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When the F/V Saints and Angels needed to unload heavy equipment in early August, its crew docked at Pier 3 in the New Bedford Harbor like it always had.
But this time, the police showed up, Tony Alvernaz, the boat’s co-owner, told The Light.
“You can’t tie here, you can’t tie here,” Alvernaz said the police told him. “I says, ‘I’m paying over $40,000 to the City of New Bedford. I’m gonna tie up here for 5, 10 minutes.’”
It’s the second time Alvernaz has gotten the police called on him for tying up at the dock since city officials closed part of Pier 3 in May, padlocking the cleats that can hold at least six vessels — usually more.
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The prohibition against docking is a product of an agreement brokered to keep American Cruise Lines tours coming to New Bedford. The agreement, which city and downtown business leaders have said brings in considerable revenue, was in limbo last year after state officials shuttered State Pier — the company’s original docking spot.
To the fishermen, the scuffle reflects a broader tension playing out at the waterfront. With most of New Bedford State Pier closed due to deteriorating infrastructure, and repairs years away, who will the new harbor serve, and how much room will there be for the historic industry that attracts tourists to New Bedford in the first place?
For John Verissimo, a fishery consultant, advocate and former fisherman, the answer lies with the bright yellow “No Berthing” cleat covers stretched across Pier 3.
“If they can just take something that easy, they can take all these f—ing piers,” Verissimo told The Light. “That is a concern.”
Weighing anchor
Amanda McMullen first learned that American Cruise Lines would not dock in New Bedford from a news article last October. The New Bedford Whaling Museum president and CEO was shocked; last she heard, the cruise company had planned to increase the number of stops it makes in New Bedford for the 2026 season, from roughly 50 stops to over 60.
“It came out of nowhere,” McMullen said. “Because leading up to it, the conversations had actually always been really good.”
The cruises’ departure would’ve spelled a $50,000 loss for the Whaling Museum, which contracts with American Cruise Lines to provide group tours.
That’s not a catastrophic loss for the museum’s $6 million operating budget, McMullen acknowledged, but the roughly 3,000 visitors the cruises bring in each summer are much more consequential for other downtown businesses.
For New Bedford’s Fishing Heritage Center, the $30,000 the center receives from American Cruise Lines makes up “a big chunk” of its annual revenue, director Laura Orleans said. Their seasonal contract includes harbor tours and “boat to table” fishing demonstrations led by working or retired fishermen.
A group of seven downtown business owners and cultural organization heads, including McMullen and Orleans, sent Mayor Jon Mitchell a letter last February urging the city to enter negotiations with American Cruise Lines to return to New Bedford. The letter estimated that tourism from the cruise stops amounted to $200,000 in direct revenue to the city’s businesses and cultural institutions.
Cruise tourists who visit the city serve as “enthusiastic ambassadors” of the historic port’s charm, say McMullen and Orleans, boosting New Bedford’s reputation as a cultural destination. Ironically, tourists often cite the city’s active, working waterfront as its greatest charm, they said.
“People are just so excited to meet a fisherman, to get to know something about the community that they’re stopping in, to have an authentic experience,” Orleans said.
In April, the city and Port Authority jointly announced a new agreement to allow American Cruise Lines to dock at the city’s Pier 3, home to a number of slips, Acushnet Creamery, and several restaurants owned and operated by Servedwell Hospitality. (Steve Silverstein, who owns Servedwell Hospitality, also signed the letter to the mayor.)
McMullen said downtown business owners were not in contact with fishermen during these talks, trusting the city and Port Authority to connect with all affected parties. Orleans said in her talks with American Cruise Lines executives, the company was averse to displacing the local fishermen that feature so heavily in the cruise lines’ New Bedford programming.
American Cruise Lines did not respond to requests for comment.
‘Exclusive’ docking privileges
City and Port Authority officials, including the mayor and Port Authority Executive Director Gordon Carr, “held discussions with maritime stakeholders on the waterfront in searching for a new location” for the cruise ship, according to an April press release.
But none of those early discussions included affected fishermen. Carr said port officials evaluated potential locations based on vessel size, safe berthing requirements, and other safety factors.
“None of those factors would involve or require input from fishing vessel owners or captains,” Carr said.
