Why Choose the Hard Life of Commercial Fishing?

Why would anyone who has a choice want to fish for a living, given the cold, wet, uncertainty, danger, muck, dependence on weather for make or break, and general ass-busting hardship?

For a skipper of any sized boat, add the government regulations, ruinous cost of fuel and pressure to earn enough to buy (and make payments on) the latest equipment to stay competitive. The romance of it is all very well when contemplated in front of a warm fire, but it’s different when you have to go out every morning.

For many, the answer is simple: They do it to make a living in the way best available to them; they’re more or less stuck with it. For a male growing up in a small coastal community with limited options, fishing is often what his dad, brothers, and uncles do.

As a kid, he probably even dreams of the day he’ll follow the men to sea and walk big himself. He’s lucky if the idea appeals: It may be his only choice, although this has become less so in America than in many other parts of the world.

In the outports of Newfoundland – villages of frame houses set on sea-blown rocks as close to the fish as possible – you’ll see nine-year-old boys already strutting in pint-sized rubber boots, grabbing for the lines, pitching cod, virtually caressing the nets as they help where they can to be part of it all.

The Role Models

If they looked with the eyes of city kids, they’d see their “fadders” as men weathered old before their time, with fingers missing, hands puffed and sore, and with hurt muscles keeping them awake at night. Instead, what they see are men in whom confident authority comes as second nature, men who are strong, rough, self-reliant, and independent – the sort of men most boys would like to become.

read more at nationalfisherman.com.