Plumbing the Depths

They have a name: Peter Pan scallops.

This winter, when he’s not fishing, Tom Smith will spend time in his backyard replacing some of the webbing in his nets.

When Owen Nichols and Charlie Beggs set out to study lobster settlement in Pleasant Bay, in 2014, both had already been working on the water for a long time so weren’t easily surprised. But that day they were – twice.

John Pappalardo is proud of how the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance is well into its second quarter century navigating the tumultuous fisheries world. And he knows why it has survived.

When Kara Dodge, a scientist at the New England Aquarium, began doing leatherback sea turtle research more than a dozen years ago, she turned to local fishermen for help.

Seasonal gear bans to protect North Atlantic Right Whales in Cape Cod Bay and surrounding waters usually end May 1, but this year lobstermen in the Bay were off the water until May 10 because the highly endangered mammal was still seen in Cape Cod Bay.

Anyone who has worked on Cape Cod’s waterfronts will have plenty of anecdotes about the creeping level of the sea.

“When I first started fishing, I didn’t realize how important water temperature could be,” says Greg Walinski, “but obviously it plays a big role in everything we do.”

Chris Clark has made a life of listening to whales and was invited to a Congressional hearing to speak on the threat seismic testing for oil reserves poses to the highly endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.