A group of hockey players from throughout the seafood industry put business on ice on Monday, 20 March and laced up the skates for a good cause.
For the 24th consecutive year, the Gorton Cup was contested at Harvard University’s Bright-Landry Hockey Center during Seafood Expo North America – which was known as the Boston Seafood Show when the contest was created by seafood industry icons Bill Gorton and Neal Workman.
The game raises money for the Seafood Industry Research Fund (SIRF), a nonprofit group investigating issues and topics pertinent to the seafood industry from a scientific perspective. This year's game raised more than USD 72,000 (EUR 67,000).
This year, the industry rallied behind a special cause. Mark Leslie, a former shrimp buyer and manager in various roles in the seafood industry, including in supply chain, operations, acquisitions and fishery products, most recently for High Liner Foods, was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in October 2016. Jim Bonnvie, the president of Seafax and one of the game’s other organizers, dedicated the game Leslie and said it couldn’t have honored a better cause.
“We’re all just glad to help him out and do something in his honor, and it was a lot of fun tonight,” Bonnvie said. “All of SIRF was able to get behind it and we’re not done yet – money is still rolling in.”
For his part, Leslie said the honor was unexpected and much appreciated.
“It means a lot. I have been in the seafood industry since 1982, when I started as a shrimp biologist in Ecuador. For the industry to reach out to me and to give back, it chokes me up,” he said. “Even though we all compete against each other, at the end of the day, we come together to support each other. It’s so nice to see how giving of an industry we are.”
