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An e-magazine about our fishing community -- who we are, how we fish and our connection to the sea
October 25, 2018 On the Horizon Fish Tales We have lots of exciting stuff happening. Captain Greg Connors makes a living on the sea, but keeps his eye on the pond October is National Seafood Month. In Greg Connors was one celebration, we teamed up of the first to target the with Eating with the Ecosystem to skate fishery years ago; challenge New Englanders to eat now it’s a staple of the local sustainable seafood and fleet -- Cape and Islands share their experience using fishermen landed more hashtag than 7 million pounds #LocalSeafoodChallenge. in 2016, making it the Throughout the month third highest landed participants increased seafood for the region. awareness of locally-caught, He can fish for them healthy (and delicious) seafood, year-round, while which benefits ecosystems and gillnetting dogfish is supports our local fishermen. If more of a summer you haven’t already, be sure to fishery. like/follow us It’s common enough for on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Connors and his crew to spend a day at sea, come to and YouTube. Thank you to our the fish pier and unload to his buyer, Marder seafood fans for celebrating the Trawling, shower, and then go back out again at 1 important role of seafood in our a.m. On this day the trip takes place at a more blue economy not just this “civilized” time, starting at 7:30, hauling in skates a month, but year-round. few hours after setting dogfish gear. The crew knows the routine and there is no shortage of joking around. A white hockey mask hangs in the The Pier Host program wheelhouse, given to crewmate Jay Soares. Soares, connects retired who wields a knife with frightening speed, is often in fishermen with people stopping the go-to position of arranging the skates in the by the Chatham Fish Pier. enormous bin and cutting off the wings before they Thanks to funding from our are iced. The skates come to him by way of Nick business sponsor, Nauset Kline, Nicky as they call him, and often enough a Marine, the program has skate smacks Soares in the head as Kline passes fish engaged thousands of visitors quickly and laterally once he frees them from the net. each year from Memorial Day to Today Soares is not wearing the mask and from a Columbus Day. Traditionally pier garbled curse or two it sounds like he may have been hosts have focused on just hit not by a puck, but by an errant skate. fishing topics. This year we introduced sharks and seals as The story continues here... part of the hosts’ talking points. To ensure we were providing accurate and consistent information, we partnered with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC) and Northwest Atlantic Seal Research Consortium (NASRC). Our pier hosts were paired with trained representatives to provide expert answers to visitor questions. Additionally, our hosts were equipped with educational Pier Host program learning books made possible by our local sponsors: Sunderland Printing, CARE for the Cape & Islands, and Fisherman’s Plumbing the Depths Daughter Eco Boutique. If you New twist on a well-respected clam debuts didn’t make it down to the pier, to applause at Oysterfest you can download the learning book here. Please join us in When you say surf clam, most thanking our retired fishermen people think of big sea clams for their continued support as caught off shore, often used pier hosts: Mike Anderson, Ken for clam strips and chowders. Eldredge, Gerald "Rick" Miszkin When wild harvested, they and Mark Simonitsch. have to be at least five inches wide. But in 2016 We are co-hosting an Massachusetts changed the event with the Cape regulations to allow shellfish Cod Chamber of farmers who grow surf clams on an aquaculture Commerce’s Blue Economy grant to harvest at 1.5 inches. At that small size they project to inform commercial are tender and delicious. fishermen and the local “Small surf clams are not quite quahogs and not aquaculture industry about quite steamers,” says Melissa Sanderson of the Cape opportunities for offshore farming Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, one of the of oysters, bay scallops, mussels leads on two grant-funded initiatives to study, sample and sugar kelp in and promote small surf clams. “They have a harder Massachusetts. The event is shell than a steamer and a bit more belly than a sponsored by SCORE Cape Cod quahog. They have a very clean and sweet flavor.” and the Islands and runs from 4 Currently, 96 percent of shellfish grown in to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 27, with a Massachusetts are oysters, a “dangerous light dinner provided. The panel monoculture,” notes Sanderson. A harmful algae discussion, which includes bloom or disease could be catastrophic, so with $28 regulators and farmers, is one of million in growers’ revenues at stake, working with many ways we work to grow the surf clams gives local shellfish farmers a critical local industry and make it more opportunity to diversify their businesses. sustainable. For more information, contact One of the Fishermen’s Alliance’s collaborations is dennis.walsh@scorevoluntee with Aquacultural Research Corporation, A.R.C. r.org, and to sign up . Space is Hatchery, in Dennis, and Barnstable County's Cape limited. Cod Cooperative Extension Marine Program. A.R.C. was awarded a two-year federal Saltonstall-Kennedy grant to determine best practices for a hatchery to spawn surf clams and grow them to the right size, On the Water and then determine what is the best way to farm Ever wonder how a boat, them. The story continues here... or a fish, got its name? Want the word on what Enjoy a recipe here ... people are catching --- or how to cook it?
