January 15, 2025 — About 20 miles off the coast of Nantucket, Bill Amaru steers his fishing boat, Paladin, toward a school of summer flounder. Amaru cuts the motor, and crew members drop lines in the water.
For a minute, all is quiet.
Then the rods tug, the reels turn, and soon the deck is flopping with flounder.
Amaru hauls in a big one. “That’s a nice fish,” he says, tossing it into a cooler. “Probably about 2 pounds.”
Then he adds: “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then.” The crew chuckles. Amaru smiles and casts his line back into the sea.
Self-deprecating dad jokes aside, Amaru knows these waters. He’s been a commercial fisherman for more than 50 years — no small feat in a tough industry. And his expert eye sees the ocean changing. The most obvious shift: The water is warming and attracting different species of fish.
“Nothing is weird anymore out here,” he said. “Tropical is getting to be fairly common.”
The shifting species could bring new opportunities for fishermen. But the changes are coming so fast, the industry is struggling to keep up. Scientists, regulators and fishermen are all scrambling to adjust to a new reality.
The New England seafood industry generates more than $20 billion in sales each year and employs more than a quarter million people.
It’s also embedded in the history and character of many coastal communities, and the fabric of many families. Amaru’s son and grandson are both full-time commercial fishermen. He worries about their futures.