Photo by Wendy Kipfmiller

Here's a sneak peek at Cape Cod Life's conversation with Mac

Hay, owner of Mac's Seafood in Wellfleet, in which Mac speaks about

some of earliest summer memories on the Cape, his grandmother’s

characters Cape Cod Life's forthcoming 2010 Annual Guide.

My grandfather was a general surgeon, but in the summers he had a lot

of time off. He was an avid tuna fisherman—he was one of the first to

start tagging and releasing tuna, back when Charlie Mayo was out on his

boat. My grandfather used to take me and my brother out and we’d catch

bluefish right out in front of the house, and he had this little garden

where he was growing vegetables. We’d come back and we’d produce this

meal that was made entirely from the garden out back and the fish out

front.

When my brother and I were first getting started, we thought of a

number of different names. My late great uncle was doing our sign and

we had all of these long names. Then my grandmother sort of stepped in

and said, “You know, this needs to be short and simple: Mac’s Seafood.”

It came down to the wire, like a lot of decisions do, but it caught on.

A pound of cod fish has such a small carbon footprint. It may be coming

from Chatham (to our restaurants), and even then, it’s coming from 15,

20 miles away, as opposed to something that’s caught out at sea in

Norway, packaged, and shipped halfway across the world...We’re

supporting and creating community; it’s not just money. We’re creating

our own economic stability. I think that’s something that will become a

larger part of this green movement that people don’t even

realize...When we have our local economies that do better, we’re not

all dragged down so much by one huge economy that fluctuates on a

worldwide scale. Obviously, Wellfleet felt the impact of the recession,

but I’ll tell you, it didn’t feel it as much as other places. We have

an economic engine that’s always in demand—the seafood that comes from

here—and that’s something that’s stayed pretty strong.