Fish Blues - A Parable

I sat with an elder fisherman down at the shore the other day and as we looked out on the water he said….

I got the fish blues,

Not bluefish, fish blues

But real giant tuna-sized fish blues

But tuna aren’t blue, I said to him …..

Nor are bluefish for that matter. They’re more sparkly and shiny…. both of them… really, he said.

Without looking away from the water, I nodded in agreement.

I should tell you why I have the fish blues, he said

 “Even tho fish aren’t blue, I added.

Yes, he replied.

You see I was born a fisherman and I will die a fisherman

I started as a son of a sailor you know? And he died a sailor.

Sailed the bright blue sea his whole life…he never got the fish blues.

Okay,  I said. But what does that have to do with you having the fish blues? Not the bluefish fish blues but the real giant tuna sized fish blues.

Even tho fish aren’t blue, he stated

Yes, I said, impatiently.

Well, I’m getting to that, he said.

And as he picked up a piece of frayed rope from the dock with his frail gnarled hands, he continued , "Well even though I was a son of a sailor I always wished I was a fisherman." 

And not being a fisherman, I felt the fish blues, not the giant tuna sized fish blues, mind you  but the fish blues none-the-less. I had to do something because no one wants to be fish blue for too long.

"Okay so you became a fisherman to not have the fish blues?"  I asked.

"Yup!" he said.  

"But you just said you have the fish blues now, not the bluefish fish blues but giant tuna-sized fish blues." 

"You see," he said, "I got into fishing like everyone else. I crewed on a boat right here in this harbor and earned enough money to buy my own boat. And every day I’d set out on a dark morning fishing for cod, haddock, pollock, halibut, monk, skate, mackerel, anything that swam in the ocean.  And every night I would bring my catch back to this small community. I took a lot of fish from the sea." 

"Oh , okay. So you got the giant tuna-sized fish blues, not the fish blues or the bluefish fish blues because you didn’t never caught a giant tuna?" I asked, confused.

"No, that is not why I have the giant tuna fish-sized blues, not because I didn’t catch a giant tuna, I caught many." 

" In fact, I had an abundance of catches, millions of pounds of fish throughout my career. I was a free man working the sea." 

" I had a good life, because the sea was the provider. I worked hard and I was able to marry my love, buy a house, raise  children, send them to college, live in this beautiful seaside town. "  

" When fish weren’t running like the good old days, I made adjustments.

And when the government told me how, when, where and what to fish and I became less free, but I adjusted and kept fishing." 

" So that’s why you got the giant tuna-sized fish blues, not the fish blues or the bluefish fish blues, you weren’t as free? ", I asked.

" Nope,"  he said. "Never had the fish blues, not the blue fish fish blues nor the giant tuna-sized fish blues when I was at sea." 

" Than why old man?  It sounds like you had a successful life going out to sea, you caught a lot of fish, met a lot of challenges, created a good life. That doesn’t sound like fish blues, not the blue fish blues nor giant tuna-sized fish blues to me." 

He turned and looked at me with his steel blue eyes and as they started to water he turned away, looking out over the harbor and said, "With all the sea gave me, everything I needed and wanted. My way of life. My fortitude and bravery, strength and dignity. My wealth and place in my community. I can never, ever, give anything to the her in return.

And with that he pick himself up, and walked away from the shore.

A BLESSING FOR THE SEASON OF THE FISH

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 

LOCAL CATCH LANDED AT STAGE HARBOR: May is squid season for our weir fishing family