Conch Fishing.pdf

Joe Strong, 81, has been fishing for most of his life and 15 years ago started conch fishing in Mt. Hope Bay. He targets large sea snails in baited pots, one of the few to do so in an area where quahogs and lobsters are traditional catches. Conch fishing has no catch restrictions, making it a lucrative option. Strong wakes up at 4 a.m. to buy frozen horseshoe crab bait and meets his partner, Mickey Saccoccio, to load their 21-foot boat. They fish from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., retrieving, emptying, and rebaiting 60 pots. Strong makes his own pots and uses a hydraulic winch to pull them in. The bait is expensive, with horseshoe crab costing $1.50-$2 each, and Strong needs to make $90 in conch sales to break even. He sells his catches to a dealer in New Bedford, who wholesales them out, with Massachusetts conch selling for about 45 cents a pound. Strong hopes to fish until early November and spends his days with his wife, a cardiac nurse, taking her to Horseneck Beach for a swim after his fishing trips.