What's Happening Here, Orleans' Rock Harbor?
Cape Cod News editorial staff
31 January, 2024 – ORLEANS, MA – This week, in our ongoing construction series, we are asking the Town of Orleans: What's happening at Rock Harbor? The nine million dollar project is halfway through its revitalizing and securing of the commercial area of the harbor for fishers to dock and unload and for the public to view to watch the catch of the day.
"If you were visiting from states ... or the world that aren't on the seaboard, they're interested when they see lobsters or shellfish coming off the boats, they have questions for the fishermen and a lot of them visit Cape Cod and are interested in having local food."
Nathan Sears
Manager, Natural Resource Department, Town of Orleans
What is happening at Rock Harbor?
Rock Harbor in Orleans is currently a hard hat area. If you’ve been passing by or entered the limited parking you may have wondered – what’s happening here? So have we, so we asked Nathan Sears, manager for natural resources for the town of Orleans – what is happening here.
Sears told LCTV that we are seeing the fruition of a nine million dollar project that has been in the works for six years. A project Nathan Sears is hoping will reinvest in the town for many years to come.
What improvements are being made?
Not only is the commercial part of the working waterfront getting a total makeover, but the vision is for the harbor to be a landmark for visitors. Nathan Sears says the majority of the activity in the harbor is commercial, but yet improvements to the commercial area have been neglected and the commercial fishing fleet has been disregarded. Local fishers raised safety concerns, and last May the town of Orleans voted to address them.
What are the moving parts?
Workers are moving the existing bulkhead 20 feet into the parking lot, commercial fishers will have back-end slips for end-in docking instead of tying the boats side to side, meaning they no longer will have to be tied to the inside of other boats and coordinate with all other fishers to come and go.
The underground gasoline and diesel tanks pose an environmental risk with rising sea levels, and will be replaced with above ground fuel tanks.
By the unloading dock, people will now have a safe public viewing platform to watch the catch of the day be loaded onto wholesale trucks backing up to a lifting boom.
And, though not a part of the original planning, there are osprey nests to move to more feather-friendly tree tops.
Eight of the nine million dollars come from tax payers and one million in a grant from the State of Massachusetts Seaport Economic Council.
Little Rock Harbor has points of contacts all over the world as it funnels loads of bluefin tuna through Orleans onto the international market. Nathan Sears also hopes the project will make Orleans stand out when visitors choose their Cape Cod destinations.
Construction started November 2024 and the finishing date is planned for the last day of April this year, just in time for the summer season.
