Pedro Cura had a decision to make.

Last September, Paulo Valente was coming through Butler’s Flat, heading back to the dock, when suddenly the engine blew in the dragger he captains for Cura and his business partner.

The wear and tear from the many fishing trips aboard Fisherman, as she’s called, had caused the damage, Valente said. The engine had already been rebuilt a few times over the years.

Valente started working for Cura aboard the dragger, also called a trawler, in February last year, and he wasn’t sure what would happen next. Since he started working for him, Cura has been working to upgrade the boat and get it modernized.

One of the options Cura was entertaining was cutting up the boat for scrap metal and just calling it a day. Another was using parts from another old engine he found to rebuild it. Instead, he decided to buy a new engine from Windward Power Systems in Fairhaven a month later.

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“They convinced him to go with the new power plant that’s more fuel-efficient and more reliable, and that's when he came to me and said, 'Well, if you promise me you'll stay here, I will put the money back into the boat,'” Valente said. “And I decided to stay here.”

Valente said it means so much to him that Cura believes in him and trusts him with the boat, because that’s not always the case. He has run other boats and worked for big companies, and said it’s been so meaningful to work for a family business with someone willing to invest in him.

Dragging for groundfish isn’t as profitable to the boat as it was in the 1980s. These days, it’s scalloping that’s profitable.

Cura estimates there may only be another 10 or so draggers among all the scallop boats in New Bedford Harbor, and he’s determined to keep his Fisherman working. 

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More than the cost of an engine

Cura said it would have cost about $120,000 to rebuild the engine, since it malfunctioned close to the dock. The engine had to keep running or it could crash with the wind blowing into Fort Phoenix, with the potential for environmental implications. If it had been in the middle of the ocean, he could have shut the engine off, causing minimum damage.

Cura decided to buy a new engine after making sure that Valente wanted to stay in the boat. He said because Valente is so young and committed, he gave him the chance. Cura had been fishing in New Bedford since he moved to the United States in 1975, and bought the boat and built the life he wanted for his family. He hails from Cova-Gala, São Pedro, Portugal, where his father was a fisherman.

Valente also comes from a fishing family, with his father, grandfather and other family members also in the business. He started in 1991 when he 17.

Part of the cost of fishing

Valente likes to chase monkfish, haddock, gray sole and dabs, and can catch up to 500 lobsters a day, but while out on the water he’s focused on staying away from the codfish to the point that they’re trying to run away from them. He does this due to the cost they would have to pay for quotas.

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On a normal trip, an owner probably has between $4,000 and $5,000 in expenses, factoring in the need for shackles, twines, ropes and other things they need to fish every trip, Valente said. The price of fuel has also been a burden.

“It gets expensive, and it gets expensive quick,” he said. “We’re paying for quota, and all the regulations make it really hard. It’s a lot of stress on the boat owner. It puts a lot of stress on me because when I leave the dock, I have to provide for myself and for my crew, I have to pay the bills, and at the end of the trip you have to show some kind of a profit. Knock on wood, I’ve always had a profit.”

Cura, 73, may have retired 10 years ago, but he’s usually around the boat. It’s hard to stay away when you’ve been a captain for 35 years and in the fishing business for as long as he has been. He’s hopeful for Valente’s sake but speaks his truth wondering about the future. One day, he said, the boat is going to pay him, one way or another.

“In my mind, I don't know,” he said. “If I want my money back, I’ll put this for sale.”

The new engine cost itself about $175,000, but there are many related costs with the conversion from a Caterpillar to a Mitsubishi engine, from installing new coolers to paying welders for five weeks of work. It’s possible they may need to take it out of the water to replace the cooling system.

Valente said New Bedford is well-established with many businesses that sell fishing gear and pretty much anything you need both electronically and mechanically, and if not available, it doesn’t take too long to get what you need.

Valente said it’s harder to find workers willing to join them, and if they want to work, many turn to scalloping instead.

He is eager to go back on the water. He estimates it will be in the next month or so after a trial run with the new engine.

Standard-Times staff writer Kathryn Gallerani can be reached at kgallerani@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @kgallreporter. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New Bedford fishing boat owner faces difficult investment decision