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To emphasis how important commercial fishing is to the economic health of the entire Cape, we attended the Cape Cod Commission’s “OneCape” summit, and offered a presentation entitled “Seven Degrees of Connection between the Cape and the commercial fisheries.” It was a play on “Six Degrees of Separation,” or “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” as you prefer, a little whimsy and personal touch meant with serious intent. The idea: Pick one boat, one captain, and explore how the Fishermen’s Alliance’s work connects the economic dots.

In any harbor, with any boat, this idea could apply. Since the summit was held at Wychmere Beach Club, next door to Wychmere Harbor in Harwich, we started there, with a photo of a boat familiar to many: 

While Formula One go-karts whizzed along a track, and Radar Love blared, emcee Matt Pitta kept up a running commentary for thousands gathered at Mashpee Commons to watch the 23rd annual Seaside Le Mans. Sometimes, he said, he felt like he was at the Superbowl.
“As I walked up to some of the tents they covered their mouths with clipboards,” chuckled Pitta.
“I love it,” said Stephanie Viva, a Cape radio personality helping him keep the crowd entertained. “They take it seriously. They are in it to win it.”

Hatch’s Fish Market in Wellfleet has a basement smoker with a pipe through the roof, and on certain summer days the cloying scent of sunscreen in town is replaced with a savory, maple-wood, campfire smell.

“The smoke goes all through the town,” said Tom Smith, Captain of F/V Sea Wolf.

The smell of bluefish on the smoker is so good that people are drawn to the Main Street fish and produce market, a stone’s throw from town hall.

“I call him the Pied Piper,” Smith said of Adrien Kmiec, who owns the popular spot.

Meet the Fleets are all about demystifying the lives of commercial fishermen and the catch they bring to shore. There is lot of confusion out there.
Aubrey Church, policy director at the Fishermen’s Alliance, offered an example. Years ago, her mother saw lemon sole in the grocery store and wondered if it was lemon-flavored flounder.
“It’s a running joke in my family,” Church said with a laugh.

Most mornings on the way to work in Chatham, Ray Rowell will take the long way out of Wellfleet along Ocean View Drive, past White Crest Beach, to look out at the Atlantic and check who’s fishing.
 “I can see if there are any clam boats out there,” Rowell said. “It’s my way of keeping tabs on things. I also compulsively check the weather.”
Rowell used to be on clam boats until the Bentley College graduate took a job as a sales agent with a life insurance company. Then he saw an advertisement for Fisheries Permit Bank Director at the Fishermen’s Alliance:

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.