Doing business on great waters

Last week, a commercial t Guard were alerted the something had gone agley, but by the time they got to the site, all that was left of the Emmy Rose was a bit of debris and an empty life raft. They believe the distress signal went off automatically, and that whatever happened to the Emmy Rose, the four fishermen on her crew likely went down with her pretty quickly. The men were all out of Portland, Maine. All experienced. The weather was foul, but the boat was considered sturdy. The last anyone heard from the crew, the men were doing some emergency welding and the boat was taking on water.

Just another reminder how dangerous things are for "the men who go down to the sea in ships, that do business on great waters." Brave men, they.

As if things weren't tough enough for fishermen this year, what with the restaurant business they rely on to buy their catch so distressed. 

I know that the commercial fishermen on the Cape have been making the best of it, selling their catch directly to consumers. My Cape relatives have been enjoying the availability of dayboat fish. It doesn't get much fresher than buying fish on the pier shortly after it arrives. 

Harder, of course, for the oystermen.

One thing to cook your own swordfish or halibut if you can't get it in a restaurant. Quite another thing to shuck your own oysters.

Not that it's impossible. 

My brother-in-law has become a master shucker. Good thing, given that their good friends and neighbors have a "civilian" oystering license and are always bringing oysters over.

But mostly oysters are a restaurant thing, and there's nothing like slurping down a salty, tasty little oyster. (Just don't let yourself think about the fact that they're likely alive when they start their fateful journey down your gullet.) 

I'm also quite partial to fried oysters, and to oyster stew, but raw oysters down the hatch are the very best.

Oysters aren't to everyone's liking, of course, but I like them just fine. And am thankful to that "brave man who first ate an oyster." I'm with Jonathan Swift. That "brave (w0)man" would probably not have been me.

So here I am, hundreds of years later, enjoying oysters. 

In restaurants. 

My favorite restaurant on the Cape is Winslow Tavern in Wellfleet. It's just not the summer until I've dined at Winslow. This year, it was takeout a couple of times. I'm hoping that by sometime next summer it will be possible to sit out under the trees on the Winslow's front lawn. And I'm hoping they still have Oyster Happy Hour, where you can sample all sorts of different preparations of local oysters. 

While Winslow stayed open this year, eat out and take out, the restaurant biz on the Cape wasn't great. 

The pandemic has hurt many businesses since March, but it has been particularly painful for the oyster industry. Unlike other seafood harvesters that have managed to sustain their businesses through the pandemic by selling to supermarkets, large institutions, and in some cases directly to consumers, nearly all oysters are sold at restaurants.

“Everybody is suffering through this,” said [Bruce] Silverbrand, who grows 450,000 oysters a year. “We’re trying our best to limp through this and come out on the other side. Some of us will make it; some of us won’t.” (Source: Boston Globe)

Overall oyster sales in Massachusetts are down 50% from last year. Not. Good. 

This isn't a huge industry. It doesn't have thousands of employees. But the oystermen harvest 48 million oysters each year in Massachusetts. And they're hurting. The larger operations have had layoffs. The smaller ones are just hoping to survive some how.

There is a glimmer of good news. 

As a reprieve for struggling growers, the Nature Conservancy and the Pew Charitable Trusts this fall began buying 5 million surplus oysters to help restore oyster reefs, about 85 percent of which have disappeared as a result of overharvesting of the shellfish, disease, and pollution. Oyster reefs are mounds of dead and living mollusks that are considered crucial for providing habitat to other species and improving water quality.

The environmental advocacy groups plan to spend about $2 million on the oysters, spreading their purchases among about 100 shellfish companies in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and Washington state. They plan to use the oysters to rebuild 27 acres of reefs at 20 restoration sites.

But it's not, of course, enough.

Oyster harvesters don't face the same dangers as fishermen going down to the sea in ships. They're not out there in the middle of the ocean trying to weld a tear in their hull shut while 20 foot high waves wash over them. Still, it's a tough way to make a living, and the pandemic is just making it tougher.

Here's hoping that for those doing business on great waters, by next summer, things will break their way.