An E-Magazine About Our Fishing Community -- Who We Are, How We

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An e-magazine about our fishing community -- w ho we are, how we fish and our connection to the sea

January 30, 2020 On the Horizon Fish Tales We have lots of exciting stuff happening. A matter of trusts After years of research, Mark your discussions, and calendars now painstaking planning, and join us for the Cape Cod Fisheries fish talks, fun and food at Trust had a rather our very popular Meet the unusual beginning. Fleet. Upcoming dates: April 29, June 24, August 26 and Paul Parker, executive October 28. And it’s never director at the time, was too early to start thinking on his second date with about summer. Save the his future wife when date for Hookers Ball XIX on they met a fisherman Saturday, August 1. just off the highway. New year, new “I remember bringing a $315,000 check to a rest stop in you? Like to New Hampshire and he handed me a bill of sale,” Parker run? The said. Fishermen’s Alliance was awarded 15 bibs as part of That sale was the first of many, mostly funded by loans the Numbers for Nonprofits from foundations and local banks as well as donations program in the New from Hookers Ball attendees and others who thought Balance Falmouth Road protecting the Cape’s small boat fishery was worth the Race. We are now accepting investment. applications for runners to join us on race day Sunday, The purchase of permits, or more specifically quota on August 16. The fundraising permits -- cod, haddock, pollock, redfish, hake, blackback commitment for each flounder and others – was meant to keep Cape fishermen runner is $1,500 that goes fishing. The quota, kept in a “bank,” would be leased directly to helping us work locally at a reduced rate. to ensure the viability and future of Cape Cod’s The experiment, the first in New England, worked. Now fisheries. To be a part of our there are several permit banks in the region: Maine, #fishrunfalmouth team, Boston, Gloucester, Martha’s Vineyard, and fishermen are click here. trying to start one in New Bedford. We are looking And Parker, having moved on from the trust in 2017, to add to our founded a national organization, Catch Together. It invests growing list of capital to support fishermen, fishing communities and Sponsors for 2020. If you ocean conservation and helps establish more permit would like to partner with banks, tailored to the needs of communities around the us, show your support, gain world. exposure for your business, and enjoy event benefits, The story continues here ... please reach out to Jennifer.

Photo by David Hills/Fishy Pictures Thanks to our readers we Plumbing the Depths received more than 50 new subscribers to Fish on Fridays just the beginning our e-mag. We appreciate Broad Reach the support and have picked CEO Bill a winner for our bag of swag Bogdanovich - Pauline Garron, who found remembers out about this salty when a family publication through her member of one daughter Michelle DeSilva. of the residents at The Victorian, On the Water Broad Reach’s assisted living residence in Chatham, provided lobster, Ever wonder how a fresh off the boat, for everybody’s lunch – as in dozens of boat, or a fish, got its people. name? Want the word on what people are “Heck of a day,” said Bogdanovich with a grin. catching --- or how to Those days could become the new normal if a plan cook it? championed by the Fishermen’s Alliance becomes a reality. Like many people in We’ve contacted facilities across the Cape that serve Chatham and seniors to see if there is an interest in serving more fish beyond, we have always had from local captains. To gauge interest, the Fishermen’s a special place in our hearts Alliance secured funding from Cape Cod Healthcare to for the Eldredge family dock send a survey to facilities up and down the Cape. on Stage Harbor. The town bought the property from The story continues here... the fishing family a few years ago and knows the wisdom of keeping the spot Aids to Navigation available for the Working on the water can mean many things commercial fleet – particularly since the fish Before Greg Skomal, pier on the other side of internationally known town has recurring, shark scientist, spoke to increasing shoaling issues. 