Only the strong survive
By Jessica Hathaway
This year we’ve marked the first anniversary of Canada’s Mount Polley mine tailings pond breach into critical salmon habitat, the fifth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, 10 years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall, and 25 years since the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.
It can be easy to focus on the tragic milestones. But I don’t believe it’s so much because of the schadenfreude but rather because we revel in what follows a tragedy. What we want most to hear is how the phoenix rose from the ashes because those stories reveal the essence of living close to the edge. And what is fishing, the last profession of wild hunters, if not living close to the edge?
Hunter S. Thompson wrote, “Luck is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it.” As near as I can tell, this where commercial fishermen thrive.
We report on the tragedies, the missteps, the failures because finding a way to recover from life’s bumps, bruises and bombshells is how the strongest learn to survive another day.
Freelance writer Terry Strickland’s profile on Florida’s Ward family is part of our ongoing coverage of fishing and seafood businesses that are making their way back to a new normal after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The family’s 13 Mile brand once contributed to Apalachicola Bay’s historic oyster production, which yielded about 10 percent of U.S. oyster consumption and 90 percent of those consumed in Florida. The family is still hanging in there, holding out hope that their bay will come back and even considering investing in oyster farming to help the recovery. Read the full story on page 22.
Survival is not always defined by tragedy but sometimes by an epiphany. Petersburg, Alaska, fisherman Bruce Marifern’s perseverance is the result of a critical confluence of ideas. Boats & Gear Editor Mike Crowley tells the full story on page 26 about how Marifern needed to improve the stability of his fiberglass boat Freedom and was considering sponsoning. Trouble was, it’s not a common technique used on fiberglass boats. Luckily, Marifern reached out to the right folks at Platypus Marine in Port Angeles, Wash., and discovered they had been toying with the idea of trying out a sponsoning project on fiberglass. And that’s how one fisherman secured his future Freedom and paved the way for more to follow.
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Now let’s talk about a positive milestone. It’s time to submit Crew Shots. Please send photos taken this year to [email protected], and be sure to include Crew Shots 15 in the subject line. We will also need to know names of those pictured (from left to right) the boat, home port, location (if not the home port), fishery and gear type. The more information you include and the larger your image, the better your chances are for getting into the magazine or on the cover!
The deadline for submissions is Oct. 31, 2015.
