Tag Archives: a dying breed

Goodbye Destin

I remember an old café where old fishing boat captains used to hang out. I was a kid. I lived up the road from the joint, in a cinder-block house. I frequently walked to this greasy spoon to listen to the old men jaw. Destin was different back then. We didn’t have 4.5 million visitors. Highway 98 wasn’t America’s largest automotive parking lot. We were small. We were unknown. We had old men. They were vile old men. Unshaven. Unwashed. Unsanctified. Undomesticated. Unfriendly. Un-everything. They smoked Luckys and survived on bad habits. Their skin looked like chewed-up boot leather and their teeth had gone to be with Jesus long ago. They were commercial fishermen. The real deal. A dying breed. These men did not like where the world was going, so they were always ticked off. Their favorite thing to say, “Hell, I don’t know anymore… I. Just. Don’t. Know.” >click to read< 09:24

Jobi Allemand says being a trawler isn’t for everyone, but he loves what he does

Allemand is a local commercial shrimper who has been on the water his whole life. “Being a commercial shrimper is a job I take pride in and truly love,” he said. “To make it as a trawler, you have to put in your time and work for what you catch,” Allemand said. “You can’t expect to go out and load the board the first day. Sometimes, it will take a few days just to find something to work on. There were times where things were breaking and you’re not making money, and it seemed easy to throw in the towel, but if you want to make it as a trawler, you have to put your head down and get back at it harder because if not, it will try to tear you down. For all of my successes, I owe a lot to my Dad and thank him for teaching me the in’s and out’s of being a commercial fisherman.” >click to read< 18:55