Scalloping with CapE Cod’s Chris Merl on the F/V Isabel and Lilee

by Phoebe Gelbard

It is not uncommon to hear the phrase “know your farmer” or “know your fisherman.” In the realm of food culture and sustainability. But what does this actually look like when put into practice? Chris Merl, a commercial fisherman for 30 years based out of Wellfleet, MA, along with his wife, Denice, their son, Aidan, and their two daughters, Isabel and Lilee, can show you. From distributing scallops on the dock to growing their online presence (www.capecodscallop.com), they are changing the way that they interact and engage with customers. 

Early Years

Chris is a Cape Cod native with his roots in Provincetown and Wellfleet. His fishing career began while still in high school at Cape Cod Tech. After spending time diving for oysters, Chris bought a boat that allowed him to start harbor fishing. He also received a grant, making it possible for him to grow clams and oysters. Looking back on his early years, Chris fondly remembers spending time in Provincetown long-lining for fluke and flounder with his friends. Throughout his childhood, Chris's family and their friends would go digging for quahogs. "We'd make an all-day affair of it with catching the quahogs, grinding up linguiça, and stuffing the clams with it,” Chris recalls. During the off-season, Chris worked on larger offshore shellfishing boats.

Scalloping & Customer Engagement

These days, Chris has two sea scalloping boats of his own. His first boat, the “F/V Aidan’s Pride” is named after Chris’s son who spent his summers during high school scalloping alongside his father. The “F/V Isabel and Lilee” was later added to the fleet and is named after Chris’s daughters. Chris fills almost every day of the year with work, often spending up to thirty consecutive days (weather-dependent) out on the water during the summer. In the winter, he’s “lucky to get out once a week.” 

This seemingly abundant “down time,” however, quickly fills up with projects that get bypassed during the busier months of the year. One day could comprise a trip to New Bedford for fishing gear, another day might entail working with Denice to catch up on vessel trip reports and data entry. Whether it’s boat maintenance or marketing to their customers, there is always something to be done. “Sometimes fishing feels like the easy part of it, you know, rather than everything else,” Chris laughs. 

All Hands On Deck

On the whole, Chris’s customer base is extremely appreciative of the work that he and his family put into bringing seafood to their tables. Depending on weather conditions and wind patterns, a single scalloping trip can take anywhere from six to seventy-two hours – usually with less than an hour of time to rest. While customers are generally receptive to the ebb and flow of product availability back on the dock, Chris is sometimes asked why he doesn’t sell scallops every day of the week. “It's almost like being a teacher,” he says. “I think folks don't always realize that people have a life outside of their job.” 

Even though demand for his product continues to grow, Chris would still love to see more dayboat scallops on consumers’ plates. But he notes that “local seafood in general – anything local” would be a significant step in the right direction toward supporting our regional fisheries. If there is anything resembling a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be the attention that has turned toward supporting local businesses. 

How to support Chris Merl, the Merl family, and purchase scallops from F/V Isabel and Lilee:

Website & Join Their Email List: www.capecodscallop.com

Instagram: @fvisabelandlilee

Facebook: www.facebook.com/localscallops/

Since March of 2020, Chris has been selling his catch from the dock as well as at farmers markets and distribution sites. "We've made some strong relationships with people, and they really enjoy our story,” he explains. Before COVID, Chris mainly sold to wholesale dealers who then sold his product to restaurants and markets; now, his model is largely community-based. The shift is astounding: "we have people that appreciate our family and our business so much that they'll drive from New York to buy a pound or two of our scallops,” Chris remarks. 

Chris and his family have been instrumental in cultivating these foundational connections and relationships with their customers. "It's not just a virtual sign-up sheet," he explains. Denice, and Lilee "put a lot of personalization into knowing the customers” through social media engagement, conducting more personal email and phone correspondence, organizing giveaways, and even hosting free cooking classes held over Zoom. “It's all a lot of time and effort,” says Chris, “but it has also allowed my whole family to be more involved in the business than before." In the broader context of our relationship with food, Chris recognizes the significance and visibility of this culture shift, noting that “even if it's extra work for the same money, it's rewarding.” 

Sustaining the Fleet into the Future

While Chris’s business has managed to pivot and survive during the pandemic, there are other longer-standing challenges that exist below the surface. Chris is not in a position where he feels the need or inclination to expand, but if he were, the path toward doing so would be more complicated than it might seem.

One of the most significant drawbacks that Chris faces pertains to how catch shares (a dedicated share of potential catch purchased by fishermen, cooperatives, or communities) are viewed and valued by those outside of the fishing industry. Chris explains getting his hands on resources to finance his business, from fishing gear to leasing quota, is difficult if not impossible. The reason for this is that most banks do not recognize catch shares that fishermen hold as viable collateral for a loan. “If I could change one thing that would make the fishing industry more sustainable,” he says, “it would be to try to get the banks to realize that fishermen's incomes are different and to have them recognize the value of quota.” 

For fleets that ended up with forty thousand pounds of quota in the early 2000s, this share is now worth roughly two million dollars in landings. For these players, obtaining a loan is almost effortless; for others in the game, including Chris, financing their livelihood is a monumental hurdle. Without financial backing from a previous source of income or a private investor, the bar to entry is high. “I don't know how the small up-and-coming youth or the next generation of fishermen is going to get into it,” Chris worries.

Driving Change

In his ‘copious’ spare time, Chris is also a member of the scallop advisory panel for the Northeast Fisheries Management Management Council (NEFMC). In this role, Chris, along with other fishermen and workers in the scalloping industry, provide insight and recommendations to an advisory committee, which then passes these concerns along to the NEFMC, which is ultimately kept in check by federal regulatory agencies. Chris adds that there is an advisory panel and committee representing nearly every type of commercially-caught seafood and component of the ecosystem, including a skate committee, a habitat committee, and so forth. From the ground up, fishermen like Chris have the potential to influence policy formation and create change within current regulations. 

Looking to the future, Chris would like to see the fishing industry continue in the direction of smaller mom-and-pop businesses. “The original vision statement [for this fishery] was for it to be small family-run operations, with small crews, on small boats,” he explains. “It's been evolving into a larger-scale operation and becoming more corporate. I just hope it doesn't keep evolving that way because I'd like to see it remain in the hands of small, community-based businesses.”

How to support Chris Merl, the Merl family, and purchase scallops from F/V Isabel and Lilee:

Website & Join Their Email List: www.capecodscallop.com

Instagram: @fvisabelandlilee

Facebook: www.facebook.com/localscallops/

From the Author

We are so appreciative of the time that Chris has taken to provide us with insights into his livelihood and the scalloping industry, as well as the foundational role that his family’s business plays in providing seafood to the local community. Thank you to Chris and Denice Merl for sharing your Seafood Story and for helping us get to know our fishermen a little bit better.

*All photos were generously provided by Chris Merl and family