The Farmer and The Fisherman

Saving the Last Wild Food

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The farming crew of Merry Oyster’s, handpick and load the boat during low tide on Duxbury Bay, Massachusetts in July. Scientists say ocean water has grown 30 percent more acidic since the Industrial Revolution and is on track to get worse in coming decades as it soaks up excess carbon dioxide from air.
Captain Steven Holler sells fresh caught lobster to a line of customers off his boat in Hough’s Neck on Saturday July. Holler sells lobsters from 3-6 pm on Fridays and Saturdays through the months of June, July and August. The lobster population could decline between 40 percent and 62 percent over the next 32 years, depending on how much waters continue to warm in the Gulf of Maine, researchers found.
Eric Matzen, boat captain of the C Hawk 25, brings buckets full of bay scallops to place in Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts. For the first time in recent history all sectors, from aquaculture and wild harvest to restoration and managers, are working together collaboratively to develop a state-wide holistic shellfish plan.
Victoria Anderson, left, and Ben Merry, oyster farmers with Merry Oysters, works on the flats of Duxbury Bay in Massachusetts. Duxbury Bay has 18 aquaculture farms for oysters and soon will host the state’s second sensor for monitoring levels of coastal ocean acidification, a threat to young developing shellfish.
An oyster from Merry Oysters sits on the flats of Duxbury Bay while farmers harvest in the background in Massachusetts. While wild fisheries are in decline, the shellfish industry in Massachusetts brings in hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the states economy.
A video camera provided by Archipelago Marine Research based out of British Columbia is assembled on the Dawn T fishing vessel at Saquatucket harbor in Harwich, Cape Cod. The Nature Conservancy is partnering with local fishermen to adapt new monitoring technologies to gather data and crate and best management practices.
In partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Connie Delano, left, from MRAG Americas and Matthew Swaile, right, from Archipelago Marine Research fray the ends of cables to connect video cameras placed on the Dawn T fishing vessel to monitor its daily catch at Saquatucket harbor in Harwich, Cape Cod.
An estuary carries sediment and nutrients, harbors young aquatic wildlife and protects the land and communities from storms making it one of the richest and most important ecosystems of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Marine fish, shellfish, crabs and lobsters rely on salt marsh habitats at critical life stages. The health of these ecosystems has a direct relationship with wild fish populations.
A Chinook salmon makes its way up Bacon Creek in Washington State.
A recreational fisherman casts his line for stripe bass off the shore of Duxbury Beach in Massachusetts.
Steve Kirk, Coastal Restoration Ecologist for The Nature Conservancy and Eric Matzen, boat captain of the C Hawk 25, dump bay scallops into cages in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. For the first time in recent history all sectors, from aquaculture and wild harvest to restoration and managers, are working together collaboratively to develop a state-wide holistic shellfish plan.
Rows of cadges filed with oysters sit on the tidal flats of, Duxbury Bay in Massachusetts. Merry Oysters delivers trucks to the Boston Fish Pier where Legal Sea Foods then distributes the bags across it’s 35 restaurants.
Colin Dowd, oyster farmer with Merry Oysters, sits on the side of the boat on his way back from harvesting oysters in Duxbury Bay, Massachusetts.
A crew member of the Cheryl Ann cleans out the holding tanks after several days at sea and off-loading the catch of flounder and skate in Scituate, Massachusetts. In 2010 there were 16 fishing vessels in Scituate which dropped down to only 5 in 2015.
Employees at the Boston Fish Pier shovel ice from tall mounds to pack freshly caught fish in preparation for shipment both locally and across the world. Over 60 percent of the worlds fisheries are in decline or are over-fished and more than 90 percent have little information to properly manage the health of the ocean.
Employees at the Boston Fish Pier in Massachusetts offload and sort Hake from a fishing vessel. The Gulf of Maine is one of the 10 most productive marine ecosystems in the world. The global fisheries industry, both directly and indirectly, provides the livelihoods of 10 to 12 percent of the worlds population.
Colin Dowd, oyster farmer with Merry Oysters, loads crates of freshly harvested oysters from Duxbury Bay, Massachusetts. The shellfish wait in a holding tanks under a floating house to be sorted in preparation for market.
Jenny Mattern, Farm Manager of Merry Oysters, works on the flats of Duxbury Bay in Massachusetts. Oysters grow on the flats and when the tide permits the team hand picks them out of the mud.
Steve Hurley, Southeast District Fisheries Manager of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife collects data and tags native brook trout of the Third Herring Brook in Norwell, Mass. The Third Herring Brook is currently undergoing the removal of three dams, which will restore 8.4 miles of additional spawning habitat.
Luciano Ribeiro of Luciano’s Excavation Inc., operates heavy machinery to remove the West Britannia Dam on the Mill River, a tributary of the Taunton River in Taunton, Massachusetts. The removal of this dam will open up more then 30 miles and 400 acres of lakes and ponds to migratory fish.
A river winds its way from the ocean at Hatches Harbor on the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Marine fish, shellfish, crabs and lobsters rely on salt marsh habitats at critical life stages and the health of these ecosystems has a direct relationship with wild fish populations.
Captain Steven Holler sells fresh caught lobster to a line of customers off his boat in Hough’s Neck in Quincy, Massachusetts. Holler sells lobsters from 3-6 pm on Fridays and Saturdays through the months of June, July and August.
An employee at the Boston Fish Pier in Massachusetts offloads Hake from a fishing vessel. The pier was established in 1910 and was home to one of the largest fishing fleets in the eastern United States, processing 250 million pounds of fish. In 2013 only 20 million pounds of fish were processed. Even though the amount of boats on the water and fish in the ocean has decreased dramatically in the past half-century the Boston Fish Pier remains the largest commercial fishing dock in the city.
Hake is piled in boxes to be packed and shipped to local and international markets at the Boston Fish Pier in Massachusetts. Hake is a year-round commercial fishery and is not being currently overfished and is a good source of wild oceanic protein.
Colin Dowd, farmer with Merry Oysters, harvests shellfish on the tidal flats of Duxbury Bay in Massachusetts. Oysters are filter feeders and can mature to market size in one year making them both good for the oceans and good for the local economy.

