Rhode Island is known for its seafood. But according to the Rhode Island Food Strategy Report, most seafood sold in Rhode Island is imported while much of the seafood caught in Rhode Island is exported. Wouldn’t you rather eat fresh fish than fish that has been frozen and shipped halfway across the world? Well, now there is a way to buy truly fresh fish in Rhode Island: buying dockside.

Trap fishing, uniquely Rhode Island

Earlier this summer, Luke Wheeler, a third-generation trap fisherman, invited me aboard the Maria Mendonsa for a 6 a.m. fishing trip. Luke spent the breaks in his busy morning telling me all about the work he does. “This way is uniquely Rhode Island,” Luke noted, referring to their specific method of trap fishing, “These are designed specifically to catch scup.”

Scup, also known as porgy, is a small fish native to the Atlantic Ocean that is caught along the east coast between Massachusetts and North Carolina. That morning, I also had the opportunity to speak with Corey Wheeler Forrest, a fisherwoman and dealer who also happens to be Luke’s sister. In fact, there were three generations of fishermen present on the Maria Mendonsa that day including Alan, Luke and Corey’s father, and Isley, Corey’s daughter.

Throughout the trip, Luke and Corey emphasized the ways in which they work with marine ecosystems to minimize their environmental impact. “You can tell, everything’s alive,” Luke said to me, ”So we can sort; if there’s any undersized they swim away. It’s really low impact.” This low impact is partly due to the structure of the traps — or “floating aquariums” as Corey called them — and partially due to the meticulous care that the crew takes measuring and sorting the fish. Trap fishing also has a minimal carbon footprint due to the short distance the boat travels to fish and the fact that the boat is not moving for most of the fishing trip. According to Luke, “Tons of fish landed per gallon of diesel fuel is unmatched by any other protein production.”

Local markets not carrying local product

Corey and Luke also described the challenges of trap fishing to me. This work is dangerous: metal pulleys and hooks flew by overhead and strong waves very nearly sent me overboard more than once. Luke and Corey shared their stories of being stung by electric rays while pulling in the nets. “It’s a lot of work and not a lot of, y’know, pay,” Corey noted. And in recent years they have been short-staffed and the demand for local fish keeps decreasing. The Wheelers sell most of their fish to Fulton Fish Market in New York City, over 200 miles away. Luke wishes his fish would sell in local markets though: “Really to me, marketing the fish locally is about the fish not getting in a truck and driving away and having this huge carbon footprint.” Most supermarkets in Rhode Island sell familiar fish like salmon and cod as opposed to the fish that live right off the Rhode Island coast. “The markets you drove by on the way here don’t have scup,” Luke said to me, “They don’t have seabass, don’t have fluke, don’t have any of the fish being caught in all of the harbors literally in front of their stores.” I recently took a trip to Whole Foods to see for myself and sure enough: no seabass, no fluke, and certainly no scup. I did find salmon from Norway though.

Pandemic paved way for dockside sales

One way Luke and Corey can keep their fish local is by selling dockside. Since Corey is a dealer, she has been able to sell dockside for years, but many fishermen in Rhode Island were unable to sell dockside until 2020. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, temporary Direct Sale Dealer Licenses were issued to help fishermen out and as of this summer, the licenses are here to stay. Since Corey sold dockside long before the pandemic, the Wheelers have loyal customers who consistently wait for the boat to pull into Sakonnet Harbor. They bring buckets and coolers which the crew helps them fill with ice then select what fish they want from the catch of the day. The second time I joined the crew of the Maria Mendonsa, I brought a cooler bag and Corey gave me two beautiful scup to bring back to my dorm room with me. Later that day (after watching more than one YouTube video and receiving some culinary wisdom from my boyfriend’s grandma) my friends and I cleaned, scaled, gutted, and steamed the fish. We had a lot of fun and the scup were absolutely delicious. My friends and I were shocked by just how much better this fish tasted than anything you can buy at even the most high-end of supermarkets. The prospect of cooking a whole fish was rather daunting at first and I think this scares away a lot of potential dockside customers (regulations do not permit fishermen to fillet the fish before selling them dockside). But I do believe that if a group of college students can figure out cooking whole fish in a communal dorm kitchen, you can too. It was also such an incredible experience to watch these scup being caught then eat them later that day. This is truly fresh fish.

Connecting customers to fishermen

Dockside sales is not a perfect system. Right now, regulations require that a member of the crew sells the fish, so selling dockside means more work for fishermen after an already exhausting day at sea. There are also barriers to consumers that are larger than the intimidating appearance of whole fish. Fishing involves a lot of improvisation and does not always go according to schedule, so boats do not always come in at the same time each day. Also, the distance to the nearest dock could be prohibitive for potential customers who do not have access to a car or other forms of transportation. Luckily, the organization Ocean State Community Seafood (OSCS) is working to address some of these issues. Dawn McAlister, the founder of OSCS, is currently working to encourage people to buy dockside and connect customers to local fishermen. Right now, Dawn does this by setting up tents at farmer’s markets across Rhode Island to teach people about dockside sales and how to buy local seafood. She is hoping to expand her operation to include selling fish from various local fishermen at farmer’s markets and consumer sales training for fishermen. Her operation is small right now, but Dawn is dreaming big; she says she wants OSCS to be for fishermen what Farm Fresh Rhode Island is for farmers. Another potential improvement that Luke and Corey both suggested is having a local fish “subscription” or including local fish in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs that already exist in Rhode Island for farmers. In the long term, including local fish in local markets would be the best way to address environmental concerns and support Rhode Island’s fishermen.

In the meantime, my plea to you is to try something new and next time you are thinking of cooking seafood, buy it dockside. You can find a boat that docks near you by searching Rhode Island Local Seafood Finder or stay up to date on who is selling dockside by using OSCS’ email list (find them on Facebook group or Instagram). If you’re interested in buying from Luke and Corey, stop by 15 Bluff Head Avenue in Little Compton around 9:30 a.m. any day but Friday.

Emma Venarde is a sophomore at Brown University concentrating in Environmental Science. When she's not studying, she interns at the Women's Earth Alliance and is on the youth advisory board for the Youth Climate Program at the Wild Center, which she will be representing at COP26 this fall.