For hundreds of years, fishing vessels have sailed from the ports of Massachusetts to fishing grounds off of the New England coast. The North Atlantic fisheries are some of the most successful fishing grounds for Atlantic Cod, various kinds of flounder, lobster, sea scallops and other highly sought after species. But the great success that came from fishing in the area is a now a thing of the past.

Both lobstermen and fishermen are faced with climate change, slowly rebounding marine life populations, strict government regulation, constantly fluctuating domestic and international markets, and now reality of a global pandemic. What may already be the last of the Massachusetts dayboat fleet (small boats that only fish for one day at a time) now faces an even more uncertain future looming on the horizon.

The number of permits issued to small boat operators to catch the once plentiful Atlantic cod is a fraction of what it used to be. In the year 2000, the state issued over 1,200 groundfish permits. By 2020, that number had dropped to just below 400. Lobster require a certain temperature and acidity in the waters around them, and as the Gulf of Maine warms, the lobsters push north toward cooler waters.

When COVID-19 hit Massachusetts early in the pandemic, the economical ripple effects spread quickly as shelter in place orders were given. Restaurants closed, grocery stores saw dwindling customers and seafood exports screeched to a halt for some companies. However, Massachusetts fishermen, especially small boat operators, were insulated by the preparedness that comes from years of expecting difficulties to arise in the industry.

In early summer, local residents started buying directly from boats. When they could no longer go to restaurants or didn’t want to go to the grocery store for seafood, they went to the coastline and found a boat offloading fish or lobster. By mid-summer, the gross profit earned from selling to distributors was cut in half compared to the same prices in January.

“Things are pretty much the same except the boat price for lobsters is only $3.50,” said lobsterman Peter Mason of Plymouth, Mass. “So we’ve been selling a lot of stuff off the boat for retail price through Facebook.”