Tag Archives: Making a living

Casting for an answer: Can you make a living on the Cape as a commercial rod and reel fisher?

Ken Baughman is two years into his attempt to make a living as a commercial rod and reel fisherman. It started, he said, after he got into an argument with another commercial fisherman who said it couldn’t be done. Baughman thought there was a way, one that would require him to take unusual steps and supplement his income with other work. Fishing has always been a passion for the 44-year-old, who said it would be the thing he’d do if he had a million bucks. Baughman doesn’t have $1 million, and his rod and reel efforts haven’t provided him with sufficient finances yet — but he believes that if he can figure out a way to make commercial rod and reel work, others will follow. But the real cost is getting permits for closed fisheries such as black sea bass. Those permits can only be bought from commercial fishermen selling theirs. more. >>click to read<< 18:24

Making a living on the high seas

Fishing has helped sustain Inuit for generations. Commercial fishing has allowed Nunavummiut like Enoo Bell and Kyle Aglukkaq to earn a good living, although it comes with sacrifices. He’s been on hundreds of trips lasting from 15 to 25 days to harvest shrimp and turbot. He didn’t see his family for more than three months on one occasion in the early 1990s. “It’s hard to leave. Sometimes out there (you think), ‘Why am I here?’ On the other hand, his employer takes very good care of him and he’s pleased that Inuit have increasingly become rights-holders within the commercial fishing industry. His commercial fishing career has taken him to places like Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Denmark, Norway and England. >click to read< 18:55

Making a living from the river: Net maker keeps craft alive as fishing culture on Southern Indiana’s White River changes

The White River has provided a source of food and livelihood for generations of Southwestern Indiana residents such as Petersburg, Indiana, resident Larry Haycraft. However, encroaching invasive species, pollution, changing lifestyles and bureaucracy – byproducts of modern living – are changing the river and its role in the community. Haycraft is keeping the craft of traditional net making alive even as inland commercial fishing is in decline in Southern Indiana.”I’m a fourth-generation master net maker,”Haycraft said. “There are very few of us left.” >click to read< 11:25