Reflections On a Morning Walk
It’s 5 AM. The sun is about to break through a horizon cloaked with low stratocumulus clouds. The air is still, the quiet broken only by the raucous cry of a solitary gull.
As I embark on my customary morning walk along the harborside, most of the boats lie idle at the dockside. Despite calm seas, there isn’t much fishing going on. The forces keeping our fleet idle are economic in nature, crafted by domestic policies and reinforced by international trade.
Passing along Front Street, the tranquil storefronts bear memories of times past. The Lucky Finn was once Russ Dyer’s lobster dock. Nearby, T K O’Malley’s housed the notorious Grog Shop where more fish and lobsters were caught on windy days than were ever brought ashore during fine weather.
Echoes of the past tease my memory; Old Dock Street, Stage House Beach, and The Moss Landing all evoke industries that define our heritage. Yet that seafaring culture lives on, especially at quiet times near dawn.
The “Fishing Port Profile Project” compiled by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries reports that Scituate’s fishermen landed nearly one million pounds of finfish and one-half million pounds of combined lobsters and shellfish in recent years. These landings had a combined ex-vessel value of $4.5 million
These numbers have declined recently due to a number of factors- none of which are due to a scarcity of resources. The invisible hand driving this decline is a term that reminds many of Ben Stein’s character in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”…..Economics.
Ex-vessel fish prices are too cheap. It costs too much to catch them, often nearly as much as they are worth. One malefactor is imported. Over 90% of the seafood that Americans eat comes from somewhere else; often where environmental protections are weaker and treatment of seafarers is substandard.
Another headwind facing us is imposed costs. It’s not just fuel, ice, and bait anymore. Record keeping, catch monitoring, and daily landings reports all combine to diminish the bottom line. Finally, and unique to the groundfish fishery, is the cost of quota leasing. Here’s how leasing works.
Every boat permitted to participate in the groundfish fishery has the option to join a “sector”. Scituate’s fleet is mostly enrolled in “Sector 12”. Sector enrollment enables a fisherman to land fish in excess of the daily limits imposed on everyone else. The drawback to this stems from the “cap and trade” strategy imposed on the fishery. At the beginning of the fishing year, everyone receives an allocation of each stock of fish based on their catch history. Once this is depleted, one must lease from another fisherman in order to continue fishing. When abundance is high and demand low, the “lease price’ is reasonable. However, when quota is scarce the market shifts, and prices become extortionate. This is where we are today with two bedrock species: Gulf of Maine cod and Gulf of Maine haddock.
The idea for Local Catch 143 grew from innumerable frustrated conversations about how to fix this. While fishermen remain engaged at the policy level, changes in fishery management and international trade are unlikely to occur in the near future. Recognizing this, we began to look at developing local markets and creating a unique identity for our fish thus reducing supply chain costs and improving efficiency. Our hope is that the people of Scituate and the South Shore will recognize the value of maintaining a local food industry that offers superior products and keeps more of the value added in the community.
As I conclude my walk a sense of timelessness surrounds me; a gull’s cry, the changing tide, the expansive sea all bring a sense of connection. My hope is for the work of Local Catch to keep a vibrant seafaring heritage as part of what defines Scituate.