Fish Tales

One of Will Ligenza’s first jobs was crewing on a boat out of Chatham 20 years ago with a skinny high school kid named Farrell Davis, and the captain said, “If you make that kid cry I will give you $50.”

Sandy Peterson, who lives at Liberty Commons in Chatham, loves to watch cooking shows, particularly on PBS.

In the 1990s, a lot of clams landed in Chatham and Domenic Santoro remembers a young guy coming to Barn Hill Landing with a pick-up truck, ice box on the back.

Just after 9 a.m. on a warm March day, Dan Howes was in his barn sorting oysters taken off the grant that morning.

Kelsie Linnell was spending 10 days in a row on a 75-foot boat, working during the day and pulling the 1 to 6 a.m. watch; when she did get on land it was for 24 hours at a time trying to pack in all she missed: seeing friends and family, going to the gym, going out to dinner, and grabbing a good cup of coffee.

Craig Poosikian was a summer kid from New Jersey fishing in Harwich when he caught the fish that got him hooked.

Times were uncertain, paychecks were small, cod were scarce, there was talk of fishing moratoriums and small boats being pushed out of the fisheries. Then meeting notices started appearing around the docks, talking about organizing a group of hook and line fishermen.

Maria Marelli, a bubbly bartender, has worked on several shellfish farms and is looking to get on a commercial fishing vessel, so when the call came at 4 a.m. she picked up.

Leverman Corey Fleming was running controls on the Cod Fish II, and after he carved out each linear section he stuck his arm out the window and pointed.