Meet the Fisherman: Kurt Martin
By Laurie Higgins Kurt Martin grew up in Orleans and always loved being on the water. When he was 13 years old, he got a student lobster license and started laying a few traps and shell fishing for clams and scallops, which he sold to local restaurants. After he graduated from high school, he began weir fishing as well. In 2000, he bought Nantucket Sound Fish Weirs and fished out of Stage Harbor...
Tasty skate is back on the menu
By Doug Fraser Chatham fishermen, no longer catching cod, are coming into port loaded with skates, whose wings are prized by chefs for their mild, slightly sweet taste and firm texture. But more and more fishermen are seeing a species they can't land: the barndoor skate, the largest of the skate species and once considered so rare it was a candidate for being on the Engangered Species List...
Cape fishermen get permit to catch barndoor skates as part of project
By Nathaniel Weitzer In order to better understand how to manage the endangered population of barndoor skates in the Atlantic Ocean, the National Marine Fisheries Services has granted an Exempted Fishing Permit to the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance, allowing 14 vessels to possess and land this species of fish. Read more.
MV fisherman Alex Friedman talks on impacts of midwater trawlers
Martha’s Vineyard fisherman Alex Friedman talks about how industrial midwater trawlers for sea herring went over their catch limit and this can have implications for the region’s struggling river herring, which often get caught in the same nets. This also impcats the entire ecosystem leaving nothing for whales, seabirds and other fish species to eat...
What Disaster Aid Won't Do for Massachusetts' Fisheries
By Heather Goldstone According to a deal announced last week, Massachusetts will receive nearly half of the federal disaster relief funds coming to the Northeast groundfish industry. Nobody thinks it will solve the fishery's problems. State fishery directors from six northeastern states reached an agreement last week on how to distribute $32...
Meet the Fisherman: Ron Borjeson
The Cape Codder May 24, 2014 Meet the Fisherman: Ron Borjeson Written by Laurie Higgins Ron Borjeson fishes out of Hyannis Harbor on the 40-foot Angenette. He's been a fisherman for 44 years and jokes that his uncle hoodwinked him into it. Joking aside, he is proud to be a second-generation fisherman, and says he knew pretty quickly that fishing was a lifestyle that worked for him...
Whole Foods is Happening
The Barnstable Patriot May 16, 2014 Whole Foods is Happening Written by Kathleen Szmit SIGNS OF THE TIMES – Signs on a wall at the new Whole Foods Market in Hyannis highlight local businesses the market will be doing business with. There’s a new grocery store in town, as of May 14. That’s the day the new Hyannis Whole Foods Market opened, giving Cape Cod shoppers another option in shopping healthy...
Conch Is On The Menu As CCCFA Hosts Meet The Fleet
The Cape Cod Chronicle April 24, 2014 Conch is on the menu as CCCFA hosts Meet the Fleet By Jennifer Sexton Honk if you like conch! If you aren’t sure, Wednesday, April 30 at 5:30 p.m. will be a great time to find out as the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance hosts a Meet the Fleet event starring the channeled whelk, commonly known as the conch...
Coalition eyes plan for fed fishing aid
Cloucester Times April 44, 2014 Coalition eyes plan for fed fishing aid By Sean Horgan
The Countdown to Accountability for the Industrial Sea Herring Fleet
Local fishermen and other regional stakeholders are adamant that we need to learn more about all of the fish being caught by industrial fishing vessels off our coast: the sea herring they target (the preferred food of many ocean species), as well as the river herring and juvenile haddock they catch by accident. The New England Fishery Management Council (the council) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (the fisheries service) are working to put a plan in place to shed much-needed light on what kinds of fish and how much the midwater trawl fleet for sea herring is catching, and to document and report the river herring, juvenile haddock and other species they catch by accident (as bycatch) and have those fish counted against their bycatch quota...
Cod shortage hits Cape Cod
See full story at the London Telegraph By David Millward Falling catches have forced the fisherman of Cape Cod to tie up their boats and turn to the American government for a bailout to save the region's fishing community from a spiral of decline. A combination of overfishing and a predatory seal population is driving many fishermen out of the business altogether...
