Aids to Navigation

By Zack Klyver and Pete Kaizer

Reprinted from Bangor Daily News 

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is releasing $11 million in disaster relief funds to Atlantic herring harvesters, of which  $7 million will go to Maine. These funds should be used to phase out herring trawling by buying back fishing permits in an effort to increase herring stocks and to protect other marine life. 

U.S.  Atlantic herring landings in the 2000s averaged 206 million pounds annually but have since decreased to below 22 million pounds in 2020 and 2021. The New England Fishery Management Council led a process to craft a 10-year rebuilding plan. This dramatic downturn in herring is likely because  variables with climate change are reducing ocean productivity resulting in seven consecutive years of low numbers of young fish surviving to maturity.  

At the end of June, traveling up to Freeport, Maine for the most recent New England Fishery Management Council meeting, I found myself thinking back to 2011.

I was a bright-eyed, naive, 20-year-old who had decided after college to become an at-sea monitor and fisheries observer. I headed out of Gloucester on my first multi-day trip on the F/V Lady Jane with Russell Sherman.

Scott MacAllister, captain of F/V Carol Marie, ice coffee in hand, cap pulled low, told a capacity crowd at the Fishermen’s Alliance about getting ready for a day’s work.

“The morning routine is you sit there, have your coffee, and tape your fingers together,” said the 30-year-old captain.

The crew then puts on gloves to further protect their hands from spines on the skates they catch. MacAllister also picks up a tool to help harvest:

Senator Julian Cyr was at an event at the Chatham Fish Pier on a recent warm May day, pleased that with the pandemic receding he could speak without a mask, but troubled by one thing that hadn’t diminished; the pervasiveness of hunger.

“People are really struggling and continue to struggle,” he said. “I think it’s important to remember how much need we have on the Cape and Islands.” 

David and Nina Bennett of Eastham attended their first Meet the Fleet at the Fishermen’s Alliance and heard first-hand about Chatham’s mussel fishery and how Jeremiah Reardon, chef and owner at Red River Barbeque, had prepared the evening’s tasting – Mussels with Smoked Texas Sausage.

“Fascinating,” said Nina. “I learned so much.”

Take a piece of paper, grab a pencil, and draw a scientist — or draw one in your mind’s eye. Is “he” holding a test tube, wearing a white coat, standing in a lab and looking like crazy-haired Doc Brown from “Back to the Future”?

That image is far too limiting and not at all what Sarah Oktay, executive director of the Center for Coastal Studies, wants people to conjure.

Thank you, Julia Child.

When John Our first started fishing with his dad Jack, they used to throw monkfish overboard. Then, in the 1980s, Julia Child started cooking so-called poor man’s lobster and sales took off.

“She made monkfish very popular, and it really helped the fleet,” said Our.

Alex Hay of Wellfleet Shellfish Company was on screen, shucking meaty surf clams for linguiça-infused stuffies, when an audience member following along at home raised a virtual hand.

Jenn Allard of Mainsail Events and Marketing, who had pulled together the Meet the Fleet Zoom for the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, encouraged the question as one camera filmed Hay’s cutting board and the other focused on his face.