With about 75% of the Earth’s surface covered by Ocean, fishery “politics” has been a contested topic throughout human history.

With the collapse of herring stocks in the Baltic Sea being the first serious red-flag in modern times, the “commons” of what nature offers has long been politicized by nations to claim the maximum value from a resource that defies national boundaries.

Step back a century-or-so, prior to the steam/combustible-engine era, over-fishing wasn’t considered a problem. Boats were powered by sail and fish were caught by hooks. “Dory-men” would row away from a “schooner” and lay “miles” of long-line laden with baited hooks that they’d then haul up by hand. It was extremely dangerous and tremendously inefficient. Current “reality shows” like the “Deadliest Catch” or “Wicked Tuna” had nothing on the perils those fishermen faced in a two-man dory hundreds of miles away from shore, dead reckoning back to mast tops miles away with a dory laden with fish and gunwales inches away from getting swamped…

…And that’s when it wasn’t foggy. Factor in the lack of weather forecasting back in the day and there’s a memorial in Gloucester that details just how deadly an occupation fishing can be.

Since the late 1800′s/early 1900′s though, with the introduction of steam and then diesel engines, the technological innovations in catching fish allowed mankind to extract a far larger share of seafood than Mother Nature could replace. Technological advancements, along with misunderstood biology, and fuzzy international coastal boundary limits decimated the fish stocks of the Northwest Atlantic in the mid-to-late 20th century.

In 1976, the Magnuson-Stevens Act got implemented to address the management of the USA’s ocean resources. Along with establishing a 200 mile coastal limit where international vessels couldn’t fish, Magnuson-Stevens created the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), a regulatory body whose policies are responsible for determining how the Ocean’s public resources are managed nationally. Providing input to NMFS policy decisions are regional councils. Here in the Gulf of Maine and to the south, we have the New England Fishery Management Council providing input to how federally-regulated species get harvested.

Since it’s inception, NMFS has tried to manage the common resource of our nation’s Ocean in the best way it saw fit. While some policies have proven successful, others haven’t fared as well for the health of the Ocean and the fishing communities whose economy is derived from the sea.

One controversial decision by NMFS in May 2010, was implementing its Amendment 14 to the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Currently, there’s a lawsuit being argued in federal courts brought on by the cities of Gloucester and New Bedford who “argue” NMFS failed to properly consider and include the economic impact of Amendment’s 14′s fallout on fishing communities.

There are several other policy decisions pending that portend to have a significant impact on the local fleet.

In the next several months, fishery politics should get mighty interesting…

CAFC will do our best keep you up-to-date on the latest developments and how they may impact our CSF…

 

Now and again, we get questions addressing the “variety” of species we offer in CAFC shares. While we’ve addressed these concerns individually in the past, we felt it might be helpful to share this concern about variety publicly.

From CAFC’s perspective, there are significant considerations involved in determining the “local” fish species one receives in a CAFC share. In other words, there’s a lot more to the “species” we announce in our Daily Catch notifications than meets the “frying pan”…

First, there’s the regulatory factors for certain species. Then there’s seasonal availability of migratory species, market constraints of availability, and production considerations that limit certain species from getting delivered. All these factors play a major role in determining the “variety” of species you get delivered in your CAFC share. Oh, and did we fail to mention what’s the “freshest fish” available as the primary consideration?

Below, we address these factors and more which will hopefully let you gain and develop a greater understanding of what one can expect in your CAFC share concerning the variety of species we deliver in our regular share.

First off, the fish species Cape Ann Fresh Catch delivers in our regular shares are primarily Gulf of Maine Groundfish. These species tend to be flaky, white-fleshed fish that swim on or near the bottom of the water column. These species are most frequently landed by our local fleet and hence make up the vast majority of our deliveries.

Gulf of Maine Groundfish are regulated by the Northeast Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC, a federal regulatory board that oversees most commercially caught fish landed in the Northeast/Gloucester), there are 15 species that comprise this fishery under their jurisdiction. Some of the more commonly known species would be haddock, cod, pollock, redfish/ocean perch, yellowtail flounder, and monkfish, among others.

Where things get real interesting/confusing is the many species of flatfish that are referred to by different names for the same species. For example, Winter Flounder is what we at CAFC refer to as Blackbacks. American Plaice is known locally as Dabs. Grey Sole is also known as Witch Flounder. In the case of Yellowtail Flounder, it has only one local name, yet two scientific names. Needless to say, naming conventions can get mighty confusing quickly.

In addition to the Gulf of Maine Groundfish nomenclature conundrums, there’s the near-shore and off-shore stipulations of what boats can catch fish where. (A regulatory wrinkle that has yet to get specifically ironed out.) To compound things, there are additional species that are migratory and have a specific seasonal availability such as Northern Shrimp, Striped Bass, and Bluefish, that are regulated by the Atlantic States Fisheries Marine Commission (ASFMC).

Because of these dual regulatory boards controlling what can get landed commercially, there are significant seasonal considerations to species availability. In a very broad and general sense, NEFMC regulated fish are caught year-round and regulated by the Feds. ASFMC fish are seasonally-oriented and regulated by individual states.

