January 19, 2015 — In a richly reported text that details key questions underlying today's groundfishing industry, WCAI Public Radio recently published "The Long Haul: The Future of New England’s Fisheries."
The book is based on radio stories from a team of reporters who scoured the fishing towns of Cape Cod and the Islands as well as SouthCoast to detail the struggles of contemporary fishermen.
"The Long Haul" consists of 10 chapters, each with easily digestible sidebars, reporter's notebooks, photos and even seafood recipes.
"These are challenging times for New England's fisheries," reads an editor's note at the start of Chapter 1. "There's a history of overfishing. Climate change is impacting habitat. Many fishermen don't trust the science, which attempts to quantify the fish stocks."
The book begins with fisherman Alex Smith. "20,000 pounds is a good trip nowadays," Smith says in a chapter by Steve Junker. "Used to be 40,000, 50,000 pounds would be a good trip for a boat this size (the 90-foot dragger Buzzards Bay)."