Taking the local perspective

New England fishermen are increasingly taking a local approach to marketing their fish.

In 2007, Port Clyde, Maine, fishermen began their Fresh Catch community supported fishery. Under the program, the fishermen sell their catch directly to local residents. Subscribers pay for shares of the fleet’s catch, picking up weekly orders of fresh, wild-caught, whole fish. The program has become increasingly popular among local residents.

Some Gloucester, Mass., area fishermen have apparently taken notice. A handful of harvesters have decided selling their product directly to local residents is a good way to go. They began the Cape Ann Fresh Catch program in June, delivering a variety of fish to some 750 subscribers in Bay State communities stretching from Jamaica Plain to Gloucester.

And in New Hampshire, fishermen have launched a new initiative that aims to bring locally caught fish directly to area restaurants. Participating restaurants in the New Hampshire Seafood Fresh and Local program pledge to buy their seafood primarily from New Hampshire fishing vessels or from boats whose home port is within a 15-mile radius of the New Hampshire coast.

Overall, there are seven such community supported fisheries operating along the East Coast. All of these programs are creating connections with their customers, who will know who caught their food, where they caught it, and when and how they caught it. Customers get fresh, high-quality seafood for a fair price.

And fishermen can catch fewer fish, yet make more money by selling direct to the public. Does this mean they’ll no longer sell to traditional buyers? 

No. But what fish that they do sell through their local initiatives will help them earn more than by selling to the traditional buyers alone. And with the new groundfish sector management regime slated to take hold come May 2010, such local programs could become increasingly popular in New England.

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Slick decision

I have to admit, when I read the news of Exxon's opting not to appeal the 9th Circuit Court's ruling that the oil giant must pay interest on its meager settlement in the 20-year Valdez fight I was first excited for the stakeholders, then a little suspicious.

Why would Exxon give up their epic battle now, especially after their series of victories that slowly ratcheted down the damages due from $5 billion to roughly $500 million?

Perhaps they fired all of their ace lawyers and decided it was time to fare well in the court of public opinion for once. But one tiny concession is not likely to curry too much favor with Alaskans, who value all of their natural resources and won't soon forget this two-decade war.

Maybe the truth is Exxon saw the writing on the wall with this one. After all, that's what high-powered, well-paid attorneys are for: to provide stellar representation and a reasonable assessment of the outcome of the fight. And they certainly were right in their push to take the damages case all the way to the Supreme Court. (I wonder if Norm Coleman wishes he'd had the same legal team.)

So there you have it. Big oil's answer to the O.J. Simpson trial has finally been put to rest, and the check's in the mail.

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Maine beacon of community fisheries will tackle groundfish

Great news out of Maine this week (nope, not the tangle over sector management) is Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's appointment of Glen Libby to the New England Fishery Management Council.

Libby, of Port Clyde, Maine, is the chairman of the Midcoast Fishermen's Association and a pioneer of community-based fishing.

As president of the Midcoast Fishermen's Cooperative, Libby was instrumental in launching the country's first community-supported fishery with Port Clyde Fresh Catch.

Despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges of fuel costs and rock-bottom prices facing local shrimp fishermen, the cooperative found a way to keep boats on the water and maintain this important local fishery's ties to the community.

Libby, whose term begins in August, has also been a vocal proponent of groundfish sectors, so it can't come as a surprise that his name would make the short list for appointment to the council, which will be struggling with this cumbersome beast in the next year.

I can only hope Libby's experience and vision will help forge a clear and fair path for the council in its oversight of the historic Gulf of Maine groundfish fleets.

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Sector management’s human cost

Today’s New England Fishery Management Council meeting is an excellent reminder that management changes to protect our nation’s fish stocks come with a human cost.

That’s something that doesn’t always come across in media coverage of the move to sector management in the New England groundfish fishery. Numerous fishermen will be damaged by that change.

This morning, the council began working to finalize Amendment 16 and bring sector management to the groundfish fishery. And as the council and fishermen wrestled with how best to allocate fish to each sector, it was never clearer that there is no way to do so without some fishermen getting substantially hurt in the process.

They aren’t just taking a pay cut. Fishermen who have spent their whole lives catching fish — and made substantial financial investments to keep doing so — will be finished.

Fishermen’s opinions (and those of council members) differed on the critical issue of what baseline should be used to allocate fish to sectors. But everybody was finding that trying to come up with a way to do so that would be fair to everyone was an impossible task.

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Selenium enters the mainstream

It's been about a decade since the big news in seafood consumption was alarmingly high levels of methylmercury in tuna — leading to warnings that children and pregnant women should limit their consumption or eliminate the fish from their diets altogether.

Those warnings have slowly softened over the years, and always in the background were some grumblings about the accuracy of the assessment and whether selenium might counteract the effects of mercury in ocean fish.

Now a study from the University of North Dakota shows that selenium does indeed affect the absorption of methylmercury and, therefore, must be gauged when recommending consumption restrictions.

Also a poll taken at the International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant shows a majority of scientists saying methylmercury contamination in seafood is not a serious health threat.

So what does this mean for consumers of seafood? Well, I can say anecdotally that the damage has been done. It could take decades for tuna's reputation to recover.

That's how it goes in our media frenzy of 24-hour news coverage. The big, breaking story gets coverage to the point of saturation. The corrections to that story, not so much — especially when they come years later.

That's why the beef people sued Oprah. One bad headline can seriously damage your industry for years (they might thank Dr. Atkins and his diet for early release).

But if tuna should get some sort of relief, it would have to be tempered by the fact that Eastern Atlantic bluefin stocks are in peril. My only advice, as it so often is these days, is to buy American.

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Is another Exxon battle looming?

