Fluke season opened on June 10. Today is 7/15/2013 and the total allowable catch is over 56% caught up. That means more than half way through the season. For us it means sixty days of work and then we hang it up - pretty much for the rest of the year.  Can't drag anywhere around here, most areas that could be productive fishing are blanketed with lobster pots and seals.  Limited amounts of fish allowed to  land wouldn't be enough to pay the fuel and we - after forty years in the business - weren't given enough allocation to make a profit at it,  like being starved slowly at a banquet. We were told (God's truth, by a secretary at NMFS) that we should get out of the business. Well we would but the business doesn't seem to be worth much. Catch share advocates say we could buy allocation, well, maybe- if we had the cash and know someone who sells it at an affordable price, but that won't happen at our house. We don't see much sense in buying fish before you go out and catch it - what if you don't - or have a break down or get the flu? All I can hope is that change comes. I would welcome a bureaucracy that knows when to help the people, how to give freedom and support to the fishermen who have obeyed every law and regulation since the introduction of the Magnuson Stephens Act in 1976.  Since that time thousands of fishermen have gone out of business.  And now, people who want to go fishing, who know how and can make it work - are few and far between. Why can't we just give fishermen a chance, give them the right to continue, give them help and turn this thing around.  I think it is time for everyone to stop saying the sky is falling and get back to work. We are doing ourselves a disservice by not allowing, focusing on the negative, and limiting our incentive as hard working citizens of this great country, our great oceans. In thirty-five days the old man comes home with his old boat and we try to figure out how to make enough money to keep paying the bills.  Don't get me wrong, it's not all doom and gloom, I get to eat fresh fish and vegetables from our gardens on land and sea. In order to be a fishermen's wife one has to have faith in God, in man and in our country, we are controlled by all three.

For a view into the world of the small-boat, inshore fishery and how it has evolved, read my book - Nautical Twilight, the Story of a Cape Cod Fishing Family  by J.J. Dutra   It's an eye-opener, or so I'm told. It is available at Create Space  or at Amazon and let's hope it's in your local book-store or ask me:  
nauticaltwilightdutra@gmail.com   I'd be happy to send you a copy  $15. plus postage.