Chatham Harvesters Impress Governor At Boston Seafood Event

The Chatham Harvesters Cooperative got a big boost when Gov. Maura Healey came right over to their table at the Oct. 22 Massachusetts Seafood Day event at Statehouse’s Hall of Flags.

 Not only did members of the cooperative have an opportunity to educate the governor about their organization and their efforts to promote locally caught seafood, but their offering — pulled pork-style skate wings — won her ringing endorsement.

“She gave an overwhelming thumbs up and expressed how much she loved how it tasted,” said Harvesters co-founder and general manager Brett Tolley. “That was a really nice validation.” Other attendees, noticing the governor’s sampling of the BBQ-style wings, flocked to the Harvesters’ table.

 “I think we probably gave out 300 samples, and we ran out with more time to go at the event because it was so popular,” Tolley said.

 Many of those attending the annual event, designed to provide government leaders, legislators and their staff with a better understanding of the state’s commercial fishing industry, had never even heard of skate, he said.

 “Our message is always the same,” Tolley said. “We have abundant, healthy local fish, right here, that we’re catching off the coast of Massachusetts.” Most of that is still exported, often sent thousands of miles away to Europe, creating a large carbon footprint, while more familiar species that have all but disappeared from local waters, such as cod and haddock, are imported to serve in Cape restaurants and sell in seafood shops, again from thousands of miles away.

 “We got to say in front of this pretty influential crowd how we are able to land this fish ourselves, process it ourselves and deliver it to our community,” Tolley said. 

 Shareen Davis, the coop’s marketing and sales manager and commercial kitchen coordinator as well as a Chatham Select Board member, spoke at the event on behalf of the Harvesters.

 “I got to tell the story of the connection between the Harvesters Coop and some of the opportunities and some of the state support for small-scale fishing companies,” she said, speaking from the Local Catch Network’s Local Seafood Summit in Gulf Shores, Ala., which focuses on strengthening community-based seafood systems.

For instance, the cooperative received state infrastructure grants which “is the glue that sort of keeps us together,” she said. It was beneficial to both the Cape’s commercial fishing industry and the Harvesters to network with legislators and other state officials, she added. State Senator Julian Cyr, D-Provincetown, and Fourth Barnstable District Representative Hadley Luddy, D-Orleans, were also in attendance.

 “It was a big deal that Massachusetts is celebrating the seafood that we catch, and we want to keep more of our seafood here in our communities,” Davis said.

 The Oct. 22 event was hosted by State Senator Bruce Tarr with organizational support from the Fishing Partnership and Support Services, Tolley said. 

 “They recognized the Chatham Harvesters as being a bright spot in the seafood landscape throughout Massachusetts,” Tolley said. The event was both an opportunity to spread the word about the coop and its model and show that lesser-known species like skate can be just as delicious as traditional whitefish.

 “It was really nice validation for us,” he said.

 The pulled pork-style recipe came about after Tolley overcooked some skate wings on the grill this summer. His kids wouldn’t eat it. He came up with the idea of combining the fish with barbeque sauce in a bun, like a sloppy joe. “They liked it,” he recalled. He found a few videos of folks doing similar things and shared them with Davis, who tweaked the recipe a bit and they tried it at several events.

 “All the feedback we were getting was that people were getting blown away” by the dish, he said. The simple recipe is available at www.chathamharvesters.com/post/skate-wings-bbq-style. 

 Tolley said he can see the dish becoming a local version of pulled pork, only healthier.

 “I really feel like this would appeal to restaurants or local seafood retailers who want to offer something local but outside the box,” he said.