400 or so high school Nonetheless, it still hurts to students gathered at the see it dismantled. Recently Cape Cod Community we had a chance to video College, a video about last some of the wood pilings year’s WaterWORKS event being removed, you can was projected on a big watch it here. Plans call for screen. the dock to be replaced with concrete decks secured by One student made an on-camera confession. steel pilings. Since we captured the end of an era, “I didn’t know about any of these opportunities,” he said, we thought it appropriate to speaking of the myriad water-related industries and once again share a podcast nonprofits he had just visited with as part of the Cape Cod of Shareen Davis, now chair Chamber of Commerce’s Blue Economy career day. of Chatham’s board of selectmen and long-time People say you have to go off Cape for good, well-paying trap fisherman with her fulfilling jobs, he continued. husband Ernie Eldredge, talking about her family’s “It just goes to show you really don’t,” he said. attachment to the place. The story continues her e... On the Shore This community Charting the Past thrives in large part Saying goodbye to Napi because of a By Seth Rolbein constellation of non- The week before Christmas the profit organizations phone rang at the Fishermen’s and engaged Alliance office and Napi was talking, which meant I needed businesses. to stop and pay attention This year has because anytime Napi started started out talking you needed to focus. busy, with His mind was able to connect opportunities to work with disparate, startling, shocking, several organizations we brilliant, disquieting, are proud to know. On Jan. cantankerous, but ultimately satisfying elements at a 7 our Research Coordinator moment’s notice. George Maynard, Fisheries Trust Director Seth Rolbein, “I’ve been going through my archives,” he said, “and I Policy Coordinator Amanda came across an article you wrote years ago for Yankee Cousart, and commercial Magazine. It was called ‘One More Tow,’ do you fishermen Sam Linnell, Rob remember?” Martin and Rob Curtis all showed up at the second “Of course I do,” I told him. “The Patricia Marie, the annual WaterWORKS at scalloper that went down with all hands, the worst Cape Cod Community maritime tragedy in Provincetown’s recent history.” College, showcasing job and career opportunities on and I imagined him sitting in his cluttered dark office above along the water to high the iconic restaurant he and his wife Helen opened in school students. We were a 1975. Originally a place where people showed up for sponsor; Doreen Leggett, communal dinners, talking art and politics, Napi’s evolved our community journalist, is into a warm, eccentric, year-round institution. Napi could on the planning committee be found early evenings at the edge of the bar with a drink and our CEO John and crossword puzzle, ready to engage anyone he found Pappalardo is chair of the interesting. He had opinions about pretty much anything, Blue Economy Foundation. and they’d get more insistent as the drinks went down. Read more in our related story. Story continues here ...

Also in early January, Seth Alliance alumni Rolbein was the From Flipper to Fisheries guest speaker at the Chatham Women’s Club One wonderful result of and told a full house at the having longevity in this Chatham Marconi Maritime fisheries world is that over Center all about Ada “Tiny” time, many talented and Worthington and her fishnet committed people have made fashion industry that was their way to our doorstep, known around the world. accomplished a great deal Read more in this article or while here, and then used watch this Cape Cod Media those experiences to Center video of Diana springboard into other Worthington remembering fascinating jobs and positions her mom’s style and how within the broader fishing her love for trap fishing nets community. helped Truro survive the Great Depression. We thought it would be fun to visit and revisit some of our friends and former colleagues, to find out what they’ve We are happy to been up to since, well, you might say “graduation” from share that the the Fishermen’s Alliance. Claire Fitz-Gerald, who is now Friends of working on the federal side of the fisheries coin, is our Chatham Waterways is latest in a series of profiles that appear here in the e- accepting Lewis E. Kimball magazine on a regular basis. Read her story here. scholarship applications for the 2020/2021 academic Over the Bar year. The Friends hope to offer three scholarships of Slow-mo government; there are reasons, many up to $3,000. All Cape Cod of them decent and Island residents or high-school graduates who We all express are majoring in an area of frustration with environmental study, the pace of marine ecology or related government, topics and are either how the wheels undergraduate students seem to turn too entering their junior or slowly if at all, senior year of college or how the process graduate students are feels like a slog eligible to apply. through mud, how weeks turn into months turn into years. Applications are available here. Believe me, there are times when I share that feeling. Applications are due by March 31, 2020. But after decades of trying to be a change agent working within government’s structure, sitting in meeting after meeting year after year, I’ve also come to see that On the Hook sometimes, maybe even often, there are reasons for the We do a lot of reading, slow pace, and by that I mean decent reasons. searching through the Dictators can move quickly. That’s because they don’t wide world of fisheries, need consent, they don’t need compromise, they don’t and