State approves Gloucester’s updated harbor plan

The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs recently approved Gloucester’s updated harbor plan, which will support a wide range of maritime uses.

In a 26-page document sent in late December to then-Mayor Carolyn Kirk, outgoing Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Maeve Vallely Bartlett wrote that the harbor plan serves “to promote and protect the [city’s] core marine and water-dependent industrial composition,” including commercial fishing.

The Office of Coastal Zone Management renewed the port’s “Designated Port Area” status, which requires that the area have infrastructure and other features to support marine industries.

The report updates the 2009 harbor plan, which took about two years to implement, according to Tom Daniel, Gloucester’s community development director.

“We’re grateful for all the community participation and comments that helped along the way,” Daniel said. “We think it will be a useful tool for us going forward and help us leverage the amenities and assets we have here.

“One of the things this update did was to look at opportunities and restraints for properties,” Daniel added. “It was all in the broader context that [Mayor Kirk] had laid out as a vision based on community input for the working waterfront.”

The economic strategy consists of three components: fishing and seafood processing; advanced marine science and technology; and tourism built around the city’s four-century heritage.

As an example of a non-traditional maritime use, Daniel cited a building in Gloucester Harbor where copper paint was developed in the 19th century as a means of preventing barnacles from accumulating on the keels of vessels. The building is now a whale-research center that uses robotics in its analyses.

There are 12 other Designated Port Areas in Massachusetts, ranging from Beverly to the New Bedford area.