News

Click here to read the December issue of Small Boats. Big Ideas! Read about our 30th anniversary from our beginnings to our policy and scientific work.

Times were uncertain, paychecks were small, cod were scarce, there was talk of fishing moratoriums and small boats being pushed out of the fisheries. Then meeting notices started appearing around the docks, talking about organizing a group of hook and line fishermen. “These moratoriums were going to be based on catch history and these big decisions by the councils were making people antsy, there were red flags,” said Mark Simonitsch, who had some signs at what was then his dock on Stage Harbor...

Chris King got into the commercial fisheries with his father, has been on his own for more than three decades, and has seen a lot of changes. Now comes warming waters. “My brother said to me it seems the water is warming and we are not catching flatfish,” King said after his brother came home from a recent trip on their boat, the Donna Marie...

Five years ago, John Pappalardo and Nick Muto were sitting at the Fishermen’s Alliance office chatting about the 25th anniversary of the nonprofit when they were asked to look 25 years into the future: What were their hopes for the fishing industry? Pappalardo, CEO of the Fishermen’s Alliance, emphasized the Cape needed more hard numbers that showed the fishing economy’s importance...

] CHATHAM – When local shellfishermen wanted help setting up a meeting with officials from the state division of marine fisheries to discuss changes in regulations governing quahog size, they turned to an unlikely source: The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance. Until fairly recently, few would have made a connection between the Alliance and shellfish...

They say a photo is worth a thousand words, the images in the gallery are at least that. They tell the story of our journey and all the people who helped us along the way - many of whom are going to be with us as we navigate the next 30 years. They also provide a fun look back at our younger selves and the issues we campaigned for. Thanks for being part of our history, present and future...

Much of this month’s issue conjures up stories and images going back 30 years, when the first incarnation of this alliance came together as “the hook” and then evolved. Now it’s my turn to pivot, look forward, and peer into a crystal ball: What might the next 30 bring? After staring awhile, and closing my eyes awhile too, here are some things I now foresee:

Click here to read the November issue of Small Boats. Big Ideas! Read about our Fishermen Training program - which connects people to a career on the water - Provincetown's history as a cod port, the fishy benefits of whale poop and more.

Maria Marelli, a bubbly bartender, has worked on several shellfish farms and is looking to get on a commercial fishing vessel, so when the call came at 4 a.m. she picked up. But when the captain asked if she wanted to go out that day, she said no. She was attending the Fishermen Training program she had told him about. “Awesome,” was his response...

Marine mammals eat fish, so more marine mammals equal fewer fish, right? And since fishermen want lots of fish, more marine mammals are bad news for fishermen, right? New research led by Stanford University’s Matt Savuca, involving a team of scientists from Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, is showing that things are not that simple: hungry whales actually feed the ecosystem...

Great Eastern Seafood has been a great partner in our “Small Boats, Big Taste” haddock chowder program, a major seafood processor who has handled hundreds of thousands of pounds of small haddock in our first year, supplying the key ingredient in a chowder that has been sent to food banks and pantries across Cape Cod, New England, and the Northeast to warm hearts and bellies...

Commercial fishing transformed Provincetown generations ago, close to 700 boats filling the port, salted cod covering flat surfaces all along the waterfront. “It is hard for most people to imagine that Provincetown was overtaken by the commercial fishing industry,” said Mary Everett Patriquin, public programs coordinator at Cape Cod Maritime Museum in Hyannis...