Aids to Navigation Port study aims to protect, grow commercial fishing industry Ice. Frozen water doesn’t seem like an enormously important item, but in the fishing industry it’s paramount and impacts both the bottom line and peace of mind. Bismore Park on Hyannis Harbor has no ice machines. So, in addition to perennial problems making room for all the fishing boats that need Rob Martin was on the dockage, it’s possible that a fisherman – who was on water late this summer the water at 3 a.m. – might have to drive to and got one of those Provincetown almost 12 hours later to get ice for the following day. surprises the ocean sometimes Route 6 from Hyannis to Provincetown on a summer offers; thousands of little fish, day seems grueling, particularly when there are ice armed with sword-like noses, hurling themselves into his boat. machines in Chatham. But ice there provides its own Martin, who has been lobstering challenges; you have to lug it in totes, whereas in for decades, had never before Provincetown a machine will just blow it in for you. But then again, you can’t use the Ptown ice blowers seen this version of a flying fish, after hours because they are loud and the noise blue-ish above, bright-silver-sided, bothers neighbors. red-finned. Ice. Just one factor in a litany that helps define It was before dawn, he was heading to his grounds in Cape whether a port works well, one of many often Cod Bay and beyond to overlooked by those on the outside. Stellwagen Bank, when he saw The story continues here ... them. Days later he still didn’t know what they were and, by happenstance, lobsterman Mark Charting the Past Leach of Harwich stopped in the office of the Fishermen’s Alliance Shiverick’s ships: wooden boats and solved the mystery. immortalized by a stone “The ballyhoo,” he said. Around here, and according to the Wise If you drive from Fishermen’s Encyclopedia Bridge Street in (published by William H. Wise Dennis, crossing over and Co. in the 1950s so not Sesuit Creek and necessarily meant for wise turning down a fishermen only but still an charming stretch of amazing resource for everything Sesuit Neck Road, fish-related), it’s called the Balao you will find yourself or the Balao halfbeak. at Sesuit Harbor, Some say the Balao is a separate home to the town of Dennis’ docks, Northside Marina, species from the ballyhoo and and the popular Sesuit Harbor Cafe. Don’t be too one can tell the difference from intent on a pleasure cruise or lobster roll to miss a measuring the pectoral fin, but plaque embedded on a stone placed on the rise we are not that wise. above the town marina’s parking lot. Leach has only seen them down Dedicated in 1924, it commemorates Shiverick South, around Florida, and the Shipyard, which once filled the environs with the encyclopedia says the foot-long sounds of hammers, axes and saws, and sent to sea fish is an accidental visitor north magnificent multi-masted vessels. From 1815 until of Chesapeake Bay – in the 1863, the family-owned enterprise produced dozens 1950s anyway. The same might of vessels for fishing, commerce and international have been said of black sea shipping. They were the only builders of glorious bass, now plentiful around here. clipper ships on Cape Cod, manufacturing eight in Regardless, Martin was happy to the period from 1850 to 1862. have seen it. The patriarch of the family, Asa Shiverick, was born in Falmouth, son of a minister. He moved to East Dennis during the War of 1812 and bought land that backed up to Sesuit Creek. He began building ships On the Shore in 1815, crafting schooners and brigs used by local fishermen. Schooners were popular for fishing This community thrives in because their holds were large enough for storing both supplies and fish, and they were crafted to large part because of a reach Georges Bank and the Grand Banks rather constellation of non-profit quickly, by measure of the 1800s. organizations and engaged
businesses. The story continues here ... The Cape just Photo credit: Dennis Historical Society received funding to help protect the waters we all depend on. Over the Bar The Environmental Protection Climbing the ladder to DC, so the herring Agency awarded $2.2 million in federal grants to a host of worthy can run here organizations, including the We’ve talked a Association to Preserve Cape lot about Cod. herring over The association was awarded the past few $350,000 to partner with other months, and it groups and figure out how to sure looks like reduce pollution from storm all that talk is water runoff and fertilizer use paying off: affecting the Three Bays system in Barnstable, which includes The New England Fishery Management Council is West Bay, North Bay and Cotuit now calling for a 12-mile buffer zone off the coast Bay. The Pleasant Bay Alliance from Montauk to Canada, to move factory-style mid- also received $250,000 for water trawlers away from inshore fishing areas. And restoration of water quality in just as important for our community, two more Pleasant Bay and close to “boxes” east of the Cape would protect vital spawning $400,000 went to the Cape Cod grounds out to about 20 miles. Commission to develop a water quality database and From the wheelhouse to the State House, people management system. By the way, came together on this one. Those who understand last month the towns of Brewster, how important ocean herring are to the whole Orleans, Harwich and Chatham offshore world and web -- fishermen foremost -- were the only government entities stepped up. Those who care about river herring and to receive a 2018 Environmental reviving freshwater runs, hoping to see them once Merit Award from the EPA for again become a miraculous annual event, joined their combined watershed forces. Selectmen, town councilors, county permit. commissioners, members of the assembly of delegates, state representatives and senators, all Sean McNally, a recent weighed in. graduate of the Marine Science and Given the