News

When people think of the top industries in the state, commercial fishing doesn’t always come to mind. It should. The industry is a huge economic engine, and as you will see in these slides from the state Division of Marine Fisheries, it is becoming more of a powerhouse. As you look through the charts, and read the related Over the Bar, you will see how the fisheries have changed as some seafood, scallops for example, is more in demand - causing prices to rise...

In the 1990s, a lot of clams landed in Chatham and Domenic Santoro remembers a young guy coming to Barn Hill Landing with a pick-up truck, ice box on the back. “He was in his early 20s, wicked high energy, wicked charismatic,” Santoro said. “Matt would come hooting and hollering down the dock: ‘Come on brother, you have to sell me your clams!’ He was always emotionally invested...

A social science survey on human perceptions of growing numbers of seals and sharks on Cape Cod may play a role in fisheries management in the coming weeks. One finding of “Human Dimensions of Rebounding Seal and Shark Populations on Cape Cod” is that voters and tourists like seeing seals and largely perceive of them as beneficial, positive and enjoyable...

Bruce Peters spent parts of 20 years testifying locally and nationally, writing comment letters and battling to make sure forage fish were protected from overfishing. After many setbacks, regulators and managers finally saw the wisdom in protecting sea herring and passed rules to do so. Then barely a month ago, a single judge overturned those safeguards, leading many to question whether it was worth spending all that time and energy to advocate for better fisheries management...

Going to sea for 50 years you get to experience some remarkable events. Of equal importance are the stories you hear of others. I was just starting commercial fishing in 1972 and listened a great deal to what was said around the dock. There were many middle aged and older fishermen who had come up in the 1940s and '50s. Some of the best were from Nova Scotia, Canada, and had come to the Cape for a better life from the “out-ports” along the eastern shore of that Province...

The New England Food Show in early April at the Boston Convention Center, which followed hard on the huge international Fish Expo, featured a regional cluster of fish-related companies mixed into a broader group of foodies of every stripe. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries hosted and supported this eclectic cluster of fish-based businesses working in and around the Commonwealth...

There’s plenty of steam building to require on-demand trap fishing gear – “ropeless” lobster pots – to protect endangered Right Whales. And it sure seems like a way to solve a big problem; get lines out of the water with sophisticated technology, end entanglements. That may turn out to be true, someday. But how we get there, if we get there, depends on answering crucial questions most of us don’t consider, or understand...

Just after 9 a.m. on a warm March day, Dan Howes was in his barn sorting oysters taken off the grant that morning. He had recently stopped going for bay scallops and his boat, Last Resort, would have a little time off while he concentrated on filling oyster orders through Memorial Day. “This is my primary source of income, though I didn’t set out for that,” Howes said with a philosophical shrug as he sized and separated shellfish into baskets...

Andrew Cummings has had a successful shellfish farm in Wellfleet for 25 years, with room to grow, and has offered employees a salary of $54,000 to start, a yearly five-percent raise, and profit sharing. Crickets. “I can expand my business, but I don’t have the help,” Cummings said. Cummings is not alone. When Stephanie Sykes, program and outreach coordinator at Fishermen’s Alliance, hears from commercial fishermen and shellfish farmers across the Cape, for many the inability to find employees is top of mind...

Paul Wittenstein, general manager of A.R.C., the shellfish hatchery in Dennis, sat on a stool on “Massachusetts Avenue,” backdropped by a booth full of information. Aquaculture Resource Corporation was one of several Massachusetts companies in the state’s section at the North American Seafood Expo. After a two-year, pandemic-fueled hiatus, the big seafood show was back in Boston for three days in March, smaller than in earlier years though still full of fish purveyors from all over the globe...

As Riverview Bait and Tackle in Yarmouth celebrates its 50th anniversary, owner Lee Boisvert says the secret to success has been the ability to evolve. “Fifteen to 20 years ago there were 25 independent tackle shops on the Cape, now there is under half that,” Boisvert said. The business started at a spot on the Dennis waterfront that also rented boats, moved to a lease across from Sundancer’s on Route 28, then to a purchased spot also on Route 28 stuffed to the gills with rods, reels, lures, hooks, knives and fishing gear galore...

Everyone knows the expression “you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.” The Boston-based North American Seafood Expo, perennially the biggest fish expo in this country, is an example – though in this case it’s more like you don’t know how much you missed it until it’s back.