A filmy, pink dawn has just slipped above the horizon as the F/V Stormy Weather arrives at the fishing grounds. After a two-hour cruise from port in Hampton Beach, NH, the vessel has reached the southwest corner of Jeffrey’s Ledge, a winding offshore glacial deposit—and prime fish real estate—that stretches from Massachusetts to Maine. Captain Carl Bouchard and deckhand Paul Kuncho unfurl an intricate knitwork of colorful rope. The two men have performed this maneuver countless times, and they release the trawl net with a minimum of spoken words. Within 15 minutes the net has been deployed into the cold, dark water. The captain brings the Stormy Weather up to towing speed. Kuncho heads below deck to heat some sausage breakfast sandwiches in the microwave. Another day of fishing has begun.
Since the 17th century, fishing has been an integral part of New England’s economy and its culture. But 400 years of scooping fish from the sea have taken a toll, and the effects of the global overfishing crisis are as evident in New England as they are anywhere in the world. Stocks of Atlantic cod and other fabled New England groundfish species have plummeted. Spiny dogfish—voracious, 5-foot-long sharks detested by fishermen—have proliferated in the niche vacated by the predatory fish. But unlike predators such as cod, which feed on a smorgasbord of marine creatures, dogfish are primarily fish eaters. So as groundfish stocks have withered in the Gulf of Maine, lobsters and crabs have surged in abundance. In the eastern Gulf, fishermen have become dangerously dependent on lobster, which now accounts for 90 percent of their seafood landings. Elsewhere in New England, groundfishermen are barely scraping by.
According to the law governing the nation’s fisheries, conservation and management efforts must prevent overfishing while achieving a continuous optimum yield from each fishery. The reauthorized law, which was signed in 2007, requires the majority of stocks be rebuilt by 2014. It will be an uphill battle.