I_Live_by_the_Sea

I live by the sea. My average summer day consists of smelling the salty air and hearing the boats come in and out. The offloading and restocking are my everyday elevator music. Technically, the sea is a large blanket of salt water that covers much of the earth. To me, it is a lifestyle. I catch lobsters. It is three in the morning and my alarm is going off. The first thing that comes to mind is "it is finally summer". The shrilling alarm marks the start of days where I am elbow deep in lifeless fish, packing them into small mesh bags and tying them to the center of a lobster trap. I put thick rubber bands around snapping lobster claws, seeing money in their eyes. My summer is spent listening to the hum of a diesel engine and the splashing of waves. To anyone else this might sound like torture, but it is part of the life that I love. In the winter it is a different story. I am not listening to a diesel engine anymore. Instead, I hear my teachers’ voices. My days are no longer spent on the sea. They are spent in stuffy classrooms for the majority of my time. Winter is one of the best times to fish. There is only one problem, Mother Nature. In the summer, a fisherman can go out every day. The weather during winter is very unpredictable, making it difficult to fish daily. I am actually glad that I do not fish in the freezing cold weather during the winter. I love the ocean, but not the cold and lifeless winter ocean. Over the years, the market for lobster has fluctuated. This makes lobster fishing a very risky business. Many of the major lobster fishing towns have dried up. Once fishing deteriorates, a small town could be in trouble. Last spring I took a trip with my father to Montauk, New York. We went to look at a fishing boat. Every fishing town has lobster boats for sale; it is part of the occupation. While driving down the road, I saw rows and rows of boats with for sale signs. This clued me in on how something that was abundant and sustaining can just dry up with the snap of a finger. Montauk was like Deer Isle, where I live. It was a major fishing port. Now there is not a good enough market to sustain the industry. Montauk has now turned into a tourist town. It is more famous for its little Inns and gifts shops. Down on the docks there used to be local fishermen offloading their catch from their dirty, old fishing boats. Now it is foreigners offloading their trophy fish from their fancy, pristine white fishing boats. I do not want Deer Isle, my home, to turn into Montauk. I do not want to have to work at a “Joe’s Crab Shack”. When I think of twenty years down the road, I am afraid that is what I will be doing. Someone needs to do something and I want to be that someone. I want the next generation to have the same childhood as I did, but that is not going to happen unless something changes. I admit that usually all I see are the lobsters, crabs, and cute seals, but I want to see what makes everything tick. Everything I see is part of the bigger picture. I never see what is beneath the surface. Anyone can see the ocean, but there are very few people around here that know what goes on under the swell of the waves. I want to be one of those few people. I want to be a Marine Biologist. My father is a fisherman. It is not only what he does for a living, but it is who he is. He has been fishing since he was 17 years old, being the captain of his own boat since 18. He has made a living from; scalloping, gill-netting, long lining, sea urchins, slime eels and lobstering. You name a fishery and he has done it. Why' The industry has changed so much that he will do whatever it takes to support his family. So I am told, the first time I was on a boat I was strapped into an infant car-seat. Being on a boat is second nature to me. I have watched my father struggle with rules and restrictions, set in place by people who have never set foot on a working lobster boat. As the daughter of a lobster fisherman and having fished most summers of my life, I feel like I could make a difference not only for my Community, but for other Communities in the same situation.