Over the past 60 years, Cape Cod’s fisheries have undergone dramatic change, mirroring broader shifts across coastal New England, wrote longtime fisherman William Amaru in a retrospective for The Cape Cod Chronicle. Amaru notes that his own fishing career spans the same six decades as the newspaper, a period when “virtually all aspects of life on Cape Cod saw more change than had occurred in the previous centuries on this peninsula.”

 The region’s fisheries had evolved from hemp line and handmade hooks to synthetic netting, spectra rope, and stainless-steel wire, while once dominant cod and haddock fisheries gave way to “robust catches of dogfish, skates, and monkfish.” At the same time, grey and harbor seal populations have surged. When The Chronicle first published, Amaru wrote, “even seeing a seal was rare. Today they number in tens of thousands in our waters,” a shift he shared has hindered fish stock recovery.

Despite these changes, commercial fishing persists. Harwich’s lobster industry continues, though much of the historic finfish activity has disappeared, replaced by development along the shoreline. Orleans, once home to cod and lobster boats, now faces shoaling waters, eutrophication, and reduced fleet size, with Amaru emphasizing that “the citizens of town hold the solution to the declines” through improved water-quality practices.

Chatham stands apart. Its fleet of small, adaptable boats remains active, and the central pier is a “beehive of activity in the summer,” serving both fishermen and tourists. While Cape Cod’s fisheries have indeed shifted, Amaru concluded that the industry’s endurance depends on protecting commercial waterfront infrastructure from gentrification. “The fishing industries of Cape Cod have persisted for over 400 years,” he wrote, and with the proper safeguards, “it will continue until this sand bar washes away.”