The "photo-painting" above is deceptive in the story you think it tells. Maybe this boat rarely gets a chance to raise its' sails?
One thing I have learned as I moved to this area near the water is that you can read the owners by their boats. There are new fancy boats both fast and slow, well-used work boats, small pleasure craft and old, old boats. Boats are usually (not always) like the Velveteen Rabbit. They can be old and worn, but if well care for, they most certainly are used on a regular basis and used with respect. If the boats are shiny and very new looking they are either NEW NEW or something that someone with more money than brains bought when his bonus came in. But they sit idle representing a pipe dream that is slowly dying as the owners find they really do not like the regular outing on the water. If the boat is worn and beaten down, maybe the owner cares less about life and just wants to make it through the day or has abandoned the effort to use the boat altogether.
I think the boats above are used on the old-fashioned and very wasteful passive fixed gill nets that the owner is supposed to check on a regular basis for trapped turtles, sting rays and other animals as well as make sure that they remove gilled fish before they die. Fortunately these gill nets are grandfathered in and no new ones are being staked on the water. They are also a boating hazard in the evenings when fishermen are supposed to put a solar or battery operated night light and do not!
Usually getting a boat ready for any outing and maintaining a boat while it sits idle at anchor or at the dock is for people who love the job or people who rely on the boat for food or people who have lots of money to hire help while they are raking in more money at the office.
But for many who depend on the wild harvest for income it is becoming a rare industry that provides little income as the prices of boat maintenance, fuel, and loss of animals in the ocean available for harvest bring profits down. As few may know, most of our seafood comes from cultured places outside the U.S., some sustainable and some not. It is even hard to get blue crab on the East Coast in the summer that does not come from Asia and you have to ask at the restaurants where the seafood comes from. We always do that just to keep the restaurant owners on their toes.
I am so picky about where my seafood comes from these days. I didn't used to be this aware, but with the bad fishing practices and over-consumption of dwindling populations, boy every little bit of consciousness helps. Great post.
ReplyDeleteGood advice. We're headed to Cape Cod in a few days and I will pay closer attention to what's on my plate.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big seafood fan, being raised on home grown beef and local wild fish. I always ask where my seafood came from when eating out.
ReplyDeleteSo much of our food comes from far away. If I eat a grape it could have come from California or Peru.
ReplyDeleteI usually only eat seafood I gather myself, one of the blessings of living where this is possible. Towards the end of next month I will be sailing on a yacht that my brother has owned for 50 years. Will probably have to do a bit of polishing to earn my passage as it takes a lot of maintenance and hard work to keep it serviceable. Is now as it always has been, my brother's love affair.
ReplyDeleteAlthough i don't eat seafood, i only buy at the store what is locally sourced. As for boats, to me they are summed up by a comic strip i once saw. A man puts a bucket in the back of his vehicle closes the trunk lid, and drives 300 miles to the coast. He gets out, pulls the bucket out of the trunk, walks over to his boat and tosses the contents of the bucket, a bunch of money, at the boat, puts the bucket back in the trunk and drives home.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine, who has owned different boats over the years, often used to quote the comedian, Joey Bishop, "A boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into". However, boats are always something that people love to look at and dream.
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ReplyDeleteUh oh, I was under the impression that a lot of farmed fish comes from U. S. shores. Guess I'll pay a little more attention in the futures. Btw, nice photos!
I'm picky about my seafood too consequently eat less and less of it. We had a vintage Chris Craft wooden cabin cruiser at one time. We loved it. It was moored in a river in Seattle, less critters on the bottom and we spent a lot of time on it. It was a lot of work. We go down and work on it and then eat dinner and sleep over night on it. Our boys were 8 & 10 then. Life got busy in other ways and we sold it to someone who loved it and made it even better. I still miss those cool summer nights we slept out on the deck.
ReplyDeleteI don't eat seafood. But I do like your shots of boats.
ReplyDeleteWe like to kayak, but we don't own a kayak right now. So we use our neighbor's. We aren't really what you would call boat people, but we do like to be on the water.
ReplyDeleteYou have some interesting insights.
ReplyDeleteYes, anyone who lives near the water knows the lives of boats. I truly miss living aboard...which I did when mad and when I had a stepfather with a yacht. I loved having my coffee on the fantail and watching the world wake up around me, and I would have bought a boat except I married G with his inner ear problems instead. It was a good trade off. LOL
ReplyDeleteYes, working at that store is a serious problem. I don't need a thing, not one thing. I actually was considering buying that electric green pitcher and glasses...but they were gone when I got there. Thank heavens.
I do love fish and seafood, but it is becoming more of a treat than a staple. But I will pay the extra to get wild caught at the specialty market rather than pick something up in the supermarket. I just know I could not put something like tilapia in my mouth and enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteFresh shrimp from the gulf have spoiled me for frozen shrimp. I have become a seafood snob.
I enjoy a boat ride and a day on the water, but I don't think I would be up for actual boat ownership anymore.
yes, we humans have severely over-fished the oceans. but it's what we do it seems, on land as well. we hunt and fish to extinction. we are so short sighted. we buy our fresh seafood from a local boat. he has a small market in the next town over towards the coast.
ReplyDeletewhat is that flat boat? Designed to catch a lot of fish?
ReplyDeleteThat boat is able to load a lot of crab cages and nets.
ReplyDeleteI think like that about boats too... Wonder what mine looks like...
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