Fish Tales

Domenic Santoro, like many in Chatham, dug for clams off Monomoy from the moment he was old enough and has bounced around from fishery to fishery since.

The parking lot at Ryder’s Cove boatyard was virtually empty on a cold March morning when several pickup trucks pulled in and waited with engines running.

Dawson Farber has been in and around Cape Cod waters his entire life. The Orleans native is heading into his fourth year as Dennis Harbormaster, after nearly two decades as Harbormaster and Natural Resources Director for Orleans.

Wendy Farrell had spent the morning taking oysters off her grant in Orleans and was using a measuring ring to sort them on a big wooden table in her backyard — while also talking a bit about real estate.

When she was 14 years old, Zia Auch moved from Maine to live year-round in Wellfleet, the town where she was born.

When Tim Linnell bought his first fishing boat he brought his six-year-old son Sam up to Maine to pick it up.

Three crew members are musing about the dire situation; there is pain, and embarrassment.

Heading around Monomoy Point just after 3 a.m., with no moonlight, the dark is encompassing. The lights on Ted Ligenza’s boat offer no respite from the blackness as he heads to the fishing grounds.

Leaving Hyannis Harbor just before 5 a.m., Captain Tom Smith arrives on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound a few hours later and pulls alongside a boat with three fishermen trying to use rods to reel in bluefish.