Newcomer keeps century-old quahogging tradition alive
Not too long ago the Orleans harbormaster, a bit worried, asked a longtime fisherman to keep watch on a young guy who had started bullraking in Cape Cod Bay with no more experience than watching a few videos on YouTube. “In two days I made about $28,” said Chris Viprino, the young guy in question, on a recent overcast day at Rock Harbor. “I spent a winter doing it...
Q&A with Dan McKiernan
A lot of water passes under a personal bridge in 34 years, which is how long Dan McKiernan has been working in and around the Massachusetts fishing industry. His recent appointment as director of the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries is a culmination of that career journey – which also means the tens of thousands of hours he has spent commuting from Sandwich to Boston over the years will continue, at least when some semblance of normalcy returns and the pandemic fades...
Bluefin tuna are in good shape, but do people know?
In April, in the throes of COVID, Red’s Best CEO Jared Auerbach started thinking about the upcoming Atlantic bluefin tuna season. He found some great news that he expected to be trumpeted by media outlets everywhere, but he couldn’t find so much as a mention. “The fishery got upgraded and no one is speaking the message that it is a healthy fish stock,” he said...
Quahogs made Rock Harbor
Captain Tom Smith grew up in Orleans and remembers going down to Rock Harbor to see the fishing boats when he was a kid. “There has always been a little quahog fleet in there,” Smith recalls. Most associate the tidal harbor the town shares with Eastham with the trees that mark its channel, and the popular charter boat fleet. But the quahog industry predates and has been as constant as the tides...
PHOTO GALLERY: Rock Harbor at Work
Rock Harbor is one pretty place. Sure people rave about the sunsets, which are phenomenal. And they wonder about the funny trees, often sprouting incongruous street signs, which mark the channel. The clam trees, as they are called, are installed every year and are part of the charm of the small port shared by Orleans and Eastham. But the trees, which old-time quahoggers used to put clams under, don’t explain the allure of the place...
Now come the next big steps
Our goal is clear: Keep the independent, small-boat, historic fishing fleet of the Cape and Islands alive and well. Support fishermen who help feed our communities, our nation, and the world. Do so in a way that also helps protect the ocean’s health and vitality so the next generation of fishermen will be able to carry on, and all of us will benefit from that wise stewardship...
New kelp venture unites experienced trio
The spring day was cold, but the greenhouse Jamie Bassett was standing in felt cozy as he and Richard Curtiss picked dried kelp from lines strung from the ceiling. “We’ve had a banner year,” Bassett said, popping a piece of crispy kale into his mouth. “They dried beautifully. It is very nice, crunchy, kind of tastes like umami.” Some call umami the fifth taste after sweet, sour, bitter and salt...
Meet Nicole Cabana
Our lives are less spontaneous, with fewer opportunities for unexpected fun encounters, than they were just a few months ago. For example, with the Wellfleet Oyster Fest canceled, there’s no way I’ll have the chance to bump into Nicole Cabana and her family, as happened last year, and enjoy spending time with a dedicated NOAA Corps Officer who late last month was promoted to become the new deputy director of NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center, based in Woods Hole...
Pier to plate takes off during pandemic
Since the state made it easier for fishermen to sell direct from the dock during the pandemic, fisherman Kevin Conway got to thinking of ways to make it easier for people to find out about it. So he created a Facebook page: Cape Cod Local Seafood. “I went to bed at 2:30 in the morning and when I woke up I had more than 1,000 followers,” said Conway, who had just gotten in his truck after selling haddock at Rock Harbor in Orleans on a recent sunny Saturday afternoon...
“Billingsgate,” from Olde England to Wellfleet to Atlantis
If you were to pick one English word that relates to commercial fishing with the longest history and deepest association, probably it would be “Billingsgate.” So it’s fitting that long before the American Revolution, “Billingsgate” connected Olde England to its fish-rich colony on Cape Cod at least as much as other names like Barnstable, Chatham, and Yarmouth...
PHOTO GALLERY: A seaweed success story
The largest permitted commercial kelp farm in the state quietly exists about a half mile off Harding’s Beach in Chatham. Since it got its start late in 2018 it has been slowly growing, literally and figuratively, mostly under the radar (as well as the water) because it is a winter crop. So when most people are in the water during the warmer months of May through October, the co-owners of Chatham Kelp – Jamie Bassett, Carl Douglass and Richard Curtiss – are already gone...
