Chatham Harvesters Recognized With Sustainable Business Award

CHATHAM – The Massachusetts Sustainable Business Network has named the Chatham Harvesters Cooperative its 2025 Business of the Year.

 The announcement came as a complete surprise, said Harvesters co-founder and general manager Brett Tolley. 

 “This is a significant validation for our team, for our fishermen, for our fish share members, for all of our partners who supported us in our few short years of being in business,” Tolley said. Founded in 2016 working with five commercial fishermen, the co-op has grown to include 25 fishermen, all living and working on the Cape. The heart of its business is its fish share membership, which involves folks paying for fresh seafood right off the local boats. In the co-op’s first year, there were 250 members; as of Dec. 31, there were 1,100 members, Tolley said.

 “That’s pretty much just Cape Cod, plus a handful of folks in Plymouth,” he said.

 The program allows the fishermen to retain total control over their catch, from the boat to the co-op’s own processing facility in Commerce Park to delivery. That means they can take full advantage of the local species they catch; last year the co-op distributed about 30 different species of fish to its members, ranging from scallops to tuna, flounder, mackerel, monkfish and skate. Scallops and black sea bass are the most popular offerings, but the Harvesters have managed to introduce locals to a variety of other species and cuts, such as skate wings and monkfish medallions and several value-added offerings such as smoked bluefish. Monkfish burgers “had a surge” last summer, Tolley said. “We couldn’t keep up with demand.”

 Most seafood sold on the Cape isn’t local, and most caught in Cape waters doesn’t stay here, said Doug Feeney, a commercial fisherman, co-op co-founder and board president.

 “We started the co-op because everything we caught was being shipped overseas and funneled into the global seafood supply chain,” he said in a press release. “This has negative ripple effects: it drove down dock prices, contributed to a massive and totally unnecessary carbon footprint, and removed top quality seafood from our state.”

 The Harvesters’ goals include strengthening local economies, protecting marine resources and building a more transparent and ethical seafood system. It has become a statewide and regional model for how cooperative ownership can address those issues, Tolley said.

 “No one wins in the global seafood system except large multinational corporations that control everything in it,” said Feeney. “It’s impossible to know where your seafood really comes from. So we decided to take back control by rebuilding our local seafood system.”

 The Sustainable Business Network was founded in 1988 to foster a local economy that is environmentally sound, socially equitable and economically vibrant. It helps connect local businesses and sustainability advocates, hosts events and supports local food systems and green initiatives. The annual Business of the Year award “honors businesses that go beyond the bottom line, demonstrating a profound commitment to environmental stewardship, social equity and strengthening their local communities,” according to the press release.

 The award boosts the Harvesters’ visibility, Tolley said. The group has already had inquiries from organizations interested in working with them, including Boston area farmers markets.

 While the co-op’s processing facility is suitable for the near future, Tolley said that if growth continues as it has for the past few years they will likely have to expand. “We have our eyes on a couple of locations on the Cape where we’d like to build a state-of-the-art processing facility with zero waste, carbon neutral, and paying living wage year-round jobs for locals.”

The Harvesters are currently at three local winter farmers markets in Chatham, Falmouth and Plymouth. Its winter fish share program remains open, Tolley added. For information about the organization and the fish share program, visit www.chathamharvesters.com.