On May 23, 2015, I spoke at the Women of Fishing Families' Annual Blessing of the Fleet at the Chatham Fishing Pier, Chatham, MA. Here is an edited version of the words I spoke.
After a cold winter it is great to stand here at the Chatham
Fish Pier, right now, in this moment, with the sun shining, the wind blowing out
of the northwest and the tide low.
It’s late May and we are blessed by the arrival of our Cape Cod
version of spring. The sun rises higher and stays longer in the sky. Baitfish have moved in turning the water a
turquoise green and the ospreys have arrived to nest and fish. The peeper’s
sound, the herring are in the runs. Dandelions
grace our lawns and squid has showed up in Nantucket Sound. The daffodils
bloom, the cherry blossoms waft in the breeze and the quahogs and clams rise closer
to surface of the shoreline flats.
The world awakens to the season. Shops open on Main Street
and the town and the harbors explode with activity.
As fishing families we live in harmony of the seasons,
harvest in harmony with what the provider, the sea allows. Stand in those thoughts for a moment, regard-the
peepers, the daffodils, the ospreys, the fish, the fisherman and the cyclic
nature of the seasons, the weather, the wind, the tide-the harmony of nature and
the harmony of the harvest.
We hear and you hear, there is no fish left in
the ocean. True, there may be a limit of resources and fishing may not be the
way it was in it’s hey day when the saying ‘Anyone
got some Chathams?’ meant something at New York's Fulton Fish Market. Or, when a line of tractor-trailer trucks idled
on Stage Harbor Road waiting for mackerel and scup to be packed and loaded. Or, when there were more shucking shanties than guest cottage in the backyards of our
neighborhoods.
And, most importantly, the fishmongers and restaurateurs on Main Street could
proudly and truthfully say, ’Yes it's fresh, it's local and just landed down at the harbor.'
What is magical is, just like the Chatham Fishermen’s
Monument depicts, and what the seasons show, the sea is a provider, and a
diverse provider at that. We in Chatham are
blessed with the opportunity to have a diverse seasonal resource of fish and
shellfish.
As I walked around the harbor last week and among the crowd today
I heard these comments:
‘It
blew hard southwest on the changing tide the other day, Gladys and Chape must
have had a wet ride back from digging steamers on Monomoy.’
‘
The water temp must have warmed up Nick, Jamie and Bill are catchin’ up the
conch in the Sound. Is Jamie going dog fishing when the season opens?’
‘Saw
schoolies as far as the eye could see off Monomoy the other day. What’s the
word from Drew on bass season?’
‘Have
the monkfish and skates moved north enough that Dave, Jim and Mark aren’t
steaming 12 hours to set gear?’
‘I
saw Kurt at the trap docks jigging up squid with his son William last
week, are his lobster pots in yet? ‘
‘Did
Bobby get his boat back in the water?’
‘Are
Coralie and Wendy going quahogging this summer?’
‘So
is Russo going to land any cod in Chatham this year.?’
‘I
wonder how Doug and Paul are doing sea scalloping off Maryland.’
‘The
mackerel came and went from Nantucket Sound fast.
‘Did
Shannon Ernie and Russell get squid today? Any sign of scup?’
We live and work synchronized by the provider we call the
sea. I cannot eat clams, quahogs, mackerel, squid, scup, conch,
monk, skates, lobster or cod without regarding what season it is, when it will show
up in our waters and what fishing family provided
it.
We are tied to seasonality of the sea and are blessed by its diversity
and the opportunity it continues to provide. And in that blessing as we stand in
this moment at the Pier, regarding the sun shining, the wind blowing, the tide-changing,
think about the seafood you eat. Be thankful for the diverse seasonality of our
fisheries and honor it. Especially with all the rhetoric and the challenges faced by fishing families; their
catch limitations that are managed and monitored by those of whom holding the
reins of power to fast track the corporatization of the world fisheries.
Without a doubt, even years from now, I will look for a
dandelion even if it’s on a well manicured, managed lawn, to tell me squid
will be here soon. And I will feel blessed by the fishing family that provides it. ~SD
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| LOCAL CATCH LANDED AT STAGE HARBOR: May is squid season for our weir fishing family |
