Wind Farmer's Almanac

Did'ya hear about the one-armed fisherman ...?

 ... caught one this big!

Which brings to mind the whopper told by Charles Vinick of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound during last week's debate with Cape Wind's Mark Rodgers.

Vinick claimed that commercial fishermen working Nantucket Sound haul in "more than 50 percent of the value of their catch on Horseshoe Shoal."

Rodgers questioned this, pointing out that the Sound encompasses more than 550 square miles, compared to 24 square miles for Horseshoe Shoal where Cape Wind seeks to build its turbines  -- about 4 percent of Nantucket Sound.

The percentage plunges even further when measured by watersheet taken up by the project. "If Cape Wind is built, more than 99.9 percent of that 24 square miles will remain open watersheet, as it is today," Rodgers said.  

Commercial fishermen who support the Alliance have acknowledged "there are sections of that 24 square miles that are too shallow for the draggers," Rodgers said. He also cited a quote in a story I wrote for capecodtoday.com about US Senator Lincoln Chafee taking a charter boat cruise out to the shoal last month.

On the return trip to Falmouth, charter fishing boat captain Jim Tietje said that in more than a quarter of a century of working on Nantucket Sound, he has "never seen a dragger on Horseshoe Shoal."

Indeed, on the day of Chafee's fact-finding trip to an avian research barge and Cape Wind data tower, I counted all of a half-dozen fishing boats on the open water during a three-hour round trip -- and none within miles of us.

Moreover, I was told by a commercial fishing consultant last year that claims about specific areas where fish are caught should be taken with a grain of salt, since "area-specific" reports on catches do not exist. "We don't have that data," he told me.

If the Alliance or commercial fishermen who oppose Cape Wind can cite evidence to bolster Vinick's claim, I look forward to seeing it.  Otherwise, "that's a fishing tale, folks," as Rodgers put it.