That just completely blows my mind. There’s no Saturday or Sunday Auctions so that means that from Friday afternoon, Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning there was only one trip?
Are you fucking kidding me?
When we were handling fish just 10 years ago Monday morning was a shit show with us wondering how the hell we were going to get the three days of fish all into Boston for market. Monday mornings If be loading our huge box truck to the gills making two-three trips into town delivering the weekends fish.
And that was only our joint. There was Mortillaros, John B Wright, Old Port Seafood,Ocean Crest, Three Lantern and Pigeon Cove handling 20-30 boats each as well.
And its reduced to this?
A Monday in July with flat ass seas to fish in and only one landing on the Auction for 3 whole days?????
Unfreakingbelievable.
Its over.
Stick a fork in it.
For comparison’s sake-
Gloucester MA Fish Landings August 20, 1917- Over 5 Million Pounds. Aug 21, 2012 Gloucester MA 97,300 Pounds. Less Than 2% of the landings in 1917 were landed in 2012
Posted on September 9, 2012 by Joey C
Good Morning Gloucester 
Joey, your post is timed coincidentally for me as I have just finished re-reading Memoirs of a Gloucester Fisherman by R. Salve Testaverde. It is one of my favorite, if not favorite books about the industry and the community. The book weaves an incredible story of courage and determination, of the growth and decline of the fleet, and of the families, particularly of the Fort during the Depression and beyond. The book is a must-read for anyone truly interested in Gloucester and helps to understand both the city and the industry then and now. And yes, only one landing is heartbreaking.
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AMEN!
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Agree completely Joey, but time and again (see the Senatorial election of the past month), the Gloucester electorate has voted for the very politicians who have openly promoted the death of our local fishing industry. Why do the voting citizens of our city support financial and cultural suicide?
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It’s a quota situation?
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Sad!
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For anyone in fish for 20 years this is no shock. This has been creeping our way since i first heard of the Newfoundland Cod collapse in the 90’s. That market has still not come back. Norway is now the place to get cod. The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas announced the 2014 recommended total allowable catch, a 5.4 percent increase over the 2013 TAC Total allowable catch of 940,000 tonnes. Being upset/shocked will only waste time. Work now to bring it back. Push on to preserve what we have. Safety is no accident.
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hilarious, judging by the lack of interest in this post/what’s more concerning in this socialist state of ours: People are mostly concerned with “their feelings”, and “special flag” on the pole, of course after taking down the POW-MIA Flag, than having fish landing in their port. Just slide it off, maybe fold neatly or not, put it in a box. Back to work, busy sourcing Cod from Norway..
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Norway, Iceland, Russia, Greenland are the places to source cod
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When I was growing up in Gloucester everyone I knew had a fisherman in the family. My father ,uncles & even my husband in his younger years was a fisherman. I felt very proud of our fishing industry. All these regulations have killed our fishing industry. Very sad times for Gloucester indeed,
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Joyce, there’s no fish. 200 years ago you could catch cod off the beach, At a point a guy caught (records-journals) 250 fish in an hour. (1 PERSON). Now, you can’t catch 1 fish within an mile of shore now. If you can on a boat with 50 other fisherman, and travel 20 miles off shore, you might catch 20 fish over the course of the entire day. I sell fish for a living, I live in Gloucester in import fish from around the world. I buy nothing from Gloucester. Regs have nothing to do with the Human unsustainable condition.
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Joey, can you explain how the auction works? I’d like to understand the process a bit better.
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