Image courtesy of Boston Planning Department
Boston’s fishing industry has declined in recent decades, prompting repurposing of Seaport District properties to accommodate the growth of the life science and tech sectors.
Now, a major lab project nearing completion in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park is providing seed money for Boston’s first-ever fisheries museum, containing exhibits on the history and evolution of the industry.
“The fact that there isn’t a Boston fisheries museum is kind of astounding,” said Robert Nagle, co-founder of the Boston Fisheries Foundation, the recipient of the $200,000 donation from developer Related Beal.
The donation is part of a community benefits agreement tied to Related Beal’s development of the Leiden Center II at Innovation Square. The 345,000 square-foot lab building at the corner of Drydock and Northern avenues is leased to Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Nagle is vice president of operations for John Nagle Co., a fifth-generation family-owned Northern Avenue seafood supplier. During a lifetime spent in the local industry, he’s seen the workforce at the Boston Fish Pier decline from more than 2,000 workers to approximately 200. Competition from global conglomerates and government catch limits have diminished Boston’s place in the seafood chain.
But the industry still provides an entrepreneurial opportunity, something that the nonprofit foundation hopes to spotlight through the museum project.
Nagle envisions digital exhibits depicting the history of the local industry and its role in immigrant communities.
“We want to see if we can capture the challenges and articulate them so people will understand where the industry has been traditionally, where it is now and where it will be going in the future,” Nagle said. “There is a real opportunity for blue-collar workers to become business owners.”
The foundation is in the early stages of additional fundraising and planning for the museum, but Nagle already has one particular property in mind for a potential location: Massport’s New England Fish Exchange building on Northern Avenue. The 2-story facility at the end of the Fish Pier once hosted seafood auctions and was converted into a conference and event venue.
The Boston Planning & Development Agency offered the Northern Avenue parcel owned by the Economic Development and Industrial Corp. of Boston for development in 2021, and selected Related Beal’s proposal for the lab development.
The developer’s community benefits package for the lab project also included a $200,000 donation to New Bedford-based Fishing Partnership Support Services. The nonprofit provides training programs, group purchasing and group health insurance plans.
“If you’re on a fishing boat, you’re a sole proprietor,” Related Beal Executive Vice President Stephen Faber said. “There isn’t health insurance, and no days off. What this group has been doing is organizing insurance programs in which captains are able to join at a reasonable cost.”
Related Beal also is providing 3,200 square feet of ground floor space in the lab complex to the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute for STEM education programs and a training lab for biomanufacturing technicians. The development is scheduled to open in early 2027.
