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When Sasha Tomasek-Little came to the Cape more than five years ago from farm country in Connecticut, she was struck by the ocean and fishermen who build their lives on it.
“It was mind-blowing how hard they work and the brotherhood,” Tomasek-Little said.
She was surprised the industry wasn’t celebrated more. Coming from a marketing and public relations background it seemed to her there is a wealth of knowledge and stories to share, along with the local catch.
A few years ago, dragger fishermen were calling John Pappalardo, CEO of the Fishermen’s Alliance, saying they were catching a lot of fluke.
There is a good market for the tasty, white fish, but fishermen were frustrated because they were throwing them overboard.
“They don’t have permits to catch them,” said Pappalardo.
Morgan Ward, an oyster farmer, was sitting on the tailgate of his truck on the sand flats of Dennis, excited.
“Oysters are best in fall and winter,” Ward said, recorded by a video camera. “Make them a Thanksgiving tradition … Cook them, fry them, roast them. They are magic, they are delicious, they bring people together.”
Ward, in the documentary film “Tide to Table” shown at the Chatham Orpheum Theater last week, wasn’t done with his ode to oysters.
David Jerauld stopped fishing decades ago, but stories of his boat, the Pocahontas, still find their way into conversations.
“A legendary name for a legendary boat,” said Paul Gasek from Brewster, who crewed for Jerauld back in the 1970s before going on to another kind of career in fisheries; producer of the popular television show, “The Deadliest Catch.”
Jerauld has landscaped for years – too many days at sea away from his family convinced him to jump ship – but he grew up fishing.
Comparing fish markets around the world is always fascinating, and always reminds me of the historic depth and power of our fishery back home.
Latest example: Sicily.
Mondello, at the fringe of muscular Palermo, perches on the sea with a fine sand beach that lures tourists – sound familiar? A Coast Guard station abuts a small fishermen’s market. Mondello residents swing by to peruse and buy.
The market is makeshift, if something centuries old can be called that. There is modern canvas shade but no ice; best to get this fish to a cool place straight away. Plastic totes contain what was retrieved in small boats at sunrise, single men working single days close to shore. See photos of the market, and what’s for sale, in our photo gallery.
We are now witnessing the bitter, devastating impact to our fishing community and ecosystem caused by a single federal judge who overturned years of effort to protect our small-boat fishery and small fish crucial to the ocean’s health.
After years of effort by Cape fishermen, our community, and like-minded interests across the region, last year the National Marine Fisheries Service approved a 12-mile buffer zone, with a 20-mile bump off Cape Cod, to protect ocean herring, a vital forage fish, from mid-water trawls. This was a huge victory that many of you helped make possible with your support and public advocacy.
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