Monthly e-Magazine Articles

Lobster and a local connect Mac’s Seafood to Maine – Part 2

Jan 24, 2024 | Fish Tales, News

Billy Day helps manage a wharf in Machiasport, Maine and makes sure lobsters from the 60 boats that land there, as well as those that arrive in Stueben and Addison, get down to the Lobster Trap in Bourne and then to customers around the world. But the other day he was in the woods.
“He is cutting down some trees. Good, straight, spruce,” said Sam Bradford, chief operating officer of Mac’s Seafood, and Day’s boss.
The trees were going to Addison to repair the wharf that had flooded on Jan. 13 in one of the worst storms Maine has ever seen. Day was going to help rebuild the pier and raise it a couple of feet.

Federal legislators step up to solve dredge problems

Jan 24, 2024 | Plumbing the Depths

To help explain why dredging approvals can be arduous and lengthy, look at a partial list of agencies involved:
US Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, United States Fish and Wildlife, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Coastal Zone Management, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife…
Still reading?
Dredging projects require sign-off from all of those, and within each agency there often are approvals required from more than one division.

WaterWORKS career fair showcases Blue Economy

Jan 24, 2024 | Aids to Navigation, News

Kayla Boucher, a ninth-grader at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School, joined by her classmates, had some questions of Captains Ken Baughman and Bradley Louw at the WaterWORKS career day at Cape Cod Community College in mid-January.
What was your longest trip? Six days.
Biggest boat you fished on? 138 feet.
How big is your boat now? Smaller.
Do you oyster farm? No, but it is a sustainable fishery and good for the environment.
How much money do you make? One time I made $56,000 in less than a week.
And one favorite question from Boucher: How far do you have to go out?
“We told her that some of the best fishing grounds in the world are in our backyard,” Baughman said.

Heroes in the storm

Jan 24, 2024 | Charting the Past

Before the Portland Gale swept in on Nov. 26, 1898, there was disagreement whether this would be a significant storm. Some chose to risk it, such as the captain of the ill-fated Portland with 192 passengers. Others took a more precautionary approach, such as Tony King’s captain. That decision meant King, a doryman from Provincetown, was available to help others when the storm hit.
Stephan Cohen knows King’s story because he has been doing research on three historic villages of Provincetown — Long Point, Race Point and Helltown, located at Herring Cove. “What I found really interesting was there were three villages that weren’t part of the main town proper,” Cohen said. “Naturally that led to an interest in the kind of fishing that was going on and the kind of boats that were going out.”

Photo Gallery: The Cape’s Downeast connection Part 2

Jan 24, 2024 | A Day in Photos

If you spend any time down at the Chatham Fish Pier, or other ports across the Cape, you may see different lobster companies come down to pick up the catch of individual fishermen. In Maine the scene can be quite different. Oftentimes dozens of boats have a relationship with a wharf who they sell to directly, and then fill up on bait and fuel. When Mac’s Seafood bought the Lobster Trap in Bourne they acquired three of these wharves. Check out this gallery to get a glimpse of how they work.

What they mean by FLW

Jan 24, 2024 | Over the Bar

At a recent conference of people from all over the country (including us) who are working on ways to feed communities with more healthy and local food, by day two the focus shifted in a remarkable way. Talk swirled around a three-letter acronym:

FLW — Food Loss and Waste.

Speakers from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, under the umbrella of the USDA (the United States Department of Agriculture), announced big plans to try to cut down on loss and waste in our food system. For people with experience dealing with the federal government, their approach sounded familiar: