BOSTON — August 20, 2012 — Not only do today’s fishermen face increased federal regulations, but the ability for them to sell their catch outside of local food vendors is limited. Enter the South Shore Seafood Exchange Inc., a new project that looks to connect local fishermen directly with the customers.
For Scituate residents Jay Silva and Marj Bates, the thought of the struggling fishermen trying to make a living off their shores was too troubling to ignore.
Not only do today’s fishermen face increased federal regulations, but the ability for them to sell their catch outside of local food vendors is limited.
“I read in the Globe that 85 percent of our fishes come from Thailand and China, and I looked around and couldn’t find any local fish any place,” Bates said. “So Jay and I went to a Sustainable Scituate meeting, and we met [local fisherman] Frank Mirarchi and someone who started a fishery in Gloucester … and we discussed it and decided to start something like this.”
Enter the South Shore Seafood Exchange Inc., a new project that looks to connect local fishermen directly with the customers.
The idea for the organization started at a Sustainable Scituate meeting in February when Silva and Bates first heard about the fishermen’s problems.
Soon thereafter, they had conceptualized a plan.
Members sign up for a 10 week buy in, and either pay a half share – a pound of filleted fish every week for 10 weeks, or a full share – two pounds of filleted fish every week for 10 weeks.
A selection of fish is available to the customer, and types of fish change every week. Customers can chose what kind of fish they want on a first come, first served basis.
“This is a solution to do two things. Connect the fishermen to the community, make the opportunities for the fishermen’s wares to be something the local community can acknowledge getting,” Silva told selectmen in a meeting in early August.
“The second thing is to bring the community a larger education about the kinds of fish these fishermen catch,” Silva said. “Years ago, folks would eat carp, today that’s rarely done. Flounder, cod and haddock…they have 10 other species they catch on a regular basis. If there was a market for it, [they could sell it].”
Although they have only been selling fish since June, the organization already has almost 100 members.
“The fishermen are happy they are selling locally and now we’re just working to get the numbers up. Our goal is to reestablish the link between the local fishermen and the people,” Bates said.
Typically, fish are caught on Wednesday, sent to a company to be filleted and packaged on Thursday, and then sold out of the Roman Table store on Front Street every Friday afternoon from 3 p.m. till 5 p.m.
Read the full story in the Boston Globe