A marine communication system has an on-shore base station providing a long-range network, an Internet router connecting the base station to an Internet network, a plurality of first fishing boats in a cluster, each having an onboard Access Router, and at least one second boat in the cluster equipped with Adaptive Backhaul Equipment, including a directional antenna and a backhaul transceiver capable of accessing the network provided by the base station. The access routers provide communication with communication devices used by fishermen aboard the boats, and at least one Access Router communicates with the equipment aboard the at least one second boat in the cluster, thereby providing Internet connectivity and email, voice, text and video communication through the base station and the Internet network, to the fishermen aboard the boats in the cluster.