The NSF Seafood Engine in New England is a collaboration of seafood industry, tech sector, government, and research partners across Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island – including the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.
Alliance CEO John Pappalardo says the group will receive $15 million over the next two years, as one of 12 newly-named Regional Innovation Engines. He added New England is the only region nationwide to receive a regional engine award focusing on the seafood industry.
"People really want to know where their seafood is coming from," he said. "And certainly our administration, right now, is putting a priority on buying American. So, on that point, we're in lockstep. And so this grant gives us an opportunity to make it easier for the consumer to access domestically caught seafood."
This initial award puts the New England group in the running for another eight years of funding, up to a total of $160 million.
"The National Science Foundation award represents a huge opportunity for our nation's first industry, commercial fishing, to modernize and compete on a global scale," said Pappalardo.
The Fishermen's Alliance is one of dozens of partners in the region-wide initiative, led by the Portsmouth, N.H. based nonprofit Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems.
"We’re focusing on the harvest side of things and coordinating with a lot of blue tech," Pappalardo explained. "So using a lot of different sensors and AI technology to begin to read the ocean and put fishermen in the best places for marketable harvest."
He said other partners will focus on modernizing the supply chain between the dock and the consumer.