So is anybody jazzed that Exxon Mobil has been ordered to pay about $500 million in interest on the 507.5 million in punitive damages payments to plaintiffs in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

It’s understandable. After all, Exxon can still appeal the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco’s ruling. Given the years of protracted legal wrangling Exxon engaged in to whittle the punitive damages sum from $5 billion to $500 million, would it be surprising if the oil giant does so again?

If the appeals court’s decision stands, average payments to Alaska natives, fishermen, related businesses and others harmed by the spill would double from $15,000 to $30,000. Considering the toll upon fishermen — years of lost income, families torn apart while waiting for years for the case to resolve — you can understand it if folks aren’t jumping up and down for joy.

And if Exxon does appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, who knows how long it’ll take to render a decision? Hence, readers commenting on the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News article announcing the court’s decision were underwhelmed by the ruling. 

Asked one reader, “Do we REALLY believe that these folks will ever see any more money from Exxon?”

After years of disappointment, the plaintiffs will believe it when they see it. 

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They’re on a humongous roll

Creating a 61-foot lobster roll is no small feat. But tip your hat to the folks who whipped up this mammoth treat — and for a good cause to boot.

The 61-footer Mainers made last Sunday is likely to enter the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest. And I’m guessing bringing such a monumental creation to life was easier said than done.

Think about it; what grocery store’s bread aisle stocks a 61-foot roll?

No, the roll had to be made special. So did its bread pan (which was delivered on a flat bed truck) and the oven it was baked in.

Then there’s the matter of filling the roll. An army of volunteers gloved up, and tackled the job of filling the roll with about $1,200 worth of lobster meat. Add lots of Miracle Whip, sprinkle with a blend of special seasonings and voila, you have a lobster roll so big, it must be transported by a passel of volunteers, including Maine Roller Derby skaters.

So how did the lobster roll measure up? When appointed official certifiers Portland mayor Jill Duson and Dane Somers, executive director of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council busted out the measuring tape, they found the roll was 61 feet 9 ½ inches long.

That should best the current official Guinness record established in 1997. It’s hoped the Portland roll will meet the Guinness folks’ exacting standards.

The city’s West End Neighborhood Association and Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine coordinated the fund-raising event, which was part of Portland’s annual Old Port Festival. Sales of 4-inch long slices of the beast were sold, with proceeds going to fund the association’s Swimming Scholarship fund. They’ll provide swimming lessons for some 250 needy children in Portland’s West End. And that leaves a good taste in everyone’s mouth.

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Niçoise salad

I love grilling season.

It gives us a chance to move away from the gas grill that sits outside the kitchen door and into the yard, where we keep our charcoal grill.

There's nothing better than the smoky flavor of lump charcoal or mesquite, especially when it comes to searing tuna.

This salad feeds two tuna lovers.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound sushi-grade yellowfin tuna
• 1/2 pound new potatoes, lightly boiled and split
• 1/4 pound haricots vert (or skinny green beans), blanched, cooled and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, split
• 1/2 cup pitted Niçoise olives (calamatas will do, too)
• 2 eggs, hard-boiled (careful to keep the yolks yellow)* and quartered
• Half a head of romaine lettuce, rinsed and dry
• Capers, parsley and chives to garnish

Dressing (blend and serve immediately)

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Anchovy paste, salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup olive oil (regular or extra virgin)

If you like your tuna black and blue, then just sear it on high heat on the grill. (Make sure you do not use lighter fluid if you're going to put your fish in the flame!) Let it cool slightly, then slice as you like.

* To keep your hard-boiled egg yolks from turning green, dry and pasty, try bringing them to a boil in a covered pan of cold water, boil for three minutes, then turn off the heat and uncover the pan. Wait until the eggs are almost cool enough to touch to peel and serve.

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Bold Venture gets missile mascot

Florida longliner Solomon Rodney thought he had a pretty cool find on one of his grouper hooks late last month: an 8-foot missile.

He fixed the missile to his boat, the Bold Venture, where it proudly rode the waves for the remaining 10 days of his trip.

The problem, as the bomb squad at MacDill Air Force Base sees it, is this missile wasn't just cool; it was hot.

Apparently, Rodney assessed his catch as dead, because it had a hole that made it appear as if it had already detonated. You might ask what could possibly make a longliner an expert in live missiles.

According to the story in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, Rodney has a lot of experience with the missiles tested in the range between Panama City and Pensacola. In fact, it was the second missile he came across on this trip.

The first, "had lights, a gauge and a camera that appeared active." Too bold, even for the Bold Venture.

After the bomb squad cleared the area and deactivated the missile, Rodney got some sage advice from the folks at MacDill: "They told me if you find another one, just let it go."

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Greenlaw ticketed for parking longliner illegally

Yesterday, famed fishing captain Linda Greenlaw was convicted in a Canadian court for crossing the international boundary and fishing illegally in Canadian waters.

According to various reports, Greenlaw claims her longline gear had been snagged by another boat and dragged about five miles across the Hague Line.

The judge, who believes Greenlaw was there accidentally and made an honest mistake, chose to convict her because he believes it was an unreasonable mistake.

The prosecution is pushing for a $50,000 (Canadian) fine, which Greenlaw's lawyer is hoping to cut in half.

Regardless of what happens, the damage has already been done. Greenlaw has had to bear the cost of representation in and travel to a foreign country, and all for what?

If they believe it was an honest mistake, then convict her and give her a slap on the wrist, a nominal fine. But if they believe she was actually intentionally breaking the law, then she deserves the full force of the fine or whatever the court deems appropriate retribution.

I do not understand the intent of this conviction. People make honest mistakes, and others intentionally act outside the legal boundaries.

But calling someone on a technicality is not the intent behind any law, unless that law exists solely to drive revenue.

Is this the fishing equivalent of an expired-meter parking ticket?

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