While Maine fishing communities generally have a local hangout – a wharf, general store or small restaurant – where fishermen congregate to exchange information about gear and catch (or not), gripe about prices and ponder the latest regulations, but there’s nothing here quite like The S.S. Shanty, located in North Chatham on Cape Cod.
Established by the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association (CCCHFA), The Shanty’s full name is a The S.S. Shanty Community Action Center, with the emphasis on “action.” Described by Melissa Roberts Weidman, CCCHFA Communications Director, as “a place where guys can come in with their boots on and bring their dogs, a place where the coffee pot is always on,” it serves as a resource for the entire Cape Cod fishing community and other local residents.
The Shanty’s staff not only provides information about regulatory agencies and the rules that govern fishermen’s livelihoods, it teaches them about the processes that create these regulations. It educates them on how to share their expertise and make their concerns and needs known – how to be pro-active in the regulatory process, rather than reactive.
Ever since environmentalists brought suit against the federal government for not adequately protecting groundfish stocks, and Judge Gladys Kessler’s subsequent ruling imposing a drastic reduction of allowable fishing days and expensive gear changes, The Shanty has served as a focal point for fishermen who are staggered by the implications of proposed regulatory changes. Early morning meetings have been held there to brief fishermen on the latest developments and to get their input on what position CCCHFA members wanted to take regarding the suit and Kessler’s ruling. Working together, they agreed to join a coalition that submitted an alternative plan, and after Kessler’s ruling, filed a motion asking her to reconsider her judgment and return to the alternative plan.
“It hasn’t been easy,” says jig and hook fisherman Ted Ligenza, who attended many of these meetings. “We have a lot of fishermen with different ideas, and every fisherman has a different need. We’ve had to do a lot of work to decide what we wanted.” For instance, he says, Kessler’s stipulation that fishermen base the number of days they will be allowed to go out on the average number of days they fished over the past five years generated strong opinions. “That kills some of us, because we didn’t go cod fishing part of that time,” he says. “Some of us were clamming, dog fishing, tuna fishing, going for striped bass. There are people like me who have fished for 35 or 40 years and we’re in trouble, and then there’s a whole bunch who fished a lot and they don’t really care about the five-year thing.”
Despite these and other differences, through their discussions at The Shanty members of CCCHFA found their way to a united front which gives them power they could not have as individuals. “The Shanty has served as a great rallying point for fishermen in the community,” says Paul Parker, Executive Director of CCCHFA. “The time spent for a couple of hours every morning to discuss options has put us in a position to carefully consider alternatives. When we signed onto the settlement agreement, we had thought so much about alternatives, we knew it was a better option than closing down the fishery.”
Geographically, the Cape is perfectly suited for an action center like The Shanty. “Although there is a fleet at Hyannis and one at Provincetown on the other end, the vast majority of the fishing fleet is located in Harwich, Chatham and Orleans, and we’re central to those three,” says Peter Baker, Campaign Director for CCCHFA and Action Center Coordinator. A core group of several fishermen drop by The Shanty every day; at least 20 or 30 are there once a week. Meetings held to discuss the groundfishing action have packed the approximately 1,000-square-foot space, which was expanded from about half that size last winter.
Fishermen (and other residents) can use numerous resources at The Shanty to learn about and become active participants in the regulatory process. The staff posts clippings from current fishery news stories and notices of important meetings on The Shanty bulletin boards. Details on specific issues such as Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQs) are available in Issue Briefing Books, and all past and present New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) documents are available with one-page summaries written in laymen’s terms. The Shanty staff arranges discussions with speakers from the science and policy-making community. Last month, over 50 people heard Dr. Steve Murawski, Chief Stock Assessment Scientist for the Northeast Region of the National Marine Fisheries Service, explain new ways to collect fisheries data. Other speakers have included Richard Ruais of the East Coast Tuna Association, who talked about issues in the tuna fishery, and Icelandic fisheries activist Valdimar Johannesson, who discussed problems Iceland is encountering with its Individual Transferable Quota program. Local and state public officials have visited to talk about fishermen’s concerns.
Shanty staff, led by Baker, who before taking this position campaigned on logging issues in the Southeastern Appalachians and worked on political campaigns in Vermont and Oregon, provides political action training for fishermen. They are shown how to write effective letters and make calls to public officials, and are coached on talking with congressmen. During May, Baker arranged 30 appointments with congressmen for teams of fishermen, including some from Maine, who traveled to Washington to express their needs and concerns. Bob Luce, president of CCCHFA, believes this type of action is essential for the survival of small boat fisheries. “If we don’t go and voice our opinions, let them know our side,” he says, “they will believe whoever else is talking. When one fisherman goes down and says, ‘That’s not true,’ they have to think about it.”
Parker says CCCHFA has been working hard on the IFQ issue. The group developed “Proposed Standards for a National IFQ program in the U.S.A. Waters” and are especially concerned about the specter of processor IFQs, which they believe would push small-boat fishermen out of the industry.
Many fishermen make use of The Shanty’s lending library of fiction and nonfiction marine-related books and commercial fishing publications. They can also use office equipment and obtain computer training. Kurt Martin, who goes lobster and weir fishing, operates an aquaculture farm and holds a ground fishing permit, attended an Internet workshop. “I was Internet illiterate,” he says. “They taught me skills like how to use search engines, how to find information when I had a questions I wanted to look up, how to use and organize e-mail.” Martin has also used The Shanty copy machines to prepare posters which notify other fishermen of the locations of his fishing weirs.
The Shanty serves as an outreach center to enlist the support of new coastal residents by educating them about the need to protect small boat fishermen and the local businesses that serve them. Once a month, The Shanty presents videotapes that feature Cape Cod and other small boat fishing. Community residents are welcome to attend seminars or just drop by. Outreach extends beyond the Center, with development of a marine curriculum for local schools and video presentations for Elderhostel groups in Province-town and local organizations. Also, two interns are working out of The Shanty, one, a high school student, on fish marketing, and the other, from Duke University, on a comprehensive plan for Cape Cod fisheries in the future.
To further unite the area fishing community, CCCHFA offers The Shanty space and its resources to other marine groups like Nereid Network, a women’s organization dedicated to supporting Cape Cod’s maritime communities, and the Chatham Shellfish Association.
“The Shanty has been quite successful,” observes Luce, a retired hook fisherman who runs a charter boat. “Without it, I don’t know how we would be operating. It’s a place where fishermen who are not on CCCHFA board of directors can just walk in and get a handle on what’s going on. It’s gotten people more involved, and a lot of people involved who are outside the industry. I think we’re on the right track. If we don’t stand together, the small guy won’t have a chance. We’ll lose all the small fishing communities up and down the coast.
“Cape Cod ground fishing begins on June 1 and people don’t know what to do – how much money to put into boats, what size mesh, how many days they will have. It’s very stressful. People are constantly coming in to find out the latest news to give them some idea how to calculate what they can do.”
To learn more about The S.S. Shanty and CCCHFA, visit their website at http://www.ccchfa.org.