Tag Archives: Charlie Manwaring
Peconic Bay Scallops are a legacy at risk
For more than 30 years, Tim Sweat has spent the early morning hours of winter on Peconic Bay. By noon on most days, he would collect thousands of pounds of scallops — enough to cover the daily cost of maintaining his boat, plus put aside some extra money for the holidays. But for the last four years, as bay scallops continue to die off at an alarming rate, he’s finished the season with little to show for his efforts. “I’ve spent most of my life out here on the water; fishing is my whole life. But the future is not looking very promising for the smaller boats like me,” Sweat said. “We’re struggling to make a living out here, things keep dying off.” >click to read< 13:33
Opening day is a no show for scallops and baymen
Shelter Island’s town dock was deserted, not what you expect on opening day for bay scallop fishing. A few minutes later, bayman John Kotula arrived, but not to go scalloping. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Kotula said, ignoring a stiff wind and soul-sapping 39 degrees.,, Keith and Louise Clark of Shelter Island renewed the license for the scallop-processing facility in their basement, an act that was equal parts stubbornness and ungrounded optimism. The death of the adult bay scallops in 2019 was shocking, but hope truly eroded in August of this year when researchers and baymen documented a second mass mortality. >click to read< 07:57
One day into the new season, and there are few if any adult scallops – For Ms. Phillips and her husband, Mark, a commercial fisherman who seems to work around the clock all year long, their family-owned seafood business on the creek in Greenport diversified long ago to help them weather situations like this year’s scallop crop. “But this lack of scallops will really hurt so many people who each year depend on them for their income.” >click to read<
Rocked by coronavirus, LI fish markets are bouncing back
Long Island seafood markets, rocked by the coronavirus pandemic, are slowly bouncing back from sharp drop-offs in restaurant orders and other broadsides, some by branching out. The state’s order to pause non-essential businesses until April 29 had a quick and sharp impact on most fish dealers, who buy from local fishermen, importers and big fish markets such as Hunts Point in the Bronx. It has backed up the supply chain, sent prices plummeting and idled some fishing boats. Local dealers and retailers have taken on new models to adapt.,, Big boat owners who supply much of the porgies, squid, fluke and sea bass for the region say they are still seeing an impact. “The market is going day by day,” said Dave Aripotch, a trawler captain from Montauk. >click to read< 07:43
Peconic Bay scallopers asked to slow down due to plentiful harvest
This year’s Peconic Bay scallop harvest is starting off with one of the strongest yields in years, according to local seafood markets and baymen. “It’s definitely a pretty impressive year,” said Charlie Manwaring, owner of Southold Fish Market. During the first week, in fact, so many baymen brought in their 10-bushel limit that he and other market operators asked them to hold off bringing in more so that they could catch up with the oversupply, which strained their ability to shuck and sell the mounds of shellfish. click here to read the story 15:24
Marine biologists, baymen bringing back Peconic Bay scallops – There is a story in every shell. click here to read the story
NY Commercial fishermen reeling from shutdown of fluke fishery
It was the busy Labor Day Weekend, and Southold Fish Market owner Charlie Manwaring had been forced to stock his popular East End restaurant and market with out-of-state fluke for the first time in recent memory. “This is my backyard, and on a holiday weekend I have no fluke,” he complained to Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) at a meeting Friday morning with two dozen angry Long Island fishermen and women at the Mattituck fishing dock. “I have to rely on Rhode Island and Jersey and Massachusetts and Carolina.”. “The fluke paid our bills,” said Cindy Kaminsky, who fishes commercially out of Mattituck.,,, “Nobody’s been willing to stand up and say to lawmakers, ‘You need to make this fair to New York fishermen,’ ” said Southampton attorney Dan Rodgers of New York Fish, an advocacy group. click here to read the story 17:42
