kind of ongoing downtown festivals. So from 12 to 4, you can stop by the Fishing Heritage Center to check out all of our exhibits for free. The best part is, too, my favorite thing about this is that Indie Fall Fest tends to be a Halloween-themed event. So there's usually a nice Halloween costume parade that's going on, probably be on Union Street again. So come check out, bring your costumes. We might also have some candy up for grabs for some lucky trick-or-treaters. Yes. All right. Joe Ritter has been my guest, New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center. He's the program's director there. And Joe, thank you very much for coming in. A little bit of a short notice thing here today, but I really appreciate it. You've always got some great stuff going on. Thank you, Jim. All right. So that's it for Town Square Sunday. Thanks for listening. Thanks also to Mike Roberts and Tim Weissberg for their help in getting this program on the air and in our various social media sites. I'm Jim Phillips. Join us again next week for Town Square Sunday. Until then, have a great week and a wonderful Sunday. Thank you.