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John Pappalardo commercially fished for close to a decade until fishermen thought he should quit his day job and focus on his volunteer work: Being a voice for the fleet at the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association.
Fast forward 20 years and Pappalardo is chief executive officer of the successful organization that is now the Fishermen’s Alliance. But during COVID Pappalardo had a recurring nightmare:
When people talk about the poster fish of warming waters, black sea bass surfaces. The shimmery, tasty fish is also on the tips of tongues when people talk about flaws in the management system.
“Populations are really surging off the Northeast, likely related to climate change,” said Hannah Verkamp, research biologist with the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation in Rhode Island.
Since 2010, landings in the southern Atlantic are down 50 percent. In the mid-Atlantic and New England, landings are up 249 percent and 260 percent respectively.
By Zack Klyver and Pete Kaizer
Reprinted from Bangor Daily News
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is releasing $11 million in disaster relief funds to Atlantic herring harvesters, of which $7 million will go to Maine. These funds should be used to phase out herring trawling by buying back fishing permits in an effort to increase herring stocks and to protect other marine life.
U.S. Atlantic herring landings in the 2000s averaged 206 million pounds annually but have since decreased to below 22 million pounds in 2020 and 2021. The New England Fishery Management Council led a process to craft a 10-year rebuilding plan. This dramatic downturn in herring is likely because variables with climate change are reducing ocean productivity resulting in seven consecutive years of low numbers of young fish surviving to maturity.
Nine fishing schooners were sunk by a submarine on Aug. 10 (1918) on the southeast part of Georges Bank about 160 miles from Cape Cod. Although about 20 dories were sent scurrying about in the ocean as the U-boat sent vessel after vessel to the bottom, there were no casualties, as far as can be learned. Weather was reasonably calm and inside of 36 hours all dories had been picked up by other vessels and their occupants brought safely to shore.
Captain Lynch, lately skipper of the Anastasia E. told the story to a reporter the other day as breakfast was cooking at his home, 81 Summer Street. A modest man of few words, he nevertheless, injected a wealth of drama into the yarn, while leaving much to be filled in by the imagination. Listen to him:
Hookers Ball XXII was one for the record books, our most successful ever. The big, white tent was at a different venue, the Harwich Community Center, but the ball’s purpose was the same: to celebrate the local, commercial fishing industry with the wider community and help protect the fleet’s future. The night was full of old friends and new faces, and more than a few fishing families. With direct sales and neighborly connections, ‘know your fisherman’ is alive and well as one captain kept being waved over to the fish fry to explain his sea clam operation. Take a look at this photo gallery by Salty Broad Studios
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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