Commercial fishing: Professional, personal and political
Ben Martens, executive director of Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, said that for too long fishermen have been undervalued. Like farmers, they are essential to feeding the country, but they receive far less support. “The hard work is being done right now to protect our marine resources, but we aren’t as a nation stepping up to protect the people and the communities that harvest that seafood,” Martens said...
A century of haddock captures the American fishing experience
As the Fishermen’s Alliance is now working with food banks and pantries around New England to provide nutritious, delicious haddock chowder to people having trouble putting food on the table, we began to wonder about the history of haddock, the role it has played in the region’s history, why it has always seemed to be even more popular in New England than elsewhere...
PHOTO GALLERY: Fish as fertilizer
Cape Cod Ferments is launching fermented fish fertilizers, which are available through Delicious Living, and the first few batches are made from fish heads and fish carcasses that, since they couldn’t be used for bait, were just going to waste. Now, thanks to Nicole Cormier and Nicholas Frechette, the fish waste from Salt Seafood Company and Hatch's Fish Market is working on its second life as a fertilizer for farms and gardens across the peninsula...
It’s called Amendment 23: Why the push for ‘full accountability’
People old enough to remember 1968 tell me that for upheaval, crisis, confrontation, and angry division, the year we are living through now most closely resembles that momentous one. My guess is that history books will agree. In a far smaller, more specific way, when people reflect on New England’s fisheries years from now, they might also see 2020 as an historic, fulcrum moment...
The new guy at the pier is steeped in the fishing business
Captain Mike Abdow has walked across the busy parking lot of the Chatham Fish Pier many times with a couple of big, beautiful striped bass, and people will call out and ask if they can buy them. Abdow will say “Sure,” then walk into the back door of the Chatham Pier Fish Market where that bass will soon be in the case. “I think that’s important to people,” Abdow said...
Pier program is a constant in uncertain times
After visiting the observation deck at the Chatham Fish Pier, three siblings climbed around the metal sculpture honoring fishermen and talked about all they had learned. Frances Leyshon, 8, was able to say what fish was coming in, dogfish, and “they filled the whole back of the boat.” Emerson, 6, knew commercial lobstermen came in as well – and had gotten to see a boat unload...
From local veterans to food banks state-wide, haddock chowder is a hit
Emily Yerby works for the Greater Boston Food Bank and came home from an “insanely” hard day at work too exhausted to cook dinner. So she threw some haddock chowder on the stove, the same chowder that has been offered at pantries across the state. “It was perfect,” she said. “This for me has been a silver lining during all this chaos.” The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance new haddock chowder first arrived in mid-August and proved popular right away...
The October Gale of 1841 was the worst single killer of fishermen in Cape Cod history
Make a list of 57 people you have known since childhood, from your hometown. Make them all men, mostly young men, some teenagers. Think about what they mean to you, the experiences you’ve shared. Then try to imagine all of them dead, lost without warning, never to be seen again.
PHOTO GALLERY: Chatham Pier Fish Market has a busy summer
The more things change, the more they stay the same, and the Chatham Pier Fish Market shows the truth in that. Take a picture tour of the Chatham Fish Pier Market, which although updated has been an important presence at the pier for more than 50 years. Meet Steve Gennodie, the new owner, who has some improvements in the works, but was drawn to the site for its history...
Here’s how comment moves into the federal process
The old line about legislation and sausage being similar – you don’t really want to look too hard at how either of them is made – comes to mind for fishing regulations too. It can be quite a process. Right now we are in the thick of an effort to improve what’s known as “the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan.” Amendment 23 to the plan is on the table, put there after years of discussion (cantankerous and otherwise) backed by data and research...
