Giving thanks
By Jessica Hathaway
As we put this issue to press, we are looking at our busiest week of the year. Just a couple of weeks from now, we’ll all likely still be recovering from Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle, with Thanksgiving hot on the heels of the show.
Despite the intensity of this time of year, it is my favorite time for so many reasons. For starters, I love Thanksgiving. What’s not to love about a holiday that’s all about eating? In my family, we start the night before with barbecue duck from Chinatown, followed the next day by a seafood stew, waves of appetizers, the main course and the ultimate reason for the eating season — a table full of pies.
But the thing I love the most about this time of year is that I get to focus on the people I am in touch with all year via technology of one type or another. I get to see some of you face to face, have a real conversation, maybe even share a meal.
Our annual Crew Shots issue is like the Thanksgiving appetizer table. It’s the teaser to the big meal, because we put it together right before we head to the show. I savor every email, picture and note over the weeks leading up to the Expo, scanning the pages and writing the captions (which you can see for yourself starting on page 22). It makes me hungry for the main dish served up in Seattle.
As someone who loves food (can you tell?), who was raised to enjoy fresh fish as a special treat and who has seen firsthand what your work entails, I have a tremendous respect for our commercial fishing fleets from top to bottom, small boats to big ones, longliners to draggers, and I am so thankful for all the delicious and healthful wild-foraged food you provide for the rest of this country and around the globe.
I have never met a fisherman who was ambivalent about what he or she does for a living. The passion for what you do shows in these photos. I hope our passion for telling your stories shows, as well.
It takes passion on an entirely different plane to take on a classic wooden boat. The resurgence of Chesapeake Bay’s oyster fishery is inspiring the revival of the old wooden buy boats and working fishboats. Read Larry Chowning’s feature on the restoration of Virginia’s Mobjack and Delvin K. on page 28.
And you definitely won’t want to miss Boats & Gear Editor Mike Crowley’s roundup of the year’s best new gear on page 34.
If we don’t see you at an expo, meeting or on a dock somewhere this winter, you can always catch us online, on our Facebook page or in our e-newsletter. Visit nationalfisherman.com for more info, and keep in touch.