often find need to listen. They don’t even need much in the way of intriguing pieces to information. All they need is an opinion. And then they can crack the whip. share. In the old days, you might call this your If I were the dictator of fisheries management, it wouldn’t clipping service. have taken more than 10 years to get a mid-water trawl buffer zone enacted, I can tell you that. It wouldn’t be John Pappalardo, taking that much time and more to identify and protect our chief undersea habitats, or enact management with ecosystem- executive officer, based thinking, or engage our industry much more directly was recently tapped to write in the research, surveys and science that drives policies. a piece on electronic monitoring – putting It wouldn’t have taken nearly a decade to get an cameras on boats to record exemption area expanded on Georges Bank for General catch and discards - for the Category scallopers to be able to move farther east, a Environmental Forum, a decision that literally everyone agrees should have been publication of the done long ago. Nor would it have taken a decade to Environmental Law acknowledge that lots of undersized fish caught on Institute. “New England longlines or jigs can be released and swim away just fine, fishermen spend more time so mortality rates for those fisheries needed to be observing our ocean adjusted. environment than scientists do, yet their self-reported Note that the word “decade” seems to keep cropping up. data currently have limited impact on stock But from my vantage, these weren’t cases of public assessments and officials stalling, or decision-makers ignoring important management decisions,” issues. Often there was real conflict among people in the Pappalardo wrote. “That is fisheries, livelihoods at stake, a difficult balance to be unfortunate. Electronic struck between what’s good for now and what’s good for monitoring is changing the tomorrow, what’s good for industry short-term and what’s data dynamic.” Read more good for stocks and the ecosystem long-term. In many here. cases real science needed to be conducted so we weren’t acting on a whim, or responding only to whomever has the Fallout from most political clout. “Codfather” Carlos Rafael’s crimes Slow and clunky, the process had to allow for public input, continue. Here is a story discussions and confrontations. Meetings needed to be about the reaction to Blue posted with ample notice and agendas. As new issues Harvest, a fishing industry came up they needed to be posted again with new powerhouse corporation, agendas, and just as much notice. The clock keeps ticking. paying nearly $25 million for 35 of Rafael’s groundfish So this tedious process should be seen as a gatekeeper, vessels and their permits, not an obstacle. It should be an equalizer, not a barrier. It Another article reveals becomes the vehicle for that thing we call democracy, bitterness behind the deal. creating opportunity for public voices in decision-making. We had advocated for And like democracy itself, the old saying applies: It’s the having quota on the permits worst form of government, except for all the other forms distributed across ports in that have been tried. New England where honest fishermen hurt by the so- Even the best decisions made behind closed doors called Codfather’s become the worst decisions, because bad process deception are trying to run undermines faith in the outcome. That in turn leads their small businesses. people to disrespect the rules and do their best to get around them. A new study published in the All of this assumes that the slow-motion process is real Proceedings of rather than show, meaning there are no backdoor deals the National Academy of cut, no shortcuts taken by the privileged few. There’s the Sciences earlier this month real danger, not the molasses of public participation. And has generated a lot of that’s when cynicism about our government becomes interest. "There is a justified. narrative that fish stocks are declining around the There’s one more thing to be said: As people bemoan this world, that fisheries cumbersome process, they almost always use the management is failing and occasion to demean the people who work it. Public we need new solutions — officials become slugs, shirkers, their motives and and it's totally wrong," the intentions questioned, their credibility and work ethic lead author says in this dismissed. article. My experience is overwhelmingly the opposite. Most public officials I know, elected or appointed, regulators or scientists, at every level of government, have a strong desire to do the right thing, and represent the public as well as possible. They often do so for less money, with fewer resources, and with many more headaches than if they slid into the private sector. They deserve our thanks and support far more often than they get it, and they almost never deserve the ridicule and contempt that is all- too popular these days, all-too easy to dispense.