NEW BEDFORD — Make friends with Willis Blount and you're bound to hear stories about life at sea. "I was a little boy and I was in (a seafood shack in) Menemsha, and it was a bad day and we were swordfishing and I was sitting on a keg listening and there was an old timer there... and this guy had gone whaling as a 14-year-old boy!"

Blount's eyes lit up as he said the word "whaling," telling the story to illustrate the ebbs and flows of fish stocks he's watched and heard about since 1962, when he entered the industry. Times have been tough of late, nearly forcing him to retire in the spring, but Blount is deeply optimistic that the groundfish stocks will return to their old selves with the cycles of nature.

Meanwhile, he is pursuing paths less traveled to keep his head above water. Three years ago Blount started a "community supported fisheries" program, a spinoff of the "community supported agriculture" model, or CSA, where consumers purchase shares of a farm in anticipation of harvests. Instead of vegetables, however, Blount's shareholders get fish.

"You're helping support the boat, and you get to know the captain and what he goes through. ... And there's a lot of people in New Bedford who are interested in that," Blount said, standing at the helm of his boat, the Ruthie B.

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