Mark Sweitzer has a degree in chemistry, but he began fishing for lobster back in the 1970s and is still at it today. Sweitzer fishes out of the Port of Galilee on the F/V Erika Knight.
“I like being outside,” he said. “I always thought about going back to school for geology or forestry or something like that, that would enable me to be outside. I love being outside and I love being around the ocean, so that was a big part of it, and I like having my own business.”
Rhode Island’s lobster fishery may never see another boom time like the period in the ’80s and ’90s when there were plenty of lobsters and lots of money to be made. There are fewer lobsters and fewer lobster fishermen today, but explanations for the stock fluctuation vary widely.
