Plumbing the Depths

When Samuel de Champlain visited Wellfleet Harbor in 1606, he named the place “Port aux Huitres,” Port of Oysters.

A lot has changed, but the name still rings true.  

“Oysters are ingrained into the fabric of our community,” said Nancy Civetta, Wellfleet shellfish constable. “We prioritize that way of life.”

Jon Grabowski played a video of a cute baby lobster in a tank, scuttling out of his rocky hideaway only to be quickly eaten by a blue crab with a black sea bass looking on.
The stuff of nightmares, joked Grabowski, professor and assistant director at Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center. Grabowski, along with several other researchers, was speaking as part of the National Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative, meant to address critical knowledge gaps about lobster in a changing ocean.
The initiative was launched in 2019 and focuses on increasing the industry’s resilience to biological, economic, and social impacts of ecosystem change.

Captain Dean Karoblis has a close relationship with the John Deere engine that powers his fishing vessel Molly May. He trusts it; as with all fishermen that’s crucial, for lobstermen perhaps even more so.
“Everything I fish is right whale critical habitat,” he said, adding the season is so short, missed days are disastrous. “If any lobsterman is down and out when it’s on, you’re screwed.”
Still, he is willing to experiment with something new.

Known as much for its shifting sands as 66 miles of coastline, Chatham relies on dredging and town officials believed they had permits in hand to do the required work.
“We thought we were approaching the finish line, but we were not,” said Greg Berman, Chatham’s director of natural resources. “We are hitting our heads against the wall.”
Communication delays with regulatory agencies meant they discovered last-minute they weren’t going to get a comprehensive dredging permit. The town barely had time to re-direct essential projects out of the larger permit application.

By Doreen Leggett For about a year, Captain Glen LeGeyt carved out half an hour, twice a month, to step inside the shucking house of his vessel the Tricia Lynn and write down precise measurements, as well as take multiple pictures, of a dozen or so scallops his crew...

Fishermen’s Alliance Policy Director Aubrey Church, Shelley Edmundson, Executive Director of the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust, and Joshua Reitsma from WHOI Sea Grant Program and Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, joined Mindy Todd from National Public Radio WCAI’s public affairs show “The Point” to explore fishing and aquaculture. It was a great conversation, ranging from federal cuts to how fishing permits work. Below is an edited version. 
Mindy Todd: Commercial fishing has been part of the cultural and economic fabric of this region for generations. Fishing has always been hard work, but changes to the climate, water quality, fish stocks and restrictions on where, when and how fin and shellfish are caught have made the profession even more challenging.  
What are the major fishing ports on Cape and how has that changed?

By Doreen Leggett  

Captain Mark Leach has been fishing for close to 40 years and has many opportunities to try different baits, when it comes to lobster they often don’t work.
He and his son Sean, now a captain himself, recently had the opportunity to experiment again, this time with Asian carp.  
“More options are better than no options,” said Sean. “No one has actually cracked the code on this, but we’ll see.”

During an unseasonably cold February week in San Diego, California, hundreds of people from across the country gathered to explore how to protect one of the country’s greatest assets – working waterfronts — and talk about success stories like these:

The 100 percent Great Lakes Initiative aims to demonstrate how 100 percent of commercially-caught fish from the Great Lakes can be used for different purposes beyond just food. Fancy a whitefish skin wallet? Collagen-serum moisturizer?
With waterfront property a red-hot commodity, Maine legislators passed a bill that allows owners who protect commercial fishing wharves and other working waterfronts up to 40 percent off their tax bill.
Fishermen in Kodiak, Alaska were getting crushed by the low price of fish and high cost of fuel, so they made investments and now 99.9 percent of their electricity is renewable.