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. Commercial fishermen do not. But all three groups want to share the ocean and support non-lethal management of seals and sharks.
Bruce Peters spent much of his time over the last 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.
Not Peters.
“I’ll keep commenting,” he said in one of his last public statements.
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.
I heard this story more than once and it always intrigued me. All the players but one were still around and I saw them just about every day. It is true to the best of my memory.
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.
We much enjoy these shows, conventions, expos, whatever you want to call them, mainly for the opportunity to meet interesting people and check out intriguing initiatives. Here’s a quick photo rundown of some participants:
Concern about ‘ropeless’ experiments is not code for ‘anti-whale’
By John Pappalardo
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.
Meanwhile, Cape Cod lobstermen, and others in Massachusetts, have been international leaders changing the way we fish to better protect whales; 90-percent reduction in risk of entanglements since 2014, fewer and fewer lines in the water, new lines that part under pressure and don’t snare animals, large swaths of ocean closed for months when whales arrive. We do know of only two right whale entanglements in state waters in this century, both successfully disentangled, neither life threatening.
Just when it seemed the Right Whale population was rebounding, entanglements and deaths in Canada created a major crisis caused by heavy lines we don’t use, in areas Right Whales never used to visit.
Our pragmatic, successful efforts may not be “sexy.” They may not help high-tech companies looking to create new markets for high-profit technologies. But they work. None of the Cape’s lobstermen have gotten or expect big public kudos, but neither – not by a longshot -- should they be demonized.
I mention all this because I hear a drumbeat, an undercurrent surfacing more and more:
Anyone who raises questions about “ropeless” technology somehow is anti-whale.
In the face of that, it takes public, political, and personal courage for the Massachusetts Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries, Dan McKiernan, to write a thoughtful, lengthy denial of a request to allow experimental ropeless fishing gear in Massachusetts Bay. His denial applies to state, not federal waters, where they have been approved to experiment.
The proposal McKiernan denied would have allowed a small, select group of lobstermen into an area closed to everyone else to experiment with ropeless gear, presumably to prove they can drop it down, keep track of it, and pick it up. But the biggest problems about ropeless don’t have to do with whether traps would pop up on electronic demand. It’s about how this invisible gear would interact with all the other fishing effort in areas not closed, how to avoid “zoning” the ocean to make these pots tenable, how expensive they would be.
And so, as McKiernan writes:
The proposal lacks a study design that will contribute meaningfully to further understanding the efficacy of ropeless fishing technology and addressing the key research questions necessary to determining the commercial viability and broader development of this gear.
He posits six key questions and then comments:
(1)can on-demand systems meet the efficiency of current fishing operations;
(2)can electronic gear marking be used to avoid gear conflicts within and between fisheries;
(3)can on-demand systems meet and/or exceed safety of current practices;
(4)can scalability result in affordability;
(5)can on-demand systems reduce gear loss; and
(6)can through hull transducers improve the time of retrieval.
Research proposals into the efficacy of ropeless fishing technologies must attempt to meaningfully contribute to the knowledge base regarding one or more of these critical areas … Your research proposal fails to do this with any specificity. Rather, the objectives of your proposal focus principally on the efficacy of the gear in terms of deployment, location, and retrieval. This would only serve to reinforce what we already know—the gear can be successfully deployed, located, and retrieved.
There’s a second major point McKiernan highlights:
Given the proposed research areas are closed to all lobster fishing, this proposal does not contribute to further risk reduction of entanglement and improve right whale conservation.
Then comes his third main finding:
There is no significant lobster fishery management issue this proposal would solve concerning the state waters lobster trap fishery.
That’s because there has been a seven-year seasonal closure in the area where Right Whales come into state waters every spring. The closure has worked, while lobster landings remain strong. So there’s no demand or reason to create more potential conflict and fishing traffic in that area, ropeless or not.
Just so people don’t misunderstand him, McKiernan added the following:
I am in favor of research and development of ropeless fishing technologies. I welcome organized gear trials wherever (state or federal waters) it would be conducive to successful testing—even if the gear testing locations may not be the locations where the gear would be fished in the future … Iurge the principal investigators to collaborate closely with gear technologists and professional researchers to develop sufficiently robust study designs that will provide data necessary to answering key questions regarding the development and application of ropeless gear in the New England lobster fishery or as a means of addressing specific critical questions related to lobster trap fishery management in Massachusetts’ state waters.
In other words, we need impeccable science, with management solving real-world challenges, before we place all our hope on unproven, expensive, Star Wars-style technology meant to ensure two things; the future of Right Whales, and our community’s fishery.
That insight doesn’t make people like McKiernan, or us, anti-whale, anti-coexistence, anti-conservation.
