Many of the commercial fishers/crabbers/lobsterers, and what have you cant afford to eat what they catch. Everything they catch, for the most part, must be sold to keep up with bills, feed the family, and everything. Around here, crabs are the big thing. A bushel of crabs from the store runs for about 120...the guy that sold the bushel got 40 dollars for it. To save a bushel of crabs for the family to eat, thats losing 40 dollars, so you can have fun working your lobster boat, but be prepared to pay for all the lobster you can eat:)
-Eddie
From: "Dr. Doug Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [VFB] Fishing for a living Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 08:11:55 -0600
Deb,
You touched the Huemmingway nerve which resides deep within me.
A few years ago, my son and I fished off the coast of Maine and saw firsthand the lobster folks plying their trade. I mentioned to the guide that I would like to one day spend a couple of months working a lobster boat. He said two things: hurry because all too soon there will not be many left; be prepared to earn $5/hour and all the lobster I can eat.
We don't have to look very far to find the hard-livin' folks. Lobsterfolks are a romantic breed because they are unfamiliar to me; share croppers may be romantic to you for the same reason. Until we "experience" poverty and hunger it will always retain a "romantic" (in the classical sense) quality that in reality is not there.
I grew up in a Texas oilfield filled with "roughnecks" and "wildcatters." Right out of a movie like Giant. To the unfamiliar, it seems epic and romantic. To my 8 and 9 fingered classmates, to my childhood friends who never finished school because the family needed to pay off crop loans - it is an entirely different story.
And to Gib Combs - who hunted and fished without any regard to licenses and seasons and limits and then distributed that food to those who needed it. . .rest well, my firend! May you feat at a heavenly banquet table.
Just a thought. . .
Doug
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