Dumitru welcomes the switch from shepherd to scalloper
Dumitru Babes came to the United States from Romania and one day he was hanging out with close friends watching the movie “Arthur.” Star Dudley Moore is drinking heavily, then told he’s had enough. Moore replies he wants “more than enough.” Sandy Keese, granddaughter, mother and grandmother of fishermen, remembers Babes hearing the line and cracking up...
Seal study aims to investigate the human element
On any summer day there are tourists at the Chatham fish pier who love seeing “adorable” seals cavort around the fishing vessels. There are also fishermen who have lost part of their catch to those seals. Both tourists and fishermen support protecting the ecosystem, but how they view that may differ. And those views may be wholly different from someone who enjoys surfing off Nauset, but is concerned about sharks...
Protecting herring is a key generational accomplishment
Captain Ted Ligenza could have retired; he has been fishing for more than 40 years. But he was waiting. He remembers how good the cod fishery off Chatham was in the winter, before midwater trawls came and changed everything.
Nat Mason will be missed
Peter Baker remembers when Nat Mason wandered into the office of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen and asked if they needed an intern. “The Hook” was operating on a shoestring budget, and Baker, the campaign director, was about 30 years younger than this man who wanted to volunteer. “He ended up being our CFO – for seven years,” remembers Baker...
Alumni revisited: Catching up with Tom
For Massachusetts native Tom Dempsey, Pacific Grove, California seems like home. “It’s a fantastic small town, feels almost like Chatham,” he says. “The coastline is stunning and beautiful, like on the Cape.” For the past four years, Dempsey, his wife and their three children have lived on this West Coast peninsula adjacent to Monterey, where he works as the California Oceans Program Director for The Nature Conservancy...
Remembering my dad
We buried my father last week, surrounded by family and friends, a gathering of events public and private, full of memories, sadness and joy.
Charlie Dodge was born to fish
On both sides of his family, as far back as he can trace, Charlie Dodge descends from commercial fishermen. Some roots go to Norway and England and then there is Tristam Dodge, of Newfoundland, hired by the settlers of Block Island in 1616 to teach them how to fish so they wouldn’t starve. Charlie Dodge was born on that small island 350 years later...
What to do with ‘Peter Pan’ scallops?
They have a name: Peter Pan scallops. And why? Because like the famous character, they won’t grow up. But these scallops don’t live in Never Never Land. They reside in a place called Nantucket Lightship South, roughly 20 miles east and 60 miles south of the elbow of the Cape; take the Great South Channel (rather than the second star to the right), and straight on until morning...
Bringing the Cape’s healthcare leadership to the pier
Captain Sam Linnell arrived from offshore around 1 a.m., unloaded his catch, ran it up to a New Bedford buyer in a borrowed truck, sold the fish, motored back to the Cape, cleaned up -- and met a contingent of people from Cape Cod Healthcare at the Chatham Fish Pier later that morning. Time to spare. The group included chief executive officer and president Mike Lauf, who leads the team that runs Cape Cod Hospital, Falmouth Hospital, Spaulding Rehab, and other crucial healthcare facilities across the Cape...
Pleasant Bay Chatham As I remember
(Captain Fred Bennett, a Chatham stalwart, has seen a lot, done a lot, and caught a lot of fish. Now 82 years old, we asked him to take a look back and inform us as to what fishing life and times were like around here half a century ago. Here is his tale.) In 1964, I started work at Ryder’s Cove boatyard as a marine mechanic. Observing a few fishermen piqued my interest in striper fishing, but lacking funds to purchase a boat I built a flat-bottom skiff and got a 10-horsepower motor secondhand...
