PHOTO GALLERY: Summer arrives sooner at First Light
If you ask Paul Wittenstein what he likes about shellfish, he will talk about colors. You may find Wittenstein’s response puzzling. Don’t they all look the same? No, color variation is expansive, says the hatchery manager at A.R.C. Hatchery in Dennis. And A.R.C. adds to it by breeding shellfish with tones and lines to make them stand out. Appreciating that beauty puts Wittenstein in his element at A...
We need to get there from here
Of all things on this big old planet that could be divided and put into boxes, the ocean is the least likely. Yet people find ways to box off and subdivide even the waves, and once you push past holistic and romantic objections, there are reasons for it: We are at a point in our relationship to the world where (like it or not) we need management, we need to understand our impacts and where to focus and avoid...
Kurt Martin is one of the last weir fishermen on Cape Cod
The clock hit 11 a.m. when Captain Scott Rorro got aboard his boat Sea Hunter for another long trip, 20 hours maybe, harvesting sea scallops. The Hyannis waterfront was quiet on the sunny spring day, a few people walking by. Some stopped to watch the crew of a small, sturdy, grey trapfishing boat named Nancy S. as they hoisted their morning’s catch up and over the pier into a waiting truck a few boat-lengths down...
Fishermen have front row seats for rising seas
Anyone who has worked on Cape Cod’s waterfronts will have plenty of anecdotes about the creeping level of the sea. Fishermen tell tales about storms that caused water to surge up and over piers and parking lots, swamping skiffs and making a mess of dock lines and gear. Scientists have compiled decades of data on increasing sea levels. Many communities in our region are working to build awareness and develop responsive solutions to what the impact of more inches of ocean -- eventually more feet -- will mean...
Spreading the fisheries gospel in D.C., with partners coast to coast
On the last evening of April, Congressman Jared Huffman from California’s northern coast was mingling with fishermen from Alaska, California, the Gulf of Mexico, Maine, and Cape Cod at a fish, beer, and wine bash just a few blocks off Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. He was a good guy to see there; chair of the House Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, he has a lot of say and sway about federal fish issues...
Old fisheries report rings true today
*One inshore fishing ground produces approximately 300 pounds per acre per year of bay scallops alone, twice as much as the 150 pounds per acre per year estimated for beef cattle on a ranch. *As little as 10 percent of lobsters harvested in Massachusetts waters are bought in the state, most are imported from Maine and Canada. Those statements are from a 1961 state report and do not stand the test of the time; bay scallops have crashed while the Commonwealth’s lobster industry has grown...
Blending science and experience
Is it a no-brainer to say that good science is the key to creating good fisheries management? Sure it is, but when you apply that truth to fishing realities -- uncertainty at sea, competing interests boat to boat and port to port, political headwinds that can shove the process off course – the maxim becomes less clear. Turns out it takes a lot of brains from a lot of people, with a big dash of political skill, to apply the no-brainer...
PHOTO GALLERY: The art of trap fishing
An old trap fishermen said pulling up to a trap is akin to waking up on Christmas morning as a kid: You didn’t know what was going to be there, but you knew it was going to be good. Nowadays, weir fishermen, such as Captain Kurt Martin, feel a similar sense of anticipation, but without the assurance that there will be anything in the nets at all...
Santoro hopes science will protect his business plan
Domenic Santoro, like many in Chatham, dug for clams off Monomoy from the moment he was old enough and has bounced around from fishery to fishery since. “I feel like I have to reinvent myself every five years,” he says. He’s been fluke fishing, dredging for quahogs, surf clamming. But there has been a constant; early in his career he started musseling, with a boat and a small dredge that he and his brother Frank put together...
Temperature readings can tell many tales
“When I first started fishing, I didn’t realize how important water temperature could be,” says Greg Walinski, “but obviously it plays a big role in everything we do.” Walinski’s Cape Cod-based vessel Alicia Ann is one of 28 boats from Maine to Rhode Island outfitted with temperature sensors as part of an ongoing program from NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center Oceanography Branch...
