Aiming for $500,000, the Martha's Vineyard Sustainable Seafood Collaborative raised $515,000 to bring fish wholesaling back to Menemsha.
Visitors streamed into Menemsha on Thursday evening for a rare look inside the Island’s commercial fishing industry. The first event drew a young, vibrant crowd to the harbor, where most of the Island’s commercial fleet was docked and fishermen offered demonstrations in their trade.
Commercial striped bass season opened on Sunday with mixed reviews from fishermen. Fishmongers, however, are happy to have the desirable fish in stock again for the Island’s many interested customers.
Striped bass is a highly regulated fishery, especially on the commercial side. Last year the season come to a quick end on August 9 when fishermen reached their allowable catch about a month after the season opened.
Fans of local bay scallops are in luck; commercial fishermen, not so much. An abundance of fresh scallops on the market, combined with diminished interest in the product off-Island, has dropped the price of the shellfish.
Local fishmarkets said Island bay scallops were selling for $15 a pound Friday, down from as high as $20 earlier this year.
Massachusetts commercial striped bass fishermen exceeded their quota this summer by over 100,000 pounds. Fishermen landed 1,163,666 pounds or 109.6 per cent above their quota of 1,061,898 pounds.
The commercial striped bass season ended last Monday and Alec Gale of West Tisbury said it was the worst season he has seen in the six years he has been hauling fish to the mainland for the local anglers. “It was a slow season, and it wasn’t because of overfishing,” Mr. Gale said. “I think it was a lack of bait and the warm water temperature.”
Like David against Goliath, the Martha’s Vineyard/Dukes County Fishermen’s Association and a well-known Menemsha draggerman last week filed a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, claiming that the giant wind farm planned by Cape Wind Associates for Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound threatens to put Island fishermen who work the shoal, including squidders and conchers, out of business for good.
