Fresh fish, how fresh is it?

Cape May County tourists and residents alike flock to local restaurants for a dinner of delectable seafood. This coastal community is noted for its fresh fish and seafood offerings.
And, yes, it is the freshest you can find anywhere because the majority of the catch is brought to the docks daily.
Cape May is famous for its smugglers and pirate escapades as well as for poignant stories of German U-Boats in WW II. But it is its fishing reputation that far exceeds those tales.
The port of Cape May sits in the first manmade harbor, finished in 1911, and now ranks as the third largest commercial fishing port on the East Coast.
It is number one in the state and fifth overall in the nation. In 2007 alone, $58.8 million worth of fish and seafood came through the port of Cape May.
The Lobster House Restaurant located in Lower Township (not actually in the city of Cape May) is home to the Cold Spring Fish and Supply Company founded in 1922 by the Laudeman Family.
Today it is still a working commercial dock and fish packing plant. While you enjoy lunch on the deck of the Schooner, fresh fish is being delivered to the dock, seven days a week. Thirty-four different species of fish are brought into the Lobster House dock known as Fisherman’s Wharf.
Fifteen vessels tie up at Fisherman’s Wharf, three belong to the Laudemans; the others are owned by individual captains.
Most of these commercial vessels are known as scallop boats and have a distinctive shape with a long hull and a large deck with small living quarters.
Lobster boats have a shorter hull and a much larger deck to accommodate lobster traps.
Commercial crews may be out for extended periods of time and return when weather forces them in or when they have met their quota on the amount of fish or days allowed to fish.
Crews usually consist of about six men (currently no women work on the commercial boats out of Cape May) over 18 years of age.
Today’s vessels are equipped with the finest electronic equipment. Old rusty scows that hardly look sea-worthy have the most up-to-date instrumentation.
The average fishing vessel (FV) leaves the port with 30-40 tons of ice, 15,000 gallons of fuel, $3,000 in supplies and nets valued anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 a piece.
All the fishermen know how to darn the nets as torn nets would result in a less desirable catch or having to come back in too early.
There are several types of nets depending on the targeted species. A purse seine is the net of choice for tuna, while an otter net, which is designed to pull across the ocean floor, is used for flounder.
When their work at sea is completed the FV heads back in. The captain calls ahead to the packinghouse manager letting him know what and how much catch they are bringing in.
On the way, the crew might start shucking the scallops by hand. This may be as many as 7,000 shells requiring that the crew work 24 hours straight.
This day the catch was about 2,500 pounds of croakers caught in two days at sea. The fish are sucked out of the hull where they have been kept on ice, onto a conveyor belt, weighed, and moved into the packinghouse. There the fish are sorted for species and size.
The price of the fish is determined by the packinghouse manager whose job it is to maintain information about market factors.
Once the weighed product is in, the captain and the crew get paid that day. About 45-50 percent of the profit is kept by the captain to maintain the vessel.
Some of the fish will stay here, the rest is transported on ice to markets in Philadelphia, Baltimore, the Bronx and even Japan.
Fresh fish, how fresh is it? Caught up to seven days before it even gets to the packinghouse and kept on ice immediately, it is the freshest seafood available.
The only way to get fish fresher than this is to catch it yourself.
You, too, can take this tour by contacting MAC at 884-5404.