Chris Mayhew is used to riding out storms – literally and figuratively. They can crop up when he’s out in the North Atlantic on his thirty-one-foot fishing vessel, Solitude. They can come in the middle of the afternoon while he’s hauling lobster pots, or on a nippy fall day when he’s harvesting conch in Vineyard Sound. And they can appear when he’s navigating the bureaucracy that comes with fishing permits, catch limits, and state and federal rules and regulations.
“There are things out of your control, thunder and lightning can make you nervous and you have to tuck down below,” Mayhew said after a busy sixteen-hour day on the water. “Sometimes you can plan around storms, but they seem to be worse in the beginning of the day…and if they come and you’re out there, it can get pretty gnarly. I have to think of the safety of my sternman. Safety first, fishing is second.”
Fishing is also second nature to him and his family.
“I’m twenty-six and I believe I’m the fifth generation of fishermen – lobstermen – in my family,” Mayhew said. He and older brother Matt started going along with their dad, Jonathan, and their uncle, Greg, when they were young. Jonathan and Greg, in turn, first went out on the water with their father, who went with his father.
In the elder Mayhews’ era, Menemsha Harbor boasted a thriving fleet of commercial fishing boats that brought in all manner of catch based on the permits they held: lobster, crab, shellfish, swordfish. At one point, the latter was so plentiful in local waters, it was the principal summer fishery. In the 1970s, when Jonathan and Greg were harpooning swordfish, it wasn’t uncommon for them to land forty or fifty in one trip.
The following decades brought overfishing, an increase in regulatory oversight and catch limits, and consolidation and corporatization of the commercial fishing industry. The number of independent, small-boat commercial fishermen here and throughout the country decreased.
Greg Mayhew held, at the time, the last harpooned swordfishing permit on the Island until it expired in 2009. The cost per year for that old license was just $22 but, faced with dire medical circumstances, he forgot to renew it. If he were to purchase a new harpooning license, it would have to have come from another fisherman and it would have cost up to $15,000. It also would have limited him to just fifteen fish per trip, which wouldn’t have covered the cost of the journey forty or fifty miles offshore.
It was, in short, the sort of increasingly common problem that the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust (MVFPT) was established to address. The nonprofit was founded in 2011 to protect the Island’s commercial fishing heritage and has been led since its inception by executive director Shelley Edmundson.
The model for the trust is based on permit banks throughout the country that purchase fishing permits and lease their affiliated “quota” – that is, the right to catch a certain amount of fish or shellfish – to local, independent fishermen at affordable rates. Without such a system, the high price of fishing permits and quota (which can cost upwards of several hundred thousand dollars) would have made commercial fishing largely unattainable for the Vineyard’s small fleet.
Although permitting is central to the MVFPT’s mission, the organization also supports the fishermen by either buying, processing, or shipping their catch off-Island. Seafood enthusiasts can purchase fish cakes from the trust at both Cronig’s locations, The Net Result in Vineyard Haven, and Beetlebung Farm in Chilmark. Fish cakes as well as frozen fish can be purchased at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market, Morning Glory Farm in Edgartown, and North Tabor Farm and Mermaid Farm in Chilmark. MVFPT also gives back to the community by donating part of the local catch to Island Grown Initiative and Kinship Heals.
This summer, the trust caught the attention of local benefactors who will allow the organization to continue its mission for years to come. Sarah Bernard and James Seppala, who recently purchased the former home of the Poole Fish Plant and Chilmark Chandlery in Menemsha, will provide the nonprofit with a ninety-nine-year lease. MVFPT will open new, expanded headquarters in the building as well as ramp up processing of fish and shellfish for consumers.
“While we have work to do to bring things up and running again in the building, having the space to expand our work and respond to the community’s needs – both now and in the future – is beyond a dream,” Edmundson said.
Elsewhere, more work remains to be done. Edmundson is constantly looking for more ways to increase the trust’s – and local fishermen’s – visibility. When the nonprofit received a grant from the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries in 2023, she set about putting together a self-published cookbook: The Sea Table: Stories of Fishermen & Recipes from Martha’s Vineyard, which was released this summer and is available through the trust’s website. “It’s more than a cookbook,” she explained. “It tells stories and identifies fishermen and species.... It’s a resource that combines everything.”
It is, in other words, a love letter to a way of life that, if not protected and preserved, could easily disappear.
***
The Sea Table opens with a simple premise: seventy-five recipes, nineteen species, twenty-one fishermen, six ports, one Island.
While primarily a cooking resource, Edmundson wanted fishermen’s voices – some not long out of their teens, others who have been on the water for decades – to be present throughout the book. Through interviews, they share tales of what they love and what frustrates them about the industry, how they got their start, and how they spend their days.
Walter Greene, who fishes from his boat Wu Tang Clam, is one of the younger fishermen featured. “Sure, you can find cheaper fish; you can buy tilapia or farm-raised fish.” But, he said, the hope is that “seafood stays local and becomes more appreciated for where it’s caught, and valued for the effort put in.”
Others spoke of having to diversify their catch to make a living. Mayhew, for instance, fishes black sea bass as well as lobster in the summer, and conch in the fall.
Wes Brighton, of the F/V Martha Rose, detailed the challenges of constantly changing government regulations and trying to compete with well-financed corporate fishing companies. “Fishermen choose to live their life by chance, and a good fisherman is just one that is stubborn enough to keep fishing,” he said.
Despite the hardships, almost all the fishermen featured in The Sea Table spoke of their abiding love for their profession. “We get to see the majority of sunrises. That reward is almost greater than the money – to be able to be out there and see the ocean and see the sunrises and work alongside really great people,” explained Greene.
Throughout the book, the fishermen’s words of wonder and weariness are augmented by recipes, illustrations, species primers, and beautiful photographs. Ben Scott and Lainey Fink of Bluerock Design handled the design; Scott also provided illustrations. Photographer Brooke Bartletta captured portraits of the fishermen; Randi Baird photographed many of the completed dishes; and other local photographers provided images that showcase the beauty of Martha’s Vineyard. Private chef and cookbook author Catherine Walthers had the grand task of soliciting and compiling the recipes from notable cookbook authors, TV hosts, Island restaurant chefs, caterers, and fishermen, plus several of her own.
The selected recipes run the gamut from New England classics, such as chowder and stuffed clams, to internationally influenced selections, such as Honey-Miso Glazed Sea Bass with a Scallion-Ginger Sauce. Frequent favorites, such as tuna, swordfish, lobster, and scallops, get their due, as do lesser-known species, such as scup, tautog, fluke, and conch.
Edmundson has already tried most of the recipes in her own kitchen and can attest to the simplicity of many of them, such as Tina Miller’s Fluke en Papillote (fluke cooked in parchment paper). “It’s not intimidating – actually, it’s easier than almost any recipe,” she said.
Her hope is that The Sea Table will educate the community about the great number of species available in local waters and how to prepare them. More important, though, she hopes that the book reminds people to support the Island’s fishing fleet. It is, after all, thanks to them that we have access to fresh seafood straight from Island shores.
The following recipes were originally published along with this article:
Vineyard Fish Cioppinno Tautog
