Over the Bar

In support of herring, a surprising contribution

In support of herring, a surprising contribution

We are neck-deep in the fight to protect herring, a crucial way to allow the ocean to do what it does so amazingly well: support life with beautiful diversity.

Because a federal judge overturned regulations that would have kept large trawlers off our coast, we have mustered for yet another lengthy public hearing process to make that ocean herring get a fighting chance to return to health. At the same time, with the same advocacy, we can protect river herring that want to come up our freshwater runs every spring, an ancient right of passage many of our towns have worked hard and invested public funds to encourage.

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Chowder and stew to another food pantry, this time in a school

Chowder and stew to another food pantry, this time in a school

At the Cape’s biggest high school, Barnstable, we’ve joined forces with some great people to launch a new initiative that I wish wasn’t needed:
Cape Cod’s first school-based pantry to serve students and their families facing food insecurity.
Our part? Make sure “Small Boats Big Taste” haddock chowder, fish stew, and clam chowder are part of the offerings.
“Red Hawks Food Pantry” is the brainchild of Dave Badot, Barnstable High School’s food and nutritional director, with a lot of help from Moira Bundschuh, the school’s family and community coordinator.

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Chowder and stew to another food pantry, this time in a school

What they mean by FLW

At a recent conference of people from all over the country (including us) who are working on ways to feed communities with more healthy and local food, by day two the focus shifted in a remarkable way. Talk swirled around a three-letter acronym:

FLW — Food Loss and Waste.

Speakers from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, under the umbrella of the USDA (the United States Department of Agriculture), announced big plans to try to cut down on loss and waste in our food system. For people with experience dealing with the federal government, their approach sounded familiar:

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Chowder and stew to another food pantry, this time in a school

The amazing collection of people and pieces that creates “Small Boats, Big Taste”

Wrapping up another year, one of our many 2023 accomplishments shines as the calendar turns:
The success of the “Small Boats, Big Taste” program.
By year’s end we will have provided close to two million servings of Haddock Chowder and Provençal Fish Stew to food banks and pantries across Cape Cod and Massachusetts since the early days of COVID. Next month we’re adding a third great offering, Cape Cod clam chowder.

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In support of herring, a surprising contribution

The feast of the seven Cape Cod fishes

When I was a kid, an important part of our family’s Christmas Eve routine was to head to my great uncle’s house, where we knew he was celebrating a tradition much older than us:

The feast of seven fishes.

This celebration came into being in southern Italy centuries ago. It arose because the Catholic Church created prohibitions against eating meat in advance of a feast day, Christmas in this case; the big fishy meal was part of a devout, tasty vigil celebrating the anniversary of the birth of the baby Jesus come morning.

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My small role in international diplomacy

My small role in international diplomacy

For more than two decades now, every year around this time I become an international diplomat.

My mission? Join a team negotiating a deal with Canadians about how the two countries should divide up fishing rights in one of the most fertile offshore areas in the world, Eastern Georges Bank.

Maps show a line through Georges that doesn’t exist on the water of course. It’s the boundary between the countries, and it took the World Court in the Hague to define it after bitter disputes dating back to the 1970s. As both the US and Canada extended their control of fishing rights, a huge area – 13,000 to 18,000 nautical miles – was contested.

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My small role in international diplomacy

Billions of federal dollars with a message: Climate change is here

When talk about climate change and global warming started surfacing, many in the local commercial fishing fleet were skeptical.

If fishermen are nothing else, they are deeply engaged in the marine world, keen observers of their experiences offshore. Many keep detailed logbooks that record every trip, where they go, how much they land, water temperature, depth, all data points that captains connect to inform and define future effort. They trust their own observations and histories much more than surveys and assessments created by scientists on research vessels who come and go. Many times, fishermen have been proven right, which drives even more incredulity.

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My small role in international diplomacy

To protect herring, we’re back in the regulatory weeds

When a single federal judge overturned and blocked years of work by many in this community (as well as allies up and down the coast) to stop mid-water trawling near our coast so we can help revive historic herring stocks and runs, it was a body blow. But we promised we’d get off the ropes and into the middle of the ring for another round.

Here we are.

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