When the boat comes in

August 25, 2017 9:57 AM

I certainly didn’t come out of university and think: "I’m going to work with lobsters." (SL BBC) A short photoseries from the BBC on women working in the male-dominated fishing industries of south-west England. Hope they add more narratives in the future.
posted by stillmoving (5 comments total)

NPR had a recent piece on the increase of women in lobstering in Maine, and a similar one five years ago. The new piece focuses sisters, Sadie and Molly Samuels, who grew up on the water. Molly said that the other fishermen have been quicker to accept her than the customers at farmers markets:

"People would come up to us and be like, 'So who caught these lobsters?' " Molly Samuels recalls. "And we were like, 'We did.' And they were like, 'But who really caught them?' And we were like, 'We did.' And they'd ask, 'Whose boat?' and we'd say, 'Our boat.' So it's just this back-and-forth thing. So, yeah, it's still weird."

The older story focuses on Lobsterman Genevieve Kurilec, who wanted to be a marine biologist when she was a kid, but after high school, she got more involved with boating and fishing.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:55 AM on August 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I wondered if I'd see anyone I knew flipping through there, and lo and behold, I do! Pengelly's fishmongers in Looe is behind the coffee and pasty shop I used to work in, so Angela's need for a vanilla latte to get through the long days is well known to me. They're a nice family and it's a good business. One thing that people who are dismissive of touristy places like Looe (which is not classy, although it's a beautiful town and area in lots of ways) forget is that it's only tourist money that keeps family businesses like that alive, and more generally allows those little communities to survive with some degree of dignity. So if you're on your hols in Looe any time, do make sure to pop in and buy a pot of cockles, at the very least!

I did my work experience, when I was 17, lobster potting and flower picking on Scilly. We spent a lot of time there, when I was growing up (indeed my sister is known as an honourary Scillonian, on account of being conceived there), and always liked getting out on the boats. Professional fishing is the most dangerous peacetime job you can undertake in Britain, but, if I were to have a "physical" type job, it's the only one I'd love to do. There are few feelings more satisfying than coming home from sea after a good day's fishing, with that sense of putting food on the table in both a real (because you know you're going to be eating crab bycatch sandwiches tomorrow) and metaphorical (because there's good money in a big lobster) sense.

On the other hand I'm really clumsy and would quite probably end up a mortality statistic if I did it for any real length of time...so...
posted by howfar at 11:48 AM on August 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

My department does some work with the National Lobster Hatchery, and Carly leads on that for them, so she is sometimes around our labs and offices. The link will thus be getting sent on to a few people.

If people are interested in fishing communities around Cornwall then I just finished reading a pretty good book on the topic, 'The Swordfish and the Star', named for two of the rougher pubs in Cornwall.
posted by biffa at 12:06 PM on August 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Thanks for sharing this, this was super neat!

For a few years while doing field research in Nova Scotia a colleague set me up with a local lobsterman and his boat to take me to the cliffs and small beach areas where I was working. The guy had a lot of problems with that because I was a woman but after seeing me wrestle some equipment and get just filthy dirty /soaked without complaining he warmed up. I don't know why but for some reason so many guys in these fields think women can't/won't get dirty or work hard and showing them the opposite is always the first step in acceptance. I truly, truly don't get that.

I digress. After that, because I love boats and the ocean and it no doubt showed, and asked a ton of questions about how to do stuff, he took me out to sea a few times and showed me a few things. I really loved it, especially on days when the weather wasn't great - the rough seas and wind/spray in my face thrilled me to the core. And few things make me happy as much as hard, dirty, physical work outside -just built that way I guess. It's one of the few times in my life I seriously considered doing something else as a career. Though when I made jokes about that to him he'd make scoffing noises about a woman doing it, but towards the end he grudgingly acknowledged that I could live the life "ok". (Personally, I'm not sure as there's a big diff between playing at something and actually doing it as a real job every day, but hey one can still dream!) Don't think I ever saw any other women down at the docks at the time, but that would have been cool to see - surely (hopefully) there were at least a few.

Looking at these women I feel the urge to give up what I'm doing down and go do that, all over again. I'm deeply envious of them. Those women are great!
posted by barchan at 12:10 PM on August 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

I really liked the snippets of stories and the photos. Pretty much all of them struck me as people it would be neat to meet and talk to.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:06 PM on August 25, 2017 [1 favorite]