When a bluefish or bonito crosses the scale at the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby headquarters in Edgartown, the angler who caught it must answer a question: “Would you like to donate to the fillet program?”
If the angler answers “yes,” their catch will be taken outside to the fillet station, a floating raft in the harbor where volunteers will slice it up and pack it in ice. From there, it will embark on a journey — helped along by the derby committee, the Martha’s Vineyard Seafood Collaborative, the Island’s councils on aging, health officials, Island Grown Initiative and countless volunteers — that lands it on the table of an aging or food insecure Islander.
“To me, [the fillet program] is one of the best parts of the derby that doesn’t get enough attention,” said derby president John Custer, whose first role with the derby was as a fillet station volunteer in the 1990s.
According to derby committee member Phil Horton, roughly 40 per cent of the total combined weight of bluefish and bonito brought to headquarters constitutes meat that is filleted for distribution. As of Wednesday afternoon, that was 1,456 pounds of bluefish and 873.6 pounds of bonito. Albies are not eligible for the fillet program, but are largely donated to lobstermen to be used as bait along with the scraps from the fillet station.
Derby committee member Jonathan Herman oversees the fillet program. He coordinates with everyone involved in the distribution chain, and even delivers fish himself on weekends.
“It’s integral to connecting Islanders to the ocean that surrounds us and the people who fish it,” Mr. Herman told the Gazette. “You’d be surprised at how many seniors really gush to me about how much they love it and really look forward to it.”
The derby committee is serious about food safety. Katie Carroll, vice chairman of the derby committee and a former member of the Chilmark board of health, keeps the protocols tight and handles communication with the Edgartown board of health.
“We have had protocols in place ever since the fillet program began,” Ms. Carroll said. “Each year, we sort of work on [the protocols] a little bit more, just to really streamline things and adhere to standard operating protocols that are administered by the board of health.”
Last year, the derby began working with the Martha’s Vineyard Seafood Collaborative to distribute the fillets. The Seafood Collaborative has refrigerated trucks and the packaging equipment in Menemsha to keep the fillets cold throughout the distribution process.
“When the derby reached out to see if we could help integrate and partner with their program, it was kind of a natural collaboration,” said Shelley Edmundson, executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Seafood Collaborative and Martha’s Vineyard Fisherman’s Preservation Trust.
Every weekday morning, Isaac Macy of the Seafood Collaborative and Fisherman’s Preservation Trust picks up the previous day’s catch at the weigh station and delivers them to one of the Island’s councils on aging. This year, fillets are also being donated to the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) for the first time.
“It makes me feel like I’m helping to make sure some of these Island traditions stay alive when they’re so under threat,” Mr. Macy said.
At the councils on aging, fish distribution days can yield lines of 30 people deep. Such is the case at the Edgartown Council on Aging, said director Lyndsay Famariss, who hands out fish to seniors on every Wednesday morning of the derby.
“It can be very expensive for older adults to have fish in their diet, and maybe they used to go fishing themselves, but they can’t anymore,” she said. “This is a really great way to have a connection to an Island tradition, and healthy and great fresh fish in their diets as well.”
Every person who lines up ahead of the 8:30 a.m. pickup time receives a number. Then, they’re called inside to peruse the bluefish and bonito.
“We have, over the years, fine-tuned the distribution, because it gets a little wild,” she said.
For people who are homebound, volunteers make home deliveries. Pat Tyra has volunteered at the Edgartown Council on Aging to help with fillet distribution for longer than she can remember.
“There’s a couple of people that I’ve known over the years who can’t get down early in the morning for the fish, and I’ll deliver it to them,” Ms. Tyra said.
On the weekends, the fish is vacuum-sealed, flash-frozen and transported to Island Grown Initiative, usually by Mr. Herman. There, it’s stocked at the food pantry and incorporated into pre-made meals.
“Any local protein is such a huge benefit to our community…” said Merrick Carreiro, food equity director at Island Grown. “It’s not like we’re giving it to people and we don’t know if it’s being used. People are choosing it.”
What happens to the fish when it gets to its final destination — the kitchen — is entirely up to the person preparing it.
Ms. Edmundson said there are great recipes for bluefish and bonito from Island chefs featured in the Martha’s Vineyard Fisherman’s Preservation Trust cookbook, Sea Table. She mentioned Steven Raichlen’s recipe for bluefish, marinated in mustard, maple syrup, brown sugar and mayonnaise and grilled on a cedar plank. She added that Rachel Vaughn’s orange-soy marinade and herby chimichurri pair particularly well with bonito.
Other recipes are heirlooms, passed down for generations. Ms. Tyra’s mother’s bluefish recipe, which includes coating the fish in a mixture of mayonnaise and sour cream before broiling it, is such a hit that it’s printed out and pasted on the wall at the Edgartown Council on Aging.
For Mr. Herman, a fillet of bluefish or bonito can keep Islanders’ stomachs full while connecting them to people and memories from the past.
“It’s not just free fish,” he said. “It’s something more than that.”