Three years ago Stonington, Connecticut fish market owner Michael Pugliese, then 49, bought a house on the water in Steuben, Maine, that came with a tidal lobster pound. At the time, he considered the property a summer place for his family. In the past three years, though, as he continued to see the waters of Long Island Sound produce not much lobster, he found the idea of having a working pound increasingly appealing and that of running a fish market increasingly difficult.
It hadn’t started that way. When he was six or eight, Pugliese recalls his father saying on a Sunday, “Let’s go get some steamers,” and taking his two sons to a fish market. “I fell in love with the surroundings of a fish market,” Pugliese says. The fish on ice, the tanks of lobster. I fell in love with what a fish market is all about. And I loved being around the water. I loved going to the shore.”
At 15 or 16 he became a mate on charter boats. “There was a lot of money to be made on charter boats,” he recalled. “The captain didn’t flip you that much [money], but you’d get twenty-, thirty-, forty-dollar tips.” This was in the 1970s. And, depending on his tips, the young mate could make a couple hundred dollars in a day in summer. Then, too, he and his brother had lobster pots at their grandparents’ place on the Thames River, in New London. Between his various activities, he made considerable money.
He planned to be a special education teacher, but, although he loves children, he found the education courses boring. One day in his third year of college, he asked himself what he was doing. All he could think about was going fishing — or anything fishing-related. He said, “I left in the middle of one class and checked out, knowing I was going to get music from my folks.”
That summer he went back to the charter boat business and in winter worked at his father’s electrical wholesale place, which he couldn’t stand.
“Ironically,” Pugliese said, “These people came in his store and, in talking about fishing, happened to mention that a cousin of theirs had a fish market for sale in Stonington.” His recalls his head swiveling around. He called the place immediately and asked the price. They wanted $7,000. He had about that much in the bank, and remembers thinking to himself, “Even if I screw this up, how bad can that be?”
So in 1979 Pugliese paid cash for Seawell Fish market, starting with about $200 in his checking account, no working capital and no experience.
He had learned to fillet bluefish from his years on charter boats, but that was it. “To be honest with you,” he said, “I don’t know how I made it.”
He said when he’d go into fish markets as a child, the owners were always cranky, and never understood why until he owned one. “The crankiness was in direct relation to the business itself,” he said. “It’s a stressful business; the ups and downs are so dramatic.” It’s a combination of trying to get quality fish then worrying about getting rid of it.
“In years past,” he said, “you only had to worry about the weather. If a big storm was on the horizon, there was always enough fish coming in ahead of the storm. You’d load up the cooler, make sure you had good quality, ice it down, and you’d have it through the period till the boats got out again. Now, the inventories are so low on a day-to-day basis because of the [government] regs, that doesn’t really exist any more. You’re left with more worries, a lot less fish, and more expensive fish. It’s compounded the stress,” he said, “and you, basically, now do without.”
Fish markets like Pugliese’s focus on seasonal and local fish, which he says is very hard to do these days, explaining, “There are not a lot of species that are popular with New Englanders.” He’s pretty much limited to haddock, cod and flounder.
“If I don’t have it, I’ll say, `I’m sorry, I’ll have it tomorrow, I’ll have it on Friday.’ To stand there and do that is very stressful,” he said. Laughing in a self-deprecating way he added, “I just can’t get used to that.”
When he started, he filleted a lot of cod and flounder and distributed fish to a lot of restaurants and other fish markets. After 1995, when the government shut down fishing on Georges Bank, he said he “wallowed along” for the next five years. He then had to decide whether to become a big supplier and handle a lot of different imported species that were supplementing the market at the time or, as he ultimately did: stick with New England seasonal and local fish.
This frustration and lack of availability led him to move his business from wholesale to retail and, in a way, brought him to Maine.
In 1990, “The lobster thing started to catch my interest. I was doing quite a bit of lobster wholesale at the time, and it was a pain in the neck because I didn’t have the tank space.” He leased a small tank house nearby, which meant he didn’t have to cram everything into his store. Six or seven years later he was able to lease a tank house at his wharf. But as he did so, a serious amount of shell disease started showing up.
A business connection suggested he take a look at Maine. Pugliese needed a new direction for his business, and he found it in Maine. He didn’t find the right place immediately, but he was on the right track.
He went home, got through the summer, and in the fall happened to be thumbing through a copy of The Working Waterfront where he found an ad for marine real estate agent Ralph Lombardi. Pugliese called and came up in January 2002. Later that year he bought his place in Steuben.
“In October 2005,” he said,” the gas prices went to, like, $3.50 a gallon, and I saw an immediate downturn. I’m telling you, it was like you turned off a light switch. It was that noticeable.” Although business normally tapers towards Thanksgiving, this was what he called “a total decimation.”
He recalls the holidays not being that good and said, “We were on our way to a god-awful winter, business-wise.”
A year later, in November, after 28 years in business, he decided to sell his fish market. “It was frustration at not being able to buy enough quality product,” he said. “And, quite honestly, my body was giving out. My legs. Since the holidays, overnight, knee and hip. That kind of made the decision easier. That’s just after years and years of heavy lifting, damp conditions, occasionally falling off a truck, long hours on cement floors.”
On the way to Point Judith to buy fish one day, he called his real estate agent to discuss listing the business. Returning to the market, a customer he knew came in and said, “You know, I was thinking, if you’re ever thinking about selling this place, let me know.” It was that simple.
Pugliese and his family plan to keep their Stonington, Connecticut house because his two daughters are still in school and the family is deeply involved in local activities. He’ll focus on the Maine pound and venturing more into the lobster industry here, but until he gets the pound going, he’ll continue to work in Connecticut.
In reply to frequent questions about the future of the fish industry, he said, “The prognosis long-term is better than short-term. If I thought it would rebound in a few years, I’d stick it out. I still love the business, I still love working with fish. Nothing makes me happier than to see a beautiful hundred-pound box of cod come up on my cutting bench.” But with the recent price of lobster reaching an unbelievable $15 per lb., he’s also seen what he calls “The magic of that creature.”