- Division of Marine Fisheries
The Seafood Marketing Program partnered with Mass. Agriculture in the Classroom for a teaching-the-teachers event in July. Fifteen people met at Red’s Best on the Fish Pier for a Massachusetts Seafood/Aquaculture 101 presentation, a tour and conversation with Jared Auerbach (owner of Red’s Best), and a local seafood lunch. The day concluded with an educational activity.
The Seafood Marketing Program visited six farmers markets during September and October: Framingham, Franklin, Hudson, Norwood, Dedham, and Lowell. We used MA Department of Agricultural Resources list to target non-coastal towns with robust weekday markets. We provided education regarding Massachusetts seafood, games, and free swag. We also provided gyotaku: a traditional form of Japanese art that began over 100 years ago as a way for fishermen to keep a record of the fish they caught. We set up using block ink, silicone fish and rice paper for children and adults to make a fish print. Additionally, the Seafood Marketing Program tabled at the Gloucester Fishing Heritage Festival and the Marshfield Lobsterfest for the first time. We returned to the Boston Seafood Festival and Seafood Day at the State House.
The Seafood Marketing Program filmed and distributed a message from our Director entitled, “Recognizing the Conservation Efforts of our Massachusetts Lobster Harvesters.” This was directed by DMF’s Seafood Marketing Coordindator Wendy Mainardi, produced by On The Water, and funded by DMF’s Environmental Economic Innovation Grant. The video gained traction over YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and email.
The Seafood Marketing Program worked with stakeholders to create language inclusive marketing material for the first time. We created printable, color, 8.5”x11” posters for anyone to use. The species featured for our pilot series included scup, whiting and flatfish in these languages: Spanish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Mandarin, Chinese, Cantonese, and Vietnamese.
The Seafood Marketing Program ran a summer internship program for the fourth time. Audrey MacLellan has an undergraduate degree in Marine Biology from UMass Dartmouth and her family runs St. Ours & Company, a producer of surf clam and lobster broth. Audrey helped organize the farmers markets, created an email list of seafood restaurants so that we have a listserv to reach restaurants directly, and created content. She has been much appreciated interacting with the public at all in-person DMF Seafood Marketing Program events.
By Wendy Mainardi, Seafood Marketing Coordinator