strength of this coalition, and the power of Technology program at UMass the argument, maybe the real surprise is how long it Boston, will be on the Cape in the took to get a buffer zone passed; we’ve been on this coming months diving into the for more than a decade. And push to shove, a world of shellfish as an intern for scientific assessment that the herring stocks are at us here at the Fishermen's historic lows, no doubt mainly because of pressure Alliance. He’ll be reaching out to and small-fish mortality caused by trawlers, added anyone who cares about shellfish urgency to the push to create protection now. – on the flats or on a plate -- through a variety of methods Sure, it would have been better to have done this (surveys, meetings, individual before the stocks crashed, but better late than never. conversations). He will collect And now, hopefully we’ll give the amazing ocean a and analyze feedback, assist in chance to revive and rebuild, which in turn will give drafting recommendations, our small-boat fleet an opportunity to do the same. develop educational content, Our bet is that when the herring and other forage and help advance the fish come back, so too will bigger fish that have Massachusetts Shellfish Initiative. always relied on them for a good meal. “My work with the MSI has taught Many people are asking me if this is now a done me not only about the deal, if the Council’s overwhelming vote translates importance of solving industry and environmental issues but directly into new rules and regulations. The answer, also the value in advancing unfortunately, is not quite. public awareness into public action and involvement,” McNally Here’s how it works: says. The Council, the last word as far as citizen The MSI was started and is led participation in fisheries goes in the Northeast, by the Fishermen’s Alliance, the recommends policy to federal officials; its opinion Massachusetts Aquaculture does not have the force of law. That means Council Association (MAA), and The votes go to NOAA Fisheries for review and hopefully Nature Conservancy (TNC). It’s implementation. working toward developing goals and guidance for how the state NOAA looks hard at whether the Council’s decisions and municipalities should are in line with federal fishing mandates and goals balance growing demands for spelled out in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the nation’s shellfish resources. driving legislation for fishery management. It also If you see McNally please stop assesses whether there are unintended and say hello, even if it’s to let consequences, financial or otherwise, to Council him know if you prefer Wellfleet votes. Proposals need to enter the bureaucracy in or Duxbury oysters – he is Washington, wending through the Department of torn. Contact him here. Commerce and passing muster with the Office of Management and Budget. Sometimes this process Sail into the can take months, even years. Cahoon Museum of American So, to use a land metaphor, we’re not out of the Art's event woods yet. But we have made a convincing case that - Scallywags, Shanties and these new buffer zones are not just reasonable but Scrimshaw - on Nov. 9, from necessary, to protect both spawning areas and our 4:30 to 6 p.m.. community-based fishing fleet. And I believe that an Click here to register for a salty emerging new generation of leadership at NOAA evening of sea-faring fun. Watch Fisheries recognizes the importance of a more holistic out for pirates as you listen to approach to fisheries management, thinking about music, sample local seafood and the eco-system in its beauty and complexity rather spirits, hear a dramatic reading than species by species. Herring is the poster child from Moby Dick and more. Get a for the need for this kind of approach. jump start on your holiday shopping in the museum shop When might we get final review on the Council vote? stocked with treasures and Not before the beginning of the next fishing season, celebrate the bounty of the unfortunately. Which means it’s likely we’ll once season. again see mid-water trawlers, towing nets the size of It is in conjunction with the football fields, plying waters just a few miles off the museum's exhibition Cape’s backshore just as river and ocean herring Scrimshandering: Ralph Cahoon, migrate our way come spring. Scrimshaw & Nantucket Whaling Heritage, sponsored by the If I could wave a magic wand I would at least require Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod. every trawler, every trip, to carry observers to document the amount of dead fish they discard, which might limit the damage. On the Hook But I have no such wand. So instead I rely on public We do a lot of reading, opinion, strong science, and officials who work hard to earn the public’s trust. And I try to take the long searching through the view, celebrating true progress: We’ve taken a huge wide world of fisheries, step forward; there are a few more to go. and often find intriguing pieces to share. In the old days, you might call this your clipping service. Carlos Rafael, (John Pappalardo is the CEO of the Cape Cod known in the Commercial Fishermen's Alliance) media as the Codfather, has grabbed headlines after he was indicted for falsifying fish quotas (among other charges), pled guilty and went to jail in 2017. This article details how last month NOAA expanded its civil prosecution and called for the revocation of 17 operator permits held by his captains, as well as increasing penalties from less than $1 million to more than $3 million.
Farmers Market aficionados partner up and bring a “one-stop fish shop” to Bow Market in Somerville. The idea involves an entrepreneur with a Cape presence. Here’s hoping it will spread to the peninsula. Read more here:
Since we are still pleased about the enormous effort the community put into protecting herring, we’re sharing this short radio piece. Listen here.
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