Tag Archives: Chatham
Lifelong Chatham Fisherman Arthur “Sonny” Mallowes has passed away
Arthur “Sonny” Mallowes 95, passed away at home, surrounded by family and his 4-legged buddies. He was the genuine article; a true Chathamite. Born at Cape Cod Hospital, son of Edward and Cecilia Mabel Mallowes, he lived a solidly good and simple life. He entered the Coast Guard after High School and was stationed on the Handkerchief Shoal Lightship, serving his country on the water and then went on to serve his family as a fisherman. Sonny met his future wife, Thelma Morrell, on a blind date arranged by her cousin. They married 6 months later. They are both survived by two sons, Edward and David Mallowes, their wives and families. He was particularly proud of son Edward being the Captain of a New Bedford scalloper and of David being a lobsterman. He was a lifelong Chatham fisherman, well into his eighties. If you knew Sonny, you knew he had nine lives. Two of them involved falling overboard, once in his youth from the Lightship, and once in his senior years while quahogging locally. >>click to read<< 008:58
Fishermen Face Unloading Delays After Fish Pier Packing House Tenant Departs
The packing house at the municipal fish pier has space for two companies to operate, receiving and packing the local catch for transport to market. But when Marder Trawling, one of the two fish buyers, departed last year, fishermen were lined up to unload with Red’s Best Seafood in the north bay. The south bay remains empty as commercial fishing ramps up for the season in the next few weeks. Last year, boats were “stacked up down the harbor to get offloaded,” Harbormaster Stuart Smith said. He has proposed allowing fishermen to use the south bay to unload their own fish to their own trucks or buyers of their choice, much as is currently done on the outdoor dock at the fish pier’s south jog. Smith told the select board that he’s making the proposal only after the town was unable to find a new fish packer to lease the south bay. >click to read< 8:47
Fresh Off the Boat: Dogfish Available to Local Fish Lovers for First Time
For a number of years now, the spiny dogfish has been a mainstay of the town’s commercial fishing fleet. Along with skate, it is by far the largest species by volume landed at the fish pier. Most of that fish, however, is shipped to Europe, where it is used for fish and chips, among other things. But folks can now buy fresh-off-the-boat dogfish filets, which fishermen say if processed correctly will rival the texture and taste of traditional whitefish such as cod. “It’s beautiful white meat,” said Doug Feeney, a commercial fisherman and member of the Chatham Harvesters Cooperative, which is now selling fresh dogfish fillets. The Coop’s permits and equipment allow consumers to get the fish in vacuum-sealed packs for $10 per pound the day after it is caught. >click to read< 09:24
Tight-Knit Fishing Communities Navigate Drugs
Johnnie*, a salt-and-pepper fisherman in his late 50s, is smiling as he tells me what happened one dark night last year. “It was like a movie star, dropping down from the sky off the helicopter to get to my crewmate, pitch of night,” he says. “The Coast Guard—this handsome guy, my wife would’ve loved him, like Rock Hudson—dropped down from the moon. Felt like hours after we had given him all the Narcan we had. The Coast Guard still didn’t carry it back then, did you know that? So they pulled him up into the clouds and we all were left below at sea.”, “It’s not the first time that’s happened on our boat,” Johnnie says. “If we didn’t have that Narcan on board though, kid probably wouldn’t have made it.” >click to read< 19:13
Federal grant giving ice-making equipment to Marshfield, Newburyport and Chatham fishing fleets
The USDA recently awarded $480,000 to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, which will use the grant, in part, to purchase ice making equipment for three hand-selected communities, including Marshfield. Harbormaster Mike Dimeo said the GMRI reached out to him last year to check the town’s interest, which he had an easy answer for. “This is something Marshfield has been talking about for a few years now with the fishermen,” he said. “It’s a great thing.” Newburyport and Chatham will also benefit from new equipment. Currently, commercial fishermen truck in ice,.. >click to read< 12:38
Dana Eldridge: Where are the characters?
We don’t seem to have as many characters around as I remember as a youngster and that’s too bad. Maybe television has lured them indoors. One example of our long ago character episodes that so enlivened our daily lives follows: During the late 40s and most of the 50s, one of my uncles was a commercial fisherman out of Chatham. His boat, like most of the rest of the fleet, was a Novi, (built in Nova Scotia).,, In those days, fishermen were mostly tub trawlers. A trawl is a long line with hooks every six feet or so. Uncle Bob and his partner Herb would get down to the boat a couple hours before dawn, bait each of the thousands of hooks and set out for one of the fish rich hot spots. After a day of setting the trawl, retrieving the trawl, slatting the fish into the bins, it was time for the hours long slog back to the fish pier. This was the time when the fish got their rudimentary cleaning in preparation for shipment to Boston or New York, where Chatham’s fresh fish always demanded a premium. click here to read the story 09:59
Working Waterfront – Chatham voters back purchase of historic pier
Living in a community nearly surrounded by water, it was perhaps natural voters at town meeting on Monday night approved the $1.5 million purchase of a historic private pier and fish house. Although the decision was primarily intended to guarantee access for the on the Nantucket Sound-side of town, plans are underway to look at how the use of the town pier next door and a pier owned by the Chatham Yacht Club could be coordinated to help improve access for all boaters. The Eldredges, who have a long history as a fishing family and have owned the pier on Stage Harbor for more than 60 years, approached the town about buying it because the family wanted to preserve access for fishermen to offloading facilities and felt selling to the town was the best way to do so. Read the rest here 08:25
