Tag Archives: Tradition
Long Island bayman still plying the waters, preserving traditions at 76
Ben Sohm stands on the second floor of his Amity Harbor home, surveying his surroundings through an expansive bay window. Below him, Ketcham Creek rolls its way to the Great South Bay, visible in the distance. His personal armada of a half dozen skiffs, duck-hunting and deep-sea fishing boats, is assembled along the dock abutting his house. Around him, arrayed on shelves that surround the living room, is his collection of vintage duck decoys, many carved a century ago by the baymen of Seaford, where Sohm grew up. But the most telling item in his collection is framed on the wall, near the carved ducks and family photos: A faded copy of Frank Roach’s New York State hunting license, issued in 1919. It was Roach, Sohm’s maternal grandfather, who inaugurated him into the life of a bayman, a tradition Sohm carries on, with aplomb, even at his own grandfatherly age of 76. Video, >click to read< 09:56
Scarborough fisherman Colin Jenkinson celebrates 70 years at sea
The trade is almost woven into his DNA, he can trace his ancestors – all fishermen of Filey and Scarborough – back to the start of the 18th century, and the legacy continues with his grandson William, who still fishes out of Scarborough. His late son Bill also joined him in the trade. This year marks Colin’s 70th year at sea, an incredible feat for such a physical job. Photos. >click to read< 11:56
On Smith Island, Crab Is Everything. What happens when no one’s around to catch Maryland’s prized blue crab?
It’s the hottest day of the summer on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and at a tiki bar that doesn’t serve alcohol on a windless island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, two teenage boys appear, one holding up a small, live blue crab. “Hey Steve, will you cook this for me?” the boy holding the crab asks Steve Dunlap, who’s behind the bar. “Aw, put it back, Robert,” Dunlap says. Robert sulkily obliges, letting the crab scuttle off into the bay, but makes it clear that he wasn’t going to kill it. Here, on Smith Island, Maryland, there is an overpowering respect, almost a reverence, for the blue crab. At the dead center of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, 12 miles from Maryland’s shore, Smith is a central part of the Maryland crabbing industry, and has been for generations. Here, crab is everything: Food, money, work, family, tradition, history. Crab is life. But it might not be for very much longer. click here to read the story 09:36
PEI – Three generations of lobster fishing Jollimores
On an early spring morning in French River Jimmy Jollimore wakes to see the sunrise over New London Bay. He then heads down Jollimore Lane to the boat that will carry three generations of his family to the lobster grounds. “It goes back five generations, at least,” said Jimmy, who has 60 years of fishing in so far. “My grandfather, my father and myself. Two sons with gears of their own and one son here with me is three. Sons and grandsons. Brought up to be fishermen, I guess.” Read more here 21:11
