News

Couple strengthens fisheries in Bourne

Oct 25, 2022 | Fish Tales, News

Fresh off a weekend pop-up raw bar serving oysters from their farm, lobster rolls from their Sea State food truck, and “Small Boats, Big Taste” haddock chowder from the Fishermen’s Alliance, Pat and Jenny Ross stood in their market in Bourne as fishermen showed up at the back door with fresh local product.

“This wasn’t on the life plan,” laughed Pat, who grew up in Bourne but only shellfished recreationally, occasionally, with his dad.

Both Pat and Jenny went to art school before they met, Pat for photography in Boston, Jenny for design in New York. They met at a Halloween party in 2009.

Time for some holistic talk in Chatham

Oct 25, 2022 | Over the Bar, News

The ocean doesn’t subdivide and segregate, that’s not nature’s way. Mixing and mingling, coursing and combining, always is the default.

But that fact of life can drive fisheries managers crazy. If everything always is in flux, interconnected in the complex play and way of life, how can we be smart and responsible, know what we’ve got and what to do, keep commercial fishing strong while thinking ahead and protecting both habitat and fishing for the future?

Calabrese nets good news for cod

Sep 27, 2022 | Plumbing the Depths, News

“We just completed our third video trawl survey in the western Gulf of Maine this May. For three years we’ve tracked a large year class of cod from 2019 that has continued to show healthy growth without major mortality.

The 2019 young of the year were observed in multiple surveys (they slip through our net’s bigger mesh). Again in 2020 we saw areas with high densities of fish that were approximately the size we would expect if they had been young in 2019.”

John Linnell, a fixture on the shore

Sep 27, 2022 | Charting the Past, News

Longraking is hard work, hours in a skiff scouring for quahogs with a 25-foot-pole attached to a 30-pound basket, often in miserable weather.

Harvesters might get grumpy, exhausted, then dissolve into laughter when John Linnell takes a break for pushups.

“Or sit ups,” said Mike Anderson, who has longraked beside Linnell for decades. “You could see his boots in the air. And he used to run home in those boots.

“He was, is, bigger than life,” said Anderson.

Despite hurdles, young fishermen stay on Cape

Jul 26, 2022 | Fish Tales, News

As soon as he was old enough to ride a bicycle around Barnstable, Connor Rogan was fishing. After he got his driver’s license it was easier and he started working on charter boats when he was 16.

“Once I started making money at it I was like, ‘Wow, this is perfect,’” he said.

Ecosystem Armageddon: Can We Prevent it ?

Jul 26, 2022 | Aids to Navigation, News

Temperatures are increasing, sea levels rising. Ocean currents are unpredictable and marine heatwaves bring us to a climate tipping point. Hurricanes follow hard on the heels of one another, creating temporary dead zones.

Estuarine nurseries are shadows, choked by sea level rise, coastal population growth, armoring the coast, and marsh die offs. Productivity plummets and poisonous plankton blooms proliferate.