A lifelong Cape Cod lobsterman has received overwhelming support in his fight for survival, helping him claw through bureaucratic red tape that could revive a nearly century-old family tradition of selling lobsters from his home.

Yarmouth resident Jon Tolley says he is still wary of whether town officials in the mid-Cape Cod town will allow him to reopen his shop next year at his home, even after residents approved a bylaw that opens the door for him to do so.

“The whole town was behind me,” Tolley told the Herald via phone on Friday. “I knew they were going to be. It’s a sad thing. One person complains, and then I have to go through all of this, get lawyers and everything. For what reason? For no reason.”

The 66-year-old has caught lobsters out of Sesuit Harbor in Dennis and sold the fresh crustaceans from his home in West Yarmouth for nearly his entire life. As a youngster, he helped his father, Fred, run the family business on the same property before he took over operations in 1975.

Despite Tolley’s success over the decades, town officials forced him to operate elsewhere this past season amid a controversy that blindsided the fisherman and his neighbors.

The battle with the town began in late August 2024 when Tolley received a violation notice that he said startled him. Zoning bylaws banned retail lobster sales in a residential district, the notice stated.

An unnamed West Yarmouth resident complained about a business sign Tolley put out on Route 28,  the town’s main corridor, prompting the fight, according to town officials. Tolley has argued that the complaint came from a Yarmouth police officer.

Yarmouth allowed the retail sale of fish as a commercial use in the residential district by right and without further permission until 1982.

The Zoning Board of Appeals shot down Tolley’s two appeals for a variance, which would have let him continue selling the locally harvested lobster from where his father opened up shop in 1957.

Town officials and Tolley settled on a compromise for the 2025 season.

The lobsterman found a private vacant lot along Route 28 to sell his lobsters, from where he said he found reasonable success, while the  Planning Board drafted an amendment to the zoning bylaw.

Residents at a Town Meeting this week eagerly raised their hands in support of the amendment, which allows fishermen to sell their legally caught live lobsters at their homes via a ZBA-issued special permit. Less than a handful of attendees disapproved.

“In theory, even though it is a bylaw now, they can still vote no,” Tolley said of the ZBA. “See what I mean? They can vote no, and of course, you take them to court, and you win in one second because it is a bylaw.”

“All of this is politics,” he added.

In a video previewing the Town Meeting, Town Manager Robert Whritenour called the lobster bylaw his “favorite” article that residents would be voting on. He described Tolley’s situation as “quite a kerfuffle.”

The bylaw, Whritenour said, will “provide a process to enable a fisherman to sell live lobsters out of a residential location, obviously under certain safeguards to protect the integrity of the neighborhood, but that addresses … concerns.”

Residents at the Town Meeting voiced their outrage over how lobster sales became controversial.

Resident Sally Johnson said she’s been a “very strong advocate” of Tolley’s. She pointed to how she felt the ZBA chairman was “very intimidating to his board and to the community in the building” during a meeting in April.

The chairman, Sean Igoe, blocked Tolley’s attorney, Jonathan Polloni, from arguing his client’s case and the dozens of residents in support, who flocked to Town Hall, from expressing how they viewed the business as not a detriment to the community.

Residents shouted out their sharp disappointment: “Read the room!” “Dictatorship!” “Generations are leaving Cape Cod!” “You will only have millionaires living here!”

“It is absolutely ridiculous that it’s gotten to this point,” Johnson said on Monday. “It has mushroomed into chaos.”

Tolley has sued the town over his battle, filing a complaint in land court. Following a July hearing, the court encouraged the lobsterman and officials to “consider the possibility of mediation or remand of this matter to avoid the time, expense, and risk of further litigation.”

As of Friday, the case wasn’t scheduled to be heard again until next March, according to records.

“It’s a shame Jon had to fight this battle,” resident Cheryl Ball, who leads the group, Cape Cod Concerned Citizens, told the Herald, “but I’m thankful our community and several board members stepped up to support him. We need to continue to defend Cape Cod’s culture before it’s completely eroded.”