Lauren Owens Lambert

Lauren Owens Lambert is a freelance photojournalist based in the Boston area whose work has a creative focus in documenting social a…

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Marine Environment
Regions
North America United States
fishing

About The Farmer and The Fisherman

“The Farmer and The Fisherman” is a documentary project exploring the changing livelihoods and cultural identities of coastal fishing communities at the forefront of climate change and shifting economies. With ground fishing being the first colonial industry in America, fishing became a way of life in the Gulf of Maine, which extends from Southeastern Canada and down the coast of New England. With some 400 years of commercial fishing history in the North East wild fish stocks are some of the most stressed in the Nation and climate change is hurting the fishing industry with rising sea levels, intense coastal storms, ocean acidity and rising sea temperatures changing fish behavior and location. Over the past decade the Gulf of Maine sea temperature rose faster than 99% of he rest of the world. Fish are becoming less productive and are facing higher mortality rates with warmer waters and shorter spawning seasons. Ground fish and lobsters are migrating to deeper and colder water making the journey for fishermen more time-consuming, less productive and more expensive in some locations while others are experiencing a boom. This movement makes accurate monitoring and appropriate policy making a challenge leading to an increase in tensions between fishermen, scientists, regulators and the rising aquaculture industry. Local stocks such as the Atlantic salmon and Maine shrimp have collapsed and the iconic Cod is not far behind with stocks shutting down from Cape Cod to Canada. In March of 2016 the Maine Department of Marine Resources paid out $3 million in disaster relief funds to 32 qualified fishermen because of a“major reduction in Gulf of Maine cod quota available for the 2013 fishing year,” states The Ellsworth American. Fishermen are losing their jobs and are being forced to think about how to adapt or move on. Shellfish, seaweed and fish farming are becoming more and more popular in New England and with the increase of aquaculture some traditional fishermen are trading in their boats for pens while others are working on restoring ecosystems and gathering data to support the increase of wild fish stocks.Because of habitat loss due to intense colonial dam construction and overfishing the coast, the wild Atlantic salmon now makes up only 0.5% of the available stock in world fish markets and is considered commercially dead. The Atlantic salmon is farmed in North Atlantic waters ranging from Canada to Norway and efforts to expand this practice to halibut and other fin fish such as cod are in process.With a combination of smart aquaculture methods and conservation efforts through habitat restoration people are trying to help the wild Atlantic salmon populations rebound.