Human ecological sources of fishing heritage and its use in and impact on coastal tourism

Abstract

Commercial fishers and fishing-dependent communities are experiencing tremendous challenges. For at least a decade, commercial fishers have seen increasing regulations, rises in operational and capital costs, increasing foreign competition, resource depletion, environmental degradation, changing allocations from commercial to recreational use, and coastal gentrification. We found that all members of commercial fishing families are involved in production, not just the fisherman. Natural resource production occupations, such as commercial fishing families and family farms, are perhaps the last sector of the economy where the traditional family is an economic unit. Traditional family structures once aided economic production in extractive jobs. Now fishing and farming can only rarely support a family and its labor resources. What we have lost is not the commercial fisherman, but rather a stable and traditional family structure that supported local seafood production and helped form the identity of the local community. This paper begins by examining the successful development of heritage tourism among farmers and the Amish. From these examples, we then outline strategies that might be of use in the development of heritage tourism in fishing communities so as to help preserve this way of life.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 2006 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium

Citation

Jacob, Steve; Witman, Jeff. 2007. Human ecological sources of fishing heritage and its use in and impact on coastal tourism. In: Burns, R.; Robinson, K., comps. Proceedings of the 2006 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium; 2006 April 9-11; Bolton Landing, NY. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-14. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 394-402.