To view some local species seasonal “tradtional” availability, please visit, mass.gov/dfwele/dmf/publications/dmf_seafood_availability.pdf

When available either by fisheries regulation or migratory patterns, CAFC tries to deliver the widest variety of local, sustainably-caught species available within a reasonable price range for a share’s affordability.

This consideration of affordability and market forces brings up the next major impact on what gets delivered in your CAFC share weekly/bi-weekly.

To ensure the cost of a CAFC share is economically reasonable, we keep a constant watch on market costs for species consistently landed by CAFC. Because of our unique business model, where folks pay in advance of the shares they receive, and in turn the boats receive a better price for their catch, we pay close attention to dock prices while balancing these two factors.

On a day-to-day basis, it’s akin to a high-wire, balancing-act of cost-benefit analysis. To this end, we have to express tremendous gratitude to the folks at Ocean Crest Seafood for balancing CAFC landings across a daily and seasonal basis. Knowing these certain economic constraints, Ocean Crest has consistently landed for CAFC a tremendous variety of the freshest, local seafood available. There are days when the program loses money with the fish that gets purchased and delivered. On other days, the program regains that lose due to dock prices of that day’s particular species. Throughout it all, the boats that participate in CAFC benefit. To that end, Ocean Crest Seafood has been the keystone on the waterfront and a tremendous partner in balancing the costs of species CAFC delivers.

Managing this balancing act is no small feat. There are cost margins that have to be evaluated daily and compared to seasonal projections of income. This is why certain “high market value” species, e.g. tuna, halibut, swordfish, don’t get delivered in day-to-day CAFC shares. Due to their high-market value, the cost of these shares would bust the budget of the program and make it unaffordable for the cost of an average share.

By avoiding these “high-dollar” pelagic species, and focusing on more equally delicious, under-appreciated “groundfish” species, CAFC strives to enhance the ocean’s sustainability and your food dollar.

Market forces have driven some fishermen to target certain species because they get a better price for that specific species. This is why cod, haddock, and yellowtail flounder have traditionally garnered a greater dock price than say hake, pollock, or redfish here in New England. Believe it or not Atlantic Halibut was considered a “trash fish” back in the 1800′s. The same can be said for Monkfish as recently as the 1980′s. Once chefs determined Monkfish had tremendous culinary value, Monkfish has been consistently the most expensive species we deliver. Perceived market value ultimately drives the cost of typical seafood costs.

However, it costs the fishermen the same amount of money to steam out and catch a cod as it does a pollock or monkfish. All are delicious fish, yet it’s a perceived market value that’s influenced many folks palates in determining what’s better-tasting. (We’ll address this matter again and its nuances in another blog post.)

Market forces determine fish prices on a day-to-day basis. However there’s also shore-side costs of production.

Regarding production costs, there’s several factors that influence what CAFC delivers. For those Whole Fish members who’ve filleted a flatfish compared to a big, fat six-pound hake, you can appreciate the production value consideration. And to that end, our partnership with Turner’s Seafood in Gloucester has yielded tremendous benefits for CAFC members. (For those who get fillets, there’s a 90% chance it was cut by Milton. He is an Artisanal Fish Cutter/Ninja! He is the bedrock in CAFC’s fillet processing.)

The yield factor of a species quite often determines what CAFC can deliver reasonably. There are some local species available that are just to small to handle and be economically viable for the program. For example, herring. Production values for herring fillets would be astronomical. (We’d like to completely side-step how its caught for now.) The value-added costs of filleting herring compared to its whole fish costs would quickly render the program untenable with a single delivery. Whiting is another example of a smaller species that’s uneconomical to fillet. We tried it once with “king whiting.” Because of production times alone, we barely made the delivery that day.

Factoring in all these considerations, there’s limitations to the variety of species CAFC can deliver. If it weren’t for the partnerships CAFC forged with Turner’s Seafood and Ocean Crest Seafood, the program wouldn’t be viable.

Undoubtedly our goal is to offer our members the widest variety of local seafood species available. Yet, there are limitations in what we can offer species-wise as described above. Ultimately, Mother Nature’s whimsies determines what Cape Ann Fresh Catch delivers on any given day. We just hope you’re willing to accept the species she offers any given delivery day.

To enhance our offerings and address any perceived discrepancies, we’ve got our Neptune’s Choice Share. With it, we offer species not regularly featured in our regular fish shares, such as, scallop meat, lobsters, crabs, and “other” limited-availability finfish as Neptune’s Choice shares. However, there’s even more regulatory considerations. We’re limited in the “bi-valves” we can deliver for a Neptune’s Choice share.

“Bi-valve” shellfish like oysters, clams, and mussels are “outside” the regulatory framework in which CAFC is permitted to operate. (This too is a whole other blog…)

There’s a tremendous volume of hoop-jumping across multiple planes to ensure folks get the widest variety of seafood available on any given delivery day from Cape Ann Fresh Catch.

If you’ve read this far, it’s our sincere hope you’ve gained a greater appreciation and understanding of what we offer and why.

On the flip-side, hoop-jumping is just a matter of coordinated-efforts meant to be overcome. And, it can be overcome with your support.

While we can’t currently offer the full range of seafood offerings to CAFC members we’d like to, the program is a work-in-progress. To that end, your patience and support of CAFC’s efforts can’t be understated.