Despite Changes, Fishing Industry Persists On Lower Cape

When editor Tim Wood contacted me about a story describing how the local fisheries had changed over the past 60 years, I initially thought it would take a year and hundreds of pages to write — it would, done right. Given the limitations of time and space, here is an effort in a thousand words or so to describe some of those changes.

Ironically, my time as a commercial fisherman coincides with the 60 years The Chronicle has existed. Those 60 years span a period of time when virtually all aspects of life on Cape Cod saw more change than had occurred in the previous centuries on this peninsula.

The fisheries of the Cape went from patterns established in the 17th and 18th centuries when hemp line and handmade hooks were used to synthetic netting, spectra rope and stainless steel wire. The enormous catches of now scarce cod and haddock have been replaced by robust catches of dogfish, skates and monkfish.

Populations of grey and harbor seals have exploded. Those changes have come relatively quickly and as a result of human interactions with the ocean resources. No story about fishing on the Cape would be complete without stating that uncontrolled and ever increasing numbers of seals are preventing many fish species from recovery. When the first editions of the Chronicle hit the news stands, even seeing a seal was rare. Today they number in the tens of thousands in our waters. Volumes could be written about their collective impact on our fisheries.

Despite the evolution of the fisheries, fishing still exists and in fact prospers here. Harwich once had a considerable fleet of long-line groundfish boats tying up at Thompson Brothers’ dock and eventually Thompson’s Clam Bar. Today multimillion dollar residences and ultra-exclusive inns line the shore where bait shanties and shucking houses once stood; lobster traps could be seen everywhere. The lobster industry continues to thrive out of Harwich but few are the fin and shellfish that pass over the caplog in Wychmere and Saquatucket Harbors.

Unknown to most, fishers and their support industries of earlier times made up a majority of the working population of the towns of Chatham, Harwich and Orleans. Salt produced through solar evaporation, transportation of fish to the urban centers of southern New England, and boat and ship building were economic engines of the 19th and early 20th centuries. When The Chronicle was established 60 years ago, save for the production of salt for drying fish, little had changed in the fishing industry for many years. Since then, the fledgling government agency, the National Marine Fisheries Service, has gone from a small, closet agency to a massive multibillion dollar behemoth employing in some cases more people than the fishermen they regulate.

Orleans, like Harwich, once had both lobster and cod boats mooring at Snow Shore and Priscilla Landing. Access to the Atlantic was a simple trip through Nauset Inlet when surf conditions were favorable. The inlet itself was located over a mile further south than today at the base of Nauset Heights and was a deep-water inlet. Today with shoaling waters inside the harbor and at the bar, it is difficult to cross even in low-surf conditions. The cod boats are gone (my first boat was one), the lobster fleet is down to a mere few and the water in the harbor is dramatically reduced in depth and productivity due to loss of flow and eutrophication. The future of Orleans shellfish industries, once the envy of the Outer Cape, remains in the hands of the citizenry of that community. The extravagant use of lawn fertilizers, over-watering of grassy areas and run-off as well as continued use of soaps and detergents containing phosphates all add to the problem. The citizens of town hold the solution to the declines. They have decided on sewering to improve water quality for the future. To seek alternatives to certain behaviors in the present would be a big help.

Despite the changes described above, the fisheries of Chatham stand out in stark contrast. While the population of all three communities has shifted toward retired second-home ownership, the fleet of small, nimble boats of the Chatham fleet remains. Fiberglass boats moored in Aunt Lydia’s Cove represent a modern version of the wooden fleet of Novi and Maine boats from the previous century. Stage Harbor, once the home of the productive weir trap fishers, is now used by trawlers, gillnetters, lobster and conch trap boats and numerous party-charter fishermen. Much of the fleet moves from one harbor to the other depending on surf conditions on the bar. 

A demanding winter fishery far off-shore keeps larger gillnetters going year round, while smaller dogfish and mackerel jiggers fish primarily in summer and fall. The main pier is a beehive of activity in summer. Both fishing interests and the ever-increasing numbers of tourists who come to experience the offloading of product and view overpopulated seals strain the newly rebuilt facilities and roads surrounding the pier. The harbormaster department does an amazing job of controlling and promoting the use of the pier, the number one attraction in town. I remember well when the tourists would watch us baiting our trawls in the shanty rooms alongside the pier. They would ask a hundred questions about everything they saw. Exasperated, I once asked a visitor where he worked in New York City so I could visit him in his office and ask lots of questions about what he did for a living. He eventually got the hint and moved along.

So while we have seen a shift in populations of fish, the fishing industries of the Outer Cape persist. And while we have seen changes in the populations of people living in the old fishing communities of this land, the Cape in its essence remains. The one threat we may not be able to tackle alone might be the loss of our commercial infrastructure, which in other communities up and down the mainland has fallen to gentrification. Our towns must safeguard against ever increasing levels of development along our waterfronts.

Not only do we need healthy, natural environments where water meets shore for fishing interests, we need them to preserve important environments inshore as well. No matter where you call home on Cape Cod, the salt water and the land it conjoins determines the future health and value of what you see and own.

The fishing industries of Cape Cod have persisted for over 400 years. With the dedication of the intrepid fishermen and women of the fleets and safeguards for our shores, it will continue until this sand bar washes away.