“I come from many generations of fishermen. Seafaring in one shape, form, or another” Interview with Cape May Fisherman, Born 1955
“I’m first generation American, and I’m a fisherman. I come from many generations of fishermen …at least 3. Seafaring in one shape, form, or another. I’ve learned by the seat of my pants since I was 12 years old.”
Found history: Interview with Cape May fisherman, born 1955
“I’m first generation American, and I’m a fisherman. I come from many generations of fishermen …at least 3. Seafaring in one shape, form, or another. I’ve learned by the seat of my pants since I was 12 years old. The first time[…] my dad stuck me behind the wheel to be an automatic pilot, standing on a bushel basket, cause I couldn’t see over the wheel. And he’d have me steering the boat different courses probably at age 12.
I skippered a boat when I was 16. My parents went back home to Sweden for a visit in the summer for about a month, and they said here take the boat out and see what you can do.
My dad was very innovative in those days. The traditional net in the late 60’s and early 70’s was the Yankee net, what they called the 36 net and the 41 net. And he had gone home to Sweden and they had this 8-inch mesh, which was huge. And he came back in 1968 with an 8-inch net under his arm, a set of wings, and he actually put that on there, and the fishermen here in Cape May laughed at him. But now he was coming in with a 1,000 pounds of these big trout in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
Then he made a rope net. He had read in a Swedish fish magazine that the Poles were dragging rope nets, and he actually laid awake at night figuring this out, and the year that I graduated in ‘73, he put one into effect. And we went out and caught croakers with this in October, and we caught them like you wouldn’t believe.
When I graduated high school, my father put one hand down like this and said do you want to go to school or do you want to get a boat? Either way I’m going to support you. And I did well in school; I was in national honor society, I was accepted to merchant marine academy in Maine, and with that offer of the table, I wrote a letter to the merchant marine academy and says can you wait for me for a year? They said sure. Well they’re still waiting, and that was back in 1973.”
Found Interview: Anonymous. (2005). Cumulative Effects in New Jersey Fisheries. Oral history interview with Anonymous, by Grant Murray and Mike Danko on December 19, 2005. NOAA Voices Oral History Archives.
Photo by Caitlin Coad
