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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 2
October 2007
Cod nursery dream growing on Martha’s Vineyard
WEST TISBURY, MA– American cod, once common in Martha’s Vineyard waters, hasn’t been fished here for years. But a group made up of Vineyard fishermen and others want to do something about that: They are talking about creating a nursery operation to raise cod for release to replenish the local population.
Last May, a dozen individuals went up to GreatBay Aquaculture in Newington, NH to tour the facility (see related story next page). Impressed by what they saw, the fishermen and their supporters agreed that some day they’d like to transport juvenile cod from the hatchery to a nursery facility on the Vineyard.
Tom Osmers, a former commercial fisherman, who now works as the West Tisbury Shellfish Constable, has earned the title “Codfather” on the island because of his determination to restore the Vineyard cod.
In 1991, he shot a simple video of a tub-trawling trip he took with another fishermen off Nomans Land. It was his last profitable trip in a small boat. The video shows stunning shots of large, healthy cod being pulled on board in great numbers. Today, he says he took the video knowing that something was wrong with the once traditional local fishery.
Building support
Osmers readily admits he isn’t entirely clear on what steps need to be taken to restore the cod fishery, but he is trying to meet with whoever will listen and share ideas.
Local officials have offered their encouragement, and there have been financial contributors to his cause. The Barnacle Club, the oldest waterfront organization on Martha’s Vineyard, donated $500 at the end of a meeting in May, after watching Osmers’ video. The Menemsha Fisheries Development Fund, a private fund created to support commercial fishing, paid for the trip to Portsmouth. And the effort has attracted some interest from scientists at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.
Osmers has attended meetings of the New England Fishery Management Council and met with council members. He has proposed the idea of establishing a Vineyard groundfish sector to allow local fishermen to take back charge of local waters, raise juvenile fish, and harvest them as adults.
“We want to stock the waters and harvest them in a sustainable fashion. That would be the dream,” he said. “There are a lot of things that are killing the fish and the fishermen, but we have to start somewhere.”
Next step
Osmers said he hopes to acquire some juvenile fish, about 3" in size, from GreatBay in October, bring them to the Vineyard, and raise them in a salt pond, perhaps Menemsha Pond, until they reach 7" to give them a fighting chance.
“It will take a ton of permits … but I’ve been told that if we start small, we can do it,” he said.
On Sept. 25, the group was scheduled to listen to a presentation by Elizabeth Fairchild, a University of New Hampshire researcher who has had success raising winter flounder.
Osmers was looking forward to the talk.
“Winter flounder may also be a better species to raise here,” he said. “Winter flounder stay local. We can get reportable, verifiable results.”
In the meantime, Osmers plans another trip to New Hampshire to find out what kind of fish cages are necessary for raising the little fish.
“I think a lot of seaside communities should consider doing this. I think it is time for us to put something back into the wild fishery. If we don’t, the alternative is worse,” he said. “There could be mass scale aquaculture and then it will be something we have no part in.”
Mark Alan Lovewell
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