From starfish to scup, a fisherman's journey
On a warm, breezy fall day, Ken Baughman was within sight of Woods Hole’s stone pier fishing for tautog in a boat of his own making. With his dog Lucy in the bow, he cast into one of his favorite spots, came up empty handed, but still was all smiles. “I love rod and reel fishing,” he said. “People ask, ‘What would you do if you had a million dollars?’ I would go out and go fishing...
Working to stay on the water and protect whales
When more than 1400 people logged onto a virtual event the New England Aquarium hosted to discuss the documentary “Entangled,” focusing on the plight and politics of the right whale, there was one overriding question: “Do you think the lobster fishery and right whales can co-exist?”
A new use for old lobster line
On a crisp fall Saturday, John Morgan drove his battered red pick-up onto a long dirt road that runs along the Chatham Municipal Airport. The bed of the truck was full of lobster trap line of varying thickness and colors; a lobsterman, getting rid of old gear from a storage spot there, had helped sling it aboard. The gear travelled to Sandwich where it joined dozens of coils...
When Hyannis had a railroad spur jutting into Lewis Bay
“The fish shanties were right over there,” said Don Stucke, curator at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum in Hyannis, as he gestured across the inner harbor of Lewis Bay. “That white house over my shoulder on Lewis Bay Road, you can see it in the old photo of the shanties. Of course Cape Cod Hospital wasn’t there by a long shot.” Most histories of Hyannis and its harbor don’t say much about commercial fishing, and these days most people don’t think of Hyannis as a fishing port as much as a ferry terminal, home for big pleasure craft, a place for the Kennedys to come about...
PHOTO GALLERY: A forgotten wharf
Hyannis Harbor has gone through many transformations in its centuries of use, but none more dramatic than the period from the 1850s into the early twentieth century, when a long railroad spur and wharf turned Hyannis into a major maritime hub. Few vestiges of that commercial expression remain, replaced by other kinds of economic activity that reflect the changing economy of the Cape, more focused on summer, tourism, and ferry traffic...
Despite it all, or maybe because of it all, some achievements
Even after a year that will be remembered as one of the most challenging in our lifetimes, there are good things to hold onto and play forward. This is not one of those “glass half full” comments. It’s more a celebration of resilience and creativity, strengths that have always defined Cape Cod’s fishing community, attributes that take on even more importance as thing get tougher...
What made “the blob” in Cape Cod Bay?
Captain Mike Rego was on his lobster boat the Miss Lilly at the pier in Provincetown Harbor on a raw, blustery fall day when a man approached and grabbed a line. Rego smiled, yelled hello and told him to take whatever he wanted. The fellow picked up some Jonah crabs that were soaking in the water, as he had many times before, said thanks and was on his way...
Meeting the Fleet while cooking scallops
Dozens of people had swung through parking lots, picking up a bounty of local fare to prepare a carefully orchestrated meal of “scallop crudo”: turnips, shallots, dill and other ingredients accompanying the star -- freshly caught dayboat scallops. Now they were home, gathered around computers, ipads and phones to learn from Chef Daniel Coté of the recently opened Pelham House Resort in Dennisport...
Haddock chowder goes to university
Mark Hayes, Director of Campus Dining at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s campus in Cambridge, was offered the opportunity to serve students haddock chowder offered by a small, commercial fishing advocacy group on Cape Cod, aka the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. Hayes mentioned it to his colleague Heather Ryall. “He said, ‘This just fell in my lap,’” Ryall, the associate director of dining, said...
A piece of history, reduced to ash, remembered
Nearly 50 years ago, a massive historic structure on Stage Harbor in Chatham that served as a cold storage facility was being knocked down when things went awry. Captain Fred Bennett was there. “I came in from bass fishing and there it was, burning,” Bennett said, and he captured it on film.
PHOTO GALLERY: Ports of the Cape
We are lucky to have many different ports with varied personalities on Cape Cod; they all add to the economy, culture and beauty of the peninsula. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, partnering with UMass Urban Harbors Institute and us, will soon publish a report that profiles every port in the state, highlighting commercial value...
