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John Soposki had just finished his serving of coconut curry conch when he was asked how he liked it.
“I almost ate the plate too,” he grinned.

In the film “The Hand That Holds the Line” Captain Tim Linnell chokes up talking about the community banding together to help his family when his young son Sam had leukemia.
Sam, now a captain himself, also talks about the strong bond between fishermen and how they always lend a hand.
Chris Viprino, who lost his boat in a fire, says he will never forget the tremendous outpouring of support he received.

With 130 people gathered for an international virtual workshop, a cautionary story was told about a fishery in North Carolina shut down because “little old ladies in tennis shoes” found dead birds on the beach.
Fisheries closures through political pressure is an extreme and often avoidable outcome that didn’t sit well with fishermen, and others focused on more collaborative approaches to protecting birds.

Many students who attend WaterWORKS, an annual gathering at Cape Cod Community College, want to hear from different employers in the Blue Economy, explore job and career options from wastewater treatment to mosquito control to tagging sharks.
Not Barnstable High’s Theresa Wait. She knew exactly what she wants to do: commercial fishing.

Most farmers don’t have to worry about the tides. The carrots and tomatoes tend to mind their own business on solid ground, always available for a look-see.
But if you wrangle oysters for a living, the ever-changing moods of the ocean are front and center. Low tide is your time to work. You’ve got to make those precious hours count. Sure, the oysters aren’t going to run away, but they need love and attention along the lengthy journey to market size.
This was just one takeaway from an action-packed Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT) Oyster Farm Tour, a splendid outing on a beautiful evening, with the tide rolling out and the sun sweetly sinking into Cape Cod Bay.

To create the documentary “The Hand that Holds the Line,” Geoff Bassett and Kim Roderiques spent more than a hundred hours with Cape Cod’s commercial fishermen, capturing life on the water, the impact of difficult weather, long hours, variable markets and onerous regulations. One thing stood out:
“They all have a love for it,” said Bassett. “That’s fantastic to see, the majority of the film is people smiling.”

A table stretched a few hundred feet on the L-shaped end of MacMillan Pier in Provincetown, draped with white linen, set with a dazzling array of plates and wine glasses. While attendees enjoyed hors d’oeuvres, Mike Chute held the evening’s menu above the expanse to take a picture before guests were seated.

With 400 people gathered under a party tent on an August night, one would expect plenty of noise, but during John Pappalardo’s speech there was silence.

“We are here tonight because we belong to a place—a real place. Cape Cod is not an idea or a brand,” Pappalardo, CEO of the Fishermen’s Alliance, told the crowd. “It is a stretch of coastline carved by time and tide, filled with working hands and living stories. The men and women who fish its waters have done so not for fortune, but for sustenance, for dignity, and for the hope of passing something along.”

The audience wasn’t quiet when Lisa Whelan began describing what she made for that night’s Meet the Fleet.
The recipe includes an Asian sweet and spicy sauce, said the owner and chef at Dancing Spoons, to a chorus of “mmms” and “mmhmms,” with wild onions and the leafy green tops of vegetables from her garden. Then came a round of “yums.”
Long-finned squid, also known as Loligo, was the centerpiece and received the most oohs and ahhs of all.