End of the Line

by Ben Carmichael  |  April 2, 2008  |  More By Ben Carmichael

Julia Moskin has a good article in today's NY Times Dining section on the hardships of the cod industry -- what there is left of it -- and of efforts to restore the river herring runs on which this, and other, coastal fish stocks depend.

Growing up on the coast of Maine, with a lobsterman for a neighbor, cultivated both a love of seafood and concern for the preservation of our ocean's precious resources. In Maine, it's not just a resource, but a resource that spawned a culture, and a way of life. The same is true of Cape Cod.

Here's what the article said.

"Right now, if it's off a day boat, it's not from Chatham," said Peter Taylor, who has been fishing off Chatham since 1971. Day boats stay close to shore and offload their catch daily; other vessels stay out at sea, sometimes keeping fish on ice for days.

...

Fishermen, chefs and suppliers are content to keep the Chatham name on menus even if the fish have only done a flyover of Chatham harbor. "It's a farce, like everything in New York restaurants," said Robert DeMasco, an owner of Pierless Fish Corp. in Brooklyn, which supplies many top kitchens. "I always supply day boat cod, but it hasn't been out of Chatham in months." Instead, day boat cod is coming from points north of Cape Cod.

Reading Mark Kurlansky's now famous book, as well as Charles Clover's "The End of the Line," reviewed in On Earth in 2006, has convinced me to order fish rarely. Among many things, this article raises the following point: we're continuing to apply pressure to a resource that's all but collapsed to support a delusion -- a delusion that costs not just fish, but extra food miles and fuel.  

I was interested in this part about herring:

“We don’t catch herring, we don’t sell herring, but all the fish that our fishermen depend on eat the herring,” he said. “It is the linchpin. Bluefin tuna, striped bass, cod and haddock: all these things eat herring. Herring is the forage base of the whole fishery.”

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and North Carolina have imposed complete bans on fishing for river herring. However, the states have no jurisdiction far at sea, where the herring spend much of their lives, often traveling thousands of miles before returning to the mouth of the same stream year after year.

 What about Maine?

 Last September, there was good news on resurgent herring schools, which some credit to a summer long ban. And a recent lawsuit is seeking to ban herring trawlers off the coast of Maine and other Northeast states.