On the contrary. Engagement like this, building coalitions without needing to demonize or stereotype, is where the real hope lies.
Spring is in the air and so are whispers of Hookers Ball XXI. Coming back this summer in full swing to its usual location, join us on Saturday August 6. More details to follow as tickets go on sale May 10. Stay in the know by visiting our webpage.
We hope you visit our sponsors as often as we do! Check out this list of great businesses that choose to support Fishermen’s Alliance: New England Sales Solutions, Bluefins Sushi & Sake Bar, Cape Cod 5, Cape Cod Life Magazine, Chatham Bars Inn, Chatham Candy Manor, Chatham Pier Fish Market, Chatham Living by the Sea, Consistently Clean, Cottage, evolutioneyes, inc., Gibson Sotheby's International Realty, Lighthouse Keepers Pantry, Mainsail Events, MOCEAN, Nauset Disposal, Nauset Marine, Quahog Republic and Rockland Trust. To become a sponsor email Jennifer Bryant.
YETI for summer? Summer is just around the corner and now is a great time to stock up on sustainable to-go cups for wherever your outdoor adventure takes you. Pick up a navy blue Fishermen’s Alliance YETI today, in stock or ready to ship. Shop online here.
On the Water
Ever wonder how a boat, or a fish, got its name? Want the word on what people are catching --- or how to cook it?
Fisheries management can be a confusing alphabet soup of acronyms – NEFMC, EFH, MSB, ALWTRT, PDT, ABC, DAS, MSA, MSY, CFR, DEIS, and TAC to name a few. The Marine Resource Education Program (OK, that’s MREP) workshops are designed to “empower fishermen so they can participate effectively in complex fisheries science and management processes.”
MREP is “by fishermen, for fishermen,” guided by industry expertise from the region, and is administered and facilitated by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
Fishermen’s Alliance Program and Outreach Coordinator, Stephanie Sykes, recently attended MREP’s Greater Atlantic Fisheries Management Workshop in Maryland. The workshop brought together commercial, charter, and recreational fishermen and other stakeholders from across New England and the Mid-Atlantic region to learn more about how to engage in the fisheries management process. Three days of presentations included background information on the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), fishery management councils, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the role of Congress, and Robert’s Rules of Order. Attendees also participated in a mock council in which they had to make decisions on fishing quota allocations and management measures.
Sykes is looking forward to using what she learned to help Cape fishermen to better advocate for the local fleet and succeed in the management process.
Photo courtesy of GMRI.
On the Shore
This community thrives in large part because of a constellation of non-profit organizations and engaged businesses.
We often think about how lucky we are to live and work on Cape Cod; we also celebrate sharing the Cape with a notable group of outstanding non-profits. You can read about our joint effort on Human Dimensions of Rebounding Populations of Seals and White Sharks on Cape Cod, in this e-magazine; we were impressed with the comradery of the groups and the respect for one another that transcended different missions and the ability to unite for a common goal.
We work with the Community Development Partnership in our scallop quota leasing program, ensuring that small-boat fishermen have affordable access to local fisheries. They provide help to many local small businesses and have just announced in-person office hours in Chatham, Harwich and Provincetown. To learn more about the free help and to schedule an appointment with Pam and Tricia, visit their website.
Commercial fishing is the original blue economy, and much of the Cape’s wealth and success depends on the sea. TheCape Cod Young Professionals invited Stephanie Sykes, our program and outreach coordinator, to explore that relationship as a panelist on “The Blue Economy: Innovative Partnerships for a Resilient Cape Cod” at its recent Shape the Cape Summit.
On the Hook
We do a lot of reading, searching through the wide world of fisheries, and often find intriguing pieces to share. In the old days, you might call this your clipping service.
This from National Fisherman: “The concept of localized depletion is simple, something everyone who … has ever fished sees and understands: Distinct areas, pounded by destructive gear and rapacious pressure, get fished out. They become barren until they are allowed to recover,’” wrote John Pappalardo, whose group played a big role in some 20 years of pressure to restrict mid-water trawlers. Read morehere.
The state Division of Marine Fisheries turned down an application to test on-demand, or “ropeless” lobster gear in an area closed to protect the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. Director Daniel McKiernan laid out three reasons for his decision, the first being that the proposal “lacks a study design that will contribute meaningfully to further understanding the efficacy of ropeless fishing.” Read more in this The Boston Globearticle, John's Over the Bar, and McKiernan’s decision in its entirety here.
Maine lobstermen argue that since climate change is moving the right whale’s favorite food (and the whales themselves) north, they should not be forced to modify their gear. Read more in thisstory.Massachusetts lobstermen already use modifications similar to the ones proposed.
