PORTLAND, Maine — Portland Mayor Michael Brennan wants students, hospital patients and jail inmates to eat more fish — particularly, locally caught fish.
Entering the final year of his four-year term, Brennan is hoping to convince Greater Portland cafeteria operators to commit to serving local fish, an effort he said would create a stable, constant demand to boost the commercial fishing industry in Maine’s largest city.
The mayor mentioned the initiative for the first time publicly during his annual State of the City address Wednesday night, but he has been quietly trying to rally support for the large-scale, buy-local-fish effort for months.
“One of our priorities is marine resources and creating opportunities along the waterfront,” Brennan said. “We started thinking about — if there are fish that are available — (whether) we could create a market among those institutions that serve meals every day on a regular basis. (We posed the question), ‘Is there a way we could guarantee that market?’”
The mayor said the Portland area is replete with hospitals, schools and correctional facilities — among other places — that already likely serve fish products, including fish sticks and fish sandwiches, regularly in their cafeterias.
Brennan reasoned that simply asking those institutions to commit to buying products made from locally caught fish would generate new, wholesale demand for groundfish on the Portland waterfront.
The mayor said John Spritz, head of the Growing Portland collaborative, has played a crucial role in communicating with potential stakeholders in the initiative.