In the Northeast groundfishery beat down and suppressed by national policy — with more ebbing to come when West Coast fishery management will come east in May — does Gloucester's 37-year-old Paul Vitale represent the future commercial groundfisherman here?
Vitale, a multi-generational fisherman on both sides of his family and a vessel owner, is a part-timer with full-time expenses.
He says he "saw the light" at a New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) meeting in 2006 and made that choice then.
How did Vitale get from there to here? He fished "on and off" aboard his father Capt. Leo Vitale's, 97-foot, 850-horsepowered offshore steel stern trawler, Stella Del Mare, during schooling at Gloucester High School, at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, and later between post-academy maritime work, licensed as a third mate unlimited officer.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.