"Can the nation’s oldest seaport reinvent itself?" by Katheleen Conti Globe Staff June 19, 2016
The story of Gloucester trying to find its next act is not a new one. For years, the nation’s oldest seaport, like so many others, has struggled to reinvent itself in the shadow of a fading fishing industry.
But several developments in recent weeks could serve as a meaningful catalyst for change in the post-fishing economy.
Last week, the much-talked-about Beauport Hotel — a luxury 94-room facility and the city’s only large-scale hotel — opened on the site of the former Birds Eye fish-freezing plant, featuring three conference rooms to lure business travelers, along with a large restaurant and a rooftop pool with views of the harbor to entice tourists.
The hotel followed the May opening of the Gloucester Biotechnology Academy, a one-year certificate program for high school graduates that’s an extension of the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, founded in 2013 by biotech entrepreneur Gregory L. Verdine to study marine genetics.
For this North Shore community, the waterfront additions are an important example of what they might call casting a line and waiting for a bite, but behind the faith to make biotech work in Gloucester is “Genomics, the modern science of DNA.”
I can see why the kids are leaving the nest.
Getting young people interested in biotech helps them see that there is life beyond fishing is key, and Gloucester fishermen say they’re open to diversity in the city’s economy but....
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You are welcome to continue the tour.
Related:
Fisherman dies after being swept overboard off Nantucket
Martha’s Vineyard mourns death of fisherman off Nantucket
It was an accident, but it reminds you that those guys are out there literally risking their lives.
US offers fishermen help in paying monitors
Time to go fishing then.
Wow, nice catch.
