BUSINESS BUZZ
The New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal is the nation’s only purpose-built facility for offshore wind energy staging.
Making Waves By Steven Froias
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othing characterizes New Bedford more than its working waterfront. It is still home to the nation’s number one fishing port by value, and of course, has a legendary relationship with the ocean. This history was immortalized in literature in none other than the great American novel, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. In the book (and in actual life during the 1850s, New Bedford was the worldwide center of whaling, from which the nascent industrial revolution drew its energy. It is said of the city that it literally spread light around the globe, as whale oil was the preferred fuel to illuminate the night. Today, New Bedford stands on the precipice of a new age in energy production – one far more enlightened and less savage than the brutal whaling industry which first brought it fame and fortune. This future will be defined by offshore wind, a sustainable resource that is poised to characterize the 21st century in ways unforeseen right now. With centuries of maritime history, it’s not news that today New Bedford is one of the most important commercial ports on the East Coast of the United States. An initiative launched by the Port of New Bedford seeks to capitalize on that strength and ensure that the port is ready for the century ahead. In Moby-Dick, Melville wrote, “It is not down on any map; true places never are.” That is where the New Bedford Ocean Cluster exists.
Full sails
The New Bedford Ocean Cluster is best understood as the place where the essential infrastructure necessary to build both a sustainable and renewable marine economy will be brought together. Just as sail-makers and coopers, whalemen and deckhands, inventors and visionaries joined to enable New Bedford to fulfill its destiny as the Whaling City, the New Bedford Ocean Cluster is the partnership which will guide the city into a second century of oceanport prominence. When the Port of New Bedford initiated the New Bedford Ocean Cluster, it was with one primary idea in mind: that the incredible assets of the region’s maritime economy come into alignment in order to achieve the critical mass necessary to compete globally as an oceanport. The New Bedford Ocean Cluster will then seek out all marine-based assets in the area – from shipyards to welders to electricians to IoT technicians – and forge them into a collective of skills and infrastructure that will be prepared for all manner of ocean-based commercial enterprises. The Port of New Bedford has created the New Bedford Ocean Cluster with the following mission statement in mind: The New Bedford Ocean Cluster will work collaboratively with a range of private sector, public sector, and academic partners to establish New Bedford as the leading ocean economy on the East Coast of the United States. The NBOC will:
The New Bedford Ocean Cluster is best understood as the place where the essential infrastructure necessary to build both a sustainable and renewable marine economy will be brought together.
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November 2020 | The South Coast Insider
