The Problem:

 

In October 2020, the Island’s largest year-round wholesale seafood buyer, the Menemsha Fish House (MFH), permanently closed its doors. This closure could not have come at a worse time for Martha’s Vineyard’s small-boat fishing industry. Without this wholesale market, many of the Island’s fishermen were left without a large outlet for their catch, forcing some to travel to the mainland and others to end their fishing businesses entirely.

 

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The Solution:

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With the critical need for the Island’s community fishermen to have an outlet to sell their catch, we launched the Martha’s Vineyard Seafood Collaborative, a supportive program which, at it's inception, operated as a local seafood wholesale buyer in Menemsha from 2021-2022. With the help of our fast-acting supporters, this new program was capable of purchasing hundreds of thousands of pounds of local seafood year-round and distributing it on and off the Island to markets, restaurants and off-island buyers–a vital service for Vineyard fishermen during a time of unprecedented strain.

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Since its inception, another wholesale market, the Fish House MV, has opened on the island, further helping to stabilize the fishing industry and offer fair prices to, and an outlet for, our local fishermen. Their growth and commitment to our fishermen over the past few years has enabled us to shift our focus to address other areas of need.

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What's New This Season:

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With the wholesale market stabilized, our scope is expanding! We are utilizing our space on the harbor to offer our fisherman infrastructural support—a 'hub' of sorts—where they can land their catch. We offer lumping and sorting services, access to ice, and overnight and long-term cold storage for their harvest. We also have established a Shipping Collaborative program, linking island fishermen and shellfishermen with off-island distributors. In its first season, the program shipped over 100,000 lbs of fish and shellfish, bridging the gap between harvesters and retailers, giving fishermen more time on the water while ensuring their catch reaches markets beyond the island once local demand is met. It also brought necessary bait (over 15,000 lbs!) and supplies from the mainland back to the fishing community. We look forward to watching this service grow!

 

We continue to see the persistence of food insecurity on Martha’s Vineyard. We have pivoted to help meet these needs as well. With a new flash freezer acquired through a generous contribution by the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank Charitable Foundation, we have been able to  expand our Seafood Donation Program and our partnership with IGI's Island Food Pantry. We donated over 20,000 seafood meals to local food equity groups this year, reaching 280,000 meals since the start of the program. With the generous help of the West Chop Community Fund, we also recently established a Sea-to-School Program, donating over 2,700 locally-caught seafood meals to students' plates in the first season, with plans to expand to more island schools in coming years.

 

Our Community Supported Fishery (CSF) program is still going strong, expanding access to high quality local seafood to our community members, through pre-purchased membership shares. Through our CSF, members are offered access to non-target and underutilized species alongside better-known varieties like fluke and scallops. In addition to our CSF, we now sell our local seafood at the West Tisbury Farmers Market throughout the summer, fall and early winter months. Community members or visitors who wish to support our efforts can access our locally-sourced seafood there! Jointly, these initiatives help to broaden wholesale options for local fishermen in their homeport and help shore up our historic working waterfront.

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We are very excited to expand and refine these initiatives. If you would like to contribute to our efforts, please consider a donation! Your contribution can increase our seafood donation volume; stabilize crucial dockside infrastructure (ice, cold storage, staff to meet, sort, and market seafood), and keep the lights running at the Collaborative.

 

Thank you for helping to fulfill our mission!