A Day in Photos

On a Tuesday morning in early summer, Cod Fish II is already hard at work in Wychmere Harbor. The dredge’s long mechanical arm, called a “ladder”, extends down to the seabed, where spinning blades loosen the sediment before a pump sucks up the “slurry” through a tube, depositing it on a nearby beach to rebuild the shorelines from the stormy winter. Wychmere, in the town of Harwich, has been a particularly difficult case.

Ray Rowell was at Saquatucket Harbor in Harwich talking to a few captains working on their boats. One of them mentioned they were looking for crew, a consistent problem on the Cape. Conveniently Rowell was running a Fishermen Training program nearby. Seven people went through the training that ran from May 18 to May 20 taught by Fred Mattera and Mitch Hatzipetro of Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island.  Check out our gallery.

Rock Harbor’s future is bright, grounded in a rich history of thriving commercial fisheries and memorable local characters. With strong community support, the town has invested in restoring the aging pier that sustained the fleet. The improvements will help protect and grow the industry and ensure a steady supply of fresh seafood for years to come. This photo gallery provides a glimpse of the progress at the famous spot in Orleans, courtesy of Hap Farrell, a long-time charter boat captain.

When we talk about our work, the response is often, “We didn’t know you were involved in so much!”
Advocacy, education, policy, community organizing, economic development, research, communications, fundraising — the list goes on. To provide a sense of the breadth of activities we undertake we put together a snapshot (figuratively and literally) of some of what our staff has been up to recently. Take a look.

This has been an historic winter. We just went through a blizzard that many compared to 1978 with tree damage that rivaled Hurricane Bob. Before that, our harbors were iced in, with fishermen unable to go to work. See some of the images along with efforts to set the fleet free in this photo gallery.

A decade ago, the Fishermen’s Alliance was one of the founding members of the Cape’s Blue Economy Foundation because although commercial fishing is the original blue economy, it relies on a constellation of maritime business that help sustain our coastal community. The next generation is also essential to the success of our peninsula, which is why we have been part of the Foundation’s WaterWORKS career fair since it began in 2019. We thought it would be fun to take a look back at the commercial fishermen who spent time at the event over the years and talked to close to 1,000 students about opportunities in the industry.

Thanksgiving is a fitting time to thank chroniclers, archivists, historians, those who capture places and times so they aren’t lost. Charlie Miller (profiled in this issue) is one of those people, more by chance than intent. He spent his life around Rock Harbor and he had a camera that captured more than 50 years of history. We are sharing some of his photos from the 1960s and 1970s with the reminder to protect and preserve the places you love for those who come after. 

There are a lot of fishy connections between Cape Cod and Alaska, many stories of fishermen from Chatham and Provincetown spending several months to several years there and coming home with enough money to buy a boat. Also common are tales of those who fish summers in the Pacific and come home to fish here the rest of the year.Caitlin Townsend, who lobsters and scallops, is in that category after salmon fishing in Bristol Bay. This photo gallery captures scenes of the Alaskan fishery that draws people from all over the country and provides a glimpse of her gear recycling work through Net Your Problem, which started in Alaska and now has a presence on the Cape. Salmon fishing photos by Sofia DeWolfe others courtesy of Caitlin Townsend.