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While pursuing a graduate degree in fisheries oceanography at University of Alaska Fairbanks, Mike Palmer accompanied his thesis text with stunning, exact renderings of fish.
“I thought I could draw them myself and wouldn’t have to deal with copyright infringement,” Palmer remembers.
A lifetime later, Palmer still draws fish, shellfish and other sea creatures, but now the art is at the forefront, accompanied by research.
Numbers surfaced at the annual meeting of the Fishermen’s Alliance last month – 504, 2, 7, 3, 12, 25, 10,000, 228,000, 1.7 million, and more. Each is part of a story.
The first several were shared by Policy Manager Aubrey Church, who started in February of last year.
She has spent more than 500 hours in New England Fishery Management Council meetings advocating for the fleets on the Cape, tracking myriad, changing federal regulations. If the hours CEO John Pappalardo and Outreach Coordinator Ray Kane (who is on state and regional committees) are added, the number more than doubles.
Kayla Boucher, a ninth-grader at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School, joined by her classmates, had some questions of Captains Ken Baughman and Bradley Louw at the WaterWORKS career day at Cape Cod Community College in mid-January.
What was your longest trip? Six days.
Biggest boat you fished on? 138 feet.
How big is your boat now? Smaller.
Do you oyster farm? No, but it is a sustainable fishery and good for the environment.
How much money do you make? One time I made $56,000 in less than a week.
And one favorite question from Boucher: How far do you have to go out?
“We told her that some of the best fishing grounds in the world are in our backyard,” Baughman said.
As a fishing boat full of silvery mackerel unloaded below, State Representative Dylan Fernandes, up from Falmouth, stood on the Chatham Fish Pier and presented the Fishermen’s Alliance with a $500,000 check, approved in the state budget, to help support and modernize the Cape’s commercial fisheries.
“Fishing is not just an industry on the Cape and Islands. It is woven into the very culture and fabric of our communities,” Rep. Fernandes said on a blustery late November day.
There has been loose talk that people shouldn’t eat lobster because harvesting the crustacean is harmful to the environment, and that the Massachusetts industry is in decline.
None of that is true.
“I want you to remember what you heard tonight about lobster being a sustainable, local fishery and you can feel good about eating it,” said Aubrey Church, policy manager at the Fishermen’s Alliance.
Carlos Barbosa, a leading figure in the Brazilian community, is frustrated that some students are so hungry they check the high school dumpster for food that has been thrown away.
Michael Mecenas, founder of Health Ministry USA in Hyannis, says he knows people who fished in their homeland of Brazil but now that they are on the Cape, they aren’t seeing similar opportunities.
Imagine being a new crew member on a commercial fishing vessel.
The sea seems empty at 2 a.m., miles from shore, when the captain asks you to take watch while he grabs some sleep. After taking the free online Cape Cod Fishermen Training Course, you know you need to make sure you have answers to some important questions:
“What does an approaching vessel look like on the radar? What course track line am I following on the chart plotter? How do I adjust course? What is the emergency channel for the radio?”
The new course, developed by Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, is a broad overview of fisheries basics and covers everything from gear types to regulations.
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.
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