Carr said in a statement to The Light that after port officials made the agreement with ACL, they notified six fishing vessels docked at Pier 3 that they would need to relocate. He added that two boats tied to the pier were found to be inoperable. Port Authority officials have used cleat locks on other parts of the waterfront for construction and dredging projects, Carr said.
“This is a complicated, busy place and things get moved around often,” Carr said in a later phone interview.
Commercial fishermen pay an annual docking fee proportional to the length of their vessel, but dock space is first come, first serve, so even paying vessels aren’t guaranteed a spot, he added.
Port Authority officials granted exclusive berthing rights of Pier 3 to ACL from early May until late October for a flat rate of $45,000, the agreement obtained by The Light shows.
That covers up to 30 visits by the cruise ship and a stipulation for more, requiring ACL to pay an additional fee based on how big its vessels are.
The contract also leaves the door open to an extension. If Port Authority and ACL officials agree to a renewal, they’ll meet two weeks before the end of the cruise season to “immediately discuss” a contract for next year, according to the agreement.
“I was never notified once. The Port Authority, nobody called me, nothing. If I hadn’t gone down there … I would have never known.”
ACL vessels aren’t docking every day, according to the agreement’s schedule. The boats may not make each landing, due to weather, Carr told The Light in an email. Some fishermen wondered why they couldn’t dock when the pier wasn’t in use.
The April press release from the Port Authority said ACL’s use of Pier 3 would “require the relocation of 6-8 fishing boats… to other locations in the harbor,” and that the Port Authority staff would “work with those captains to identify new berthing options.”
Port Authority officials placed electronic signage on the pier in mid-May informing vessels tied there of the impending “No Berthing” order, Carr told The Light in an email. Those boats were moved before the first cruise came to dock on May 24, he said, “and as far as we know found alternate locations without any issues or difficulty.”
Tom Terra’s been tying up the F/V Miss Maegan, a 70-foot clammer, to Pier 3 for 15 years, he told The Light. While checking on the boat one night, Terra found out he’d have to move her somewhere else from signs posted on the pier — and a police officer warning, “they’ll tow you out of here,” he said.
“I was never notified once. The Port Authority, nobody called me, nothing,” Terra said. “If I hadn’t gone down there… I would have never known.”
The Light reached out to Mitchell for comment on complaints from displaced fishermen and how the “No Berthing” order is enforced. Mitchell declined to provide a statement to The Light, deferring instead to the Port Authority.
‘Who’s to say this pier ain’t next?’
One day in mid-August off Cement Pier, an often cramped dock just south of Pier 3, outriggers of two fishing boats tangled together while captains and crews were shuffling them for maintenance. This can happen when the boats are stacked three deep to a slip, Alvernaz said.
The ordeal lasted close to an hour, adding to the hours already spent trying to move the boat closer to the dock.
But that’s the current reality for fishermen, Verissimo said. If they’re not trying to track down other boat captains and fishermen to help move vessels, they’re steaming around the harbor trying to find room to dock.
Carr said the six displaced vessels were a drop in the bucket for New Bedford’s 500-boat fishing fleet. But Pier 3 can easily hold a dozen boats in the summer, fishermen say, and the port is down three docks in total. With Leonard’s Wharf closed for repairs, State Pier partially shuttered, and ACL’s exclusive use of Pier 3, where do the boats go?
One new dockage area, opened near the New Bedford Welding Company on the northern end of the waterfront, has some space, but it may not be enough.
“See all these boats? No spots,” Joe Oliveira, who runs a painting business, told The Light while working on boats at the new pier. “They keep moving, moving, moving.”
Oliveira said it’s hard for his crews to do maintenance when the boats are spread out across the waterfront. Ultimately, “the owners of the boats are the ones paying for this,” Oliveira said, “because it takes us a long time.”
State Pier renovations are estimated to take at least four years, although there are still no set plans or price tag for the new harbor space. With space dwindling for at least the next year, fishermen, boat owners and dock workers are wondering what their future along the working waterfront might look like.
Down at Cement Pier, Verissimo leaned over on the side of F/V Chatham.
“Who’s to say this pier ain’t next?” he said.
Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@newbedfordlight.org.
Email Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
Editor’s note: Steve Silverstein is a member of The New Bedford Light’s Advisory Council. The Light’s newsroom is scrupulously independent. Only the editors decide what to cover and what to publish. Founders, funders and board members have no influence over editorial content.
