Monthly e-Magazine Articles

High quality fish should equal better price

High quality fish should equal better price

Steve Gennodie, owner of Chatham Pier Fish Market, was flying to Florida recently and saw an in-flight advertisement for scallops – from Japan.

“It’s a frozen, farm-raised product. It is just comical,” he said.

But Hokkaido Bay scallops sell for at least $3 less a pound than the ones buys fresh from Cape fishermen.  

When Japanese scallops are cooked it becomes clear local scallops are much better, but how do you get the average person to buy more expensive fish?

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Lights, camera,scallops!

Lights, camera,scallops!

The ‘70s disco hit “Stayin Alive” by the Bee Gees played as a parade of bay scallops quickly jetted, hopped and tumbled into a trap equipped with lights, the maritime version of a disco ball.

“We had a lot of fishermen contact us about this,” said Thomas Day, who was zooming in from England at a recent talk at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum.

The fishermen who reached out were not fans of ruffled shirts and platform boots or Studio 54 devotees; they were interested in harvesting scallops in a more sustainable way. Instead of traditional dredging up the bivalves, lights could attract scallops.  

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Art and science tell great fish stories

Art and science tell great fish stories

While pursuing a graduate degree in fisheries oceanography at University of Alaska Fairbanks, Mike Palmer accompanied his thesis text with stunning, exact renderings of fish.
 “I thought I could draw them myself and wouldn’t have to deal with copyright infringement,” Palmer remembers.
A lifetime later, Palmer still draws fish, shellfish and other sea creatures, but now the art is at the forefront, accompanied by research.

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An eel foray, courtesy of Lower Cape TV

An eel foray, courtesy of Lower Cape TV

Retired fisherman Jim Harrington has great eel stories, like the time he set 25 pots in Upper Mill Pond in Brewster and caught 400 pounds. He got good money for them, too.
Harrington is willing to tell people how he caught the snake look-alike. And on camera no less.

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Photo Gallery:  The art and lore of fish

Photo Gallery: The art and lore of fish

Every year, tens of thousands of people make the trek to ports across the Cape. They sit in hours of traffic, fight for the last parking spot, walk in the heat to lean over railings or walk to the end of piers to see commercial fishing boats come in. They jostle and gawk to see the catch, sometimes wondering what it is and if it will end up on their plates later. Many people have their favorite fish or shellfish, perhaps from catching or digging as a child, the way it tastes, or maybe because it looks like the angler fish in “Saving Nemo.”

Each fish also has a story to tell. Those stories, and the beauty of the fish forms, have been captured by artist Mike Palmer. Dozens of them, and why they matter to the Cape, are part of an exhibit at Barnstable Town Hall that is a partnership between Palmer and the Fishermen’s Alliance. The show is up from April 8 to June 28, with an artist’s reception on April 12. Here’s a sneak peek.

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In support of herring, a surprising contribution

In support of herring, a surprising contribution

We are neck-deep in the fight to protect herring, a crucial way to allow the ocean to do what it does so amazingly well: support life with beautiful diversity.

Because a federal judge overturned regulations that would have kept large trawlers off our coast, we have mustered for yet another lengthy public hearing process to make that ocean herring get a fighting chance to return to health. At the same time, with the same advocacy, we can protect river herring that want to come up our freshwater runs every spring, an ancient right of passage many of our towns have worked hard and invested public funds to encourage.

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