FAIRHAVEN, Mass. — December 31, 2012 — Fairhaven only gives 50 commercial quahogging licenses per year, but statistics are not available for how many of them are divers or hand-rakers. Recreational quahogging has been on the rise in Fairhaven in recent years, with more than 500 people holding licences that allow them one peck — a quarter of a bushel — per week. Commercial license holders like Wolfgang and Miller can rake 1½ to 3½ bushels of quahogs per day.
Both Wolfgang and Miller blame the difficulties they have in quahogging on what they say are lax regulations that leave the mud flats barren.
"I never knew a fisherman who liked regulations, but this here is a great natural resource and we need to make sure it stays this way," he said.
If Miller had his way, hand-rakers would be allowed more bushels per day than divers, and no one would be allowed to take more than a couple per day.
"It used to be a half bushel per day along the Neck, and then they upped it to three," Miller said. "If you're hand-raking, that puts you at a disadvantage. By the time you rake three bushels, you're exhausted."
Wolfgang and Miller also wish the town had an upwelling program where Fairhaven would buy smaller quahogs, called "seeds," and grow them in a closed system before releasing them into quahogging areas.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times