July 20, 2020 — Newport fisherman Jon Kourtesis’s days are even longer now, thanks to a change in state regulations that allows him to sell fish directly to consumers.
But he’s OK with it, for the most part.
In the spring, when the state closed restaurants to stop the spread of the coronavirus, fishermen were hit hard. Prices dropped dramatically. In some cases, wholesalers stopped buying, and fishermen had no place to sell their catch.
To help fishermen navigate this storm, the state temporarily changed some regulations to allow them to peddle their catches directly to consumers, fish markets and restaurants, instead of selling exclusively to wholesalers.
“I think it’s a great idea, and I’m glad they came up with it,” Kourtesis says.
It’s opened a new market for Kourtesis, but it comes with a catch. He says he’s working 15- to 16-hour days to make “a few hundred extra bucks.”
“It’s like three jobs for me,” he says.
Through an emergency regulation on April 17, the state created a direct-sale dealer license for Rhode Island fishermen. It authorizes commercial fishermen in Rhode Island to sell certain species of finfish, and to sell and transport for sale live lobsters and crabs, directly to consumers and licensed seafood retailers from the vessel on which they were harvested.