Fish Alliance CEO applies for regional council
By Doug Fraser CHATHAM – In August, Tom Dempsey was reappointed by Gov. Deval Patrick to his second three-year term on the regional fishery management council. But in October, Dempsey, the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance policy director, resigned from the New England Fishery Management Council because he had taken a job as senior fisheries policy director with The Nature Conservancy in Monterey, California...
Food Pantry Puts Local Fish on the Menu
By Elizabeth Saito On Monday evening, December 1, two fishermen from Chatham handed out frozen fillets of dogfish caught last month in the waters off Cape Cod to clients of the Falmouth Service Center’s food pantry. A little past 5 PM, Tammy M. Corey of Woods Hole pushed her cart down the food counter to where the two fishermen, Doug R. Feeney and Luther J...
Cape's fishing industry looks to spotlight strange-sounding dogfish
By Amy AnthonyLifelong fisherman Doug Feeney recently built a new 32-foot boat. He named it after his new son, Noah. And Feeney had a new focus: dogfish. A Chatham resident, Feeney has seen firsthand how the decline of groundfish like cod has hindered the region’s commercial fishing industry. But the abundance of dogfish, Feeney said, could give the industry the boost it needs...
Bluefin anglers push the boundaries on Cape Cod
By Doug Fraser HARWICH – Reeling in a bluefin tuna - an ocean predator averaging 6 feet long and weighing as much as 1,500 pounds - has been compared to hauling a refrigerator onto a rooftop using a rope and a 2-by-4. “For sure, it’s a very big adrenaline rush and tense moments when you are fighting it,” said Harwich commercial fisherman Jesse Rose...
2014 Fall Newsletter
Small Boats. Big Ideas. Our fall newsletter is stock full of the latest from the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance. First read an indepth look into the skate fishery; specifically barndoor skates. This front page article showcases how the Fishermen's Alliance took action in collecting scientific data and research to help improve management...
New England Council punts cod emergency decisions to NOAA
By Emily Yehle, E&E reporter The New England Fishery Management Council failed yesterday to adopt emergency measures to protect a diminishing population of cod, instead passing a vague measure that asks the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to take action. The move means fishermen will have to wait to find out what restrictions they face for the rest of the 2014 season...
Fisheries council fails to tackle cod problem
By Doug Fraser HYANNIS — Fishery regulators requested emergency action by the federal government Wednesday to deal with the rapid decline of Gulf of Maine cod stocks. As many as 80 percent of legal-size Gulf of Maine cod die each year from fishing and natural causes. The stock, however, is not being adequately replaced because there are fewer spawning fish...
Small Boat Fishermen Unite to Have Stronger Voice
The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance joined forces with other community-based, small boat commercial fishing groups from across the nation to form a coalition in order to give a bigger voice to the specific concerns of our fleets on a national level. Together, as the Fishing Community Coalition, we want to improve the management and success of our nation's fisheries, especially regarding the reauthorization of our nation’s primary fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Act...
"The Dish on Fish"; Making Cape Residents Aware of Fisheries
By Deborah G. Scanlon John Pappalardo believes a strong fishing industry is important to the Cape’s economy and character. A lifelong Chatham resident and commercial fisherman, the CEO of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance wants Cape Codders to know about the many day-boat fishermen in all Cape Cod ports who last year brought in some 12 million pounds of seafood, worth $16 million...
Local Fishermen Pitch In For Family Pantry
By Alan Pollock Thanks to the generosity of Chatham fishermen and financial sponsors, clients at the Family Pantry last week had the chance to bring home fresh local seafood in their grocery bags. The partnership with the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance helped stock the pantry's freezers with more than 1,000 pounds of skate wings, an underutilized white fish that's tasty and easy to prepare...
Fish for Families
Listen to the WXTK 95.1 NewsRadio piece here that features Chatham skate fisherman Jared Bennett. He was one of 11 Cape Cod skate fishermen who got together and donated more than 1,000 pounds of fresh local skate wing fillets to The Family Pantry of Cape Cod. The skate wings were trucked to New Bedford by Red's Best, and Marder Trawling donated the filleting and freezing of the fillets...
Creating a Safe Harbor for a Village Heritage
By Patricia Leigh Brown Anyone seeking to learn about the fishing heritage of this port city, named for the huge rock that dominates its harbor, need only amble over to the “Liar’s Bench,” a sitting area along the Embarcadero for fishermen prone to telling tall tales. Or one could visit the Morro Bay Hookers, a thriving fraternity of fish-baiters who skewer anchovies and sardines onto hooks for a living, some 400 hooks per line...
