Courtesy / Chris Cary, New England Ocean Cluster
Monkfish have big heads and sharp teeth. Their tails are the meaty portion.
Updated: July 26, 2022
Fishermen’s association finds new way to market an ‘underloved’ species
Courtesy / Scott Gable
Portland fisherman Vincent Balzano deals with a monkfish aboard his boat.
Consumers aren't very familiar with monkfish. But the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association in Brunswick wants to change that with the creation of Maine Coast Monkfish Stew.
Since its launch last December, the product has been selling in over 30 retail stores and restaurants in Maine and New Hampshire and just launched in five Hannaford stores in Maine, with seven more on tap soon.
The idea came from Fishermen Feeding Mainer’s, a program begun by the association in 2020 in response to the pandemic.
At that time, Maine fishermen who catch species like pollock, hake and monkfish lost the markets for their catch. At the same time, food insecurity in Maine spiked. The association developed Fishermen Feeding Mainers to support local fishermen and the working waterfront while feeding people in need.
“We have this very cool — and tasty — value-added product that is helping support local fishermen, raising awareness about an underloved species, and creating money for our Fishermen Feeding Mainers Program,” the association’s executive director, Ben Martens, told Mainebiz.
However, not everyone who received seafood donations was comfortable cooking the variety of seafood harvested by local fishermen.
In response, the association worked with Hurricane's Premium Soups and Chowders, in Greene, to develop a monkfish stew, first for Fishermen Feeding Mainers and then for retail and restaurant sales. Started in 2005, Hurricane’s sources ingredients from small fishing cooperatives and family-owned farms and today ships a variety of refrigerated soups and chowders throughout the U.S. and frozen versions as far as Asia.
There are numerous retail outlets for the stew in Portland as well as over two dozen other Maine communities and outside the state.
Free Range Fish processes the fish and is one of the Portland retail outlets.
The stew uses Gulf of Maine monkfish, lobster stock, Maine potatoes, vegetables and cream and comes in heat-and-serve, 16-ounce pouches that can be heated in a pot of simmering water and served out of the bag.
All proceeds from the stew benefit Fishermen Feeding Mainers.
Gulf of Maine monkfish is a bottom-dwelling fish that is classified as a smart seafood choice by Seafood Watch as a sustainably managed species that’s responsibly harvested under U.S. regulations.
Monkfish is usually caught with a net in deep water. In many cases, the net hauls up a variety of species that include monkfish. Some fishermen go after monkfish specifically using a type of net that has a larger mesh. The fishery is permitted by the federal government.
In a typical year between 200,000 to 300,000 pounds of monkfish are harvested from the Gulf of Maine, said Martens. Most of the catch is landed in Portland, New Hampshire or Gloucester, Mass.
“There’s always been a monkfish fishery in the Gulf of Maine,” he said.
The resource is abundant and represents a good opportunity for fishermen to diversify their income streams, he added.
But the domestic market for the fish has been soft. Why?
“I don’t know that anyone would say that a fish is beautiful, but if there were a beauty spectrum for fish, monkfish would be on the low end,” he said. “It’s got a giant head with lots of teeth and a big tail. You eat the tail, where the meat is. The heads get used as lobster bait a lot of the time. They’re one of those species you don’t hear much about in the marketplace.”
Most of the monkfish haul gets sent overseas to Asian markets, he said.
Although only a small portion of landings is now going into the new stew, the association considers it a great way to introduce people to the species in a ready-to-eat product and to provide an additional revenue stream to fishermen.
“We said, ‘Maybe we can use this as a way to amplify the story of monkfish to the community,’” he said.
Courtesy / Jacqueline Clarke
Maine Coast Monkfish Stew uses an ‘underloved’ species that’s tasty in it own right.
The association also worked with Hurricane’s to come up with packaging.
“Fishermen spend a lot of time and money going out and catching that fish,” he said. “We’ve been able to build this program as we build markets.”
The association continues to donate fish to Fishermen Feeding Mainers program, too.
It has been promoting the product through its website and social media.
“One great thing we’ve seen with this monkfish stew is that sales of the fish itself go up, too,” he said. “That’s what we want to see happening. I’m hoping that, as we beat the drum for this fantastic product, we’ll start to see monkfish on the menu. That’s where we create value for the fishermen and for the community.”
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