Captain John Philip Falterman Jr. is owner-operator of Therapy Charters LLC, of Slidell, Louisiana, specializing in inland fishing in Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Borgne, and the Biloxi Marsh.  Mr. Falterman was born November 25, 1974, in Fairbanks, Alaska, to Mr. John P. Falterman Sr. (born September 29, 1952, in New Orleans, Louisiana) and Mrs. Deborah Bays Falterman (born October 17, 1952, in New Orleans, Louisiana). His father is the owner of Johnny’s Welding Service in Kenner, Louisiana.

Mr. Cui Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American shrimper living in East Biloxi, Mississippi. Nguyen was born in 1954, one of seven children, in the city of Rach Gia in the Kien Giang Province of South Vietnam. His father, Ngoc Van Nguyen, was a fisherman. His mother, Kau Thi Nguyen, farmed rice. They all worked together to fish and sell at the local market. In 1972 Mr. Nguyen served in his town in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese Army). In 1981 Mr.

Larry Ryan, a Pascagoula fisherman, discusses his career mullet-fishing, shrimping, oystering, and crabbing.

Mr. Milton Zirlott is a retired commercial fisherman on the Gulf Coast. Zirlott was born on December 29, 1925, to Ellis Zirlott (born 1898 in Fowl River, Alabama) and Nittie Rhodes Zirlott (born around 1906 in Bayou LaBatre, Alabama). His father was a commercial shrimp fisherman and a boat-builder. His mother’s father was a net-maker. Zirlott went to school at Alba in Bayou LaBatre, Alabama. He had one brother, Robert Zirlott.

Hilton Floyd is a lifelong fisherman on the Gulf Coast in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Mr. Hilton Floyd was born on September 15, 1956, in Jacksonville, Florida, to Mr. Hilton Floyd Sr. (born in Mayport, Florida) and Mrs. Helen Cooper Floyd (born in Mayport, Florida). His siblings are two older brothers, three older sisters, and one younger sister. Floyd’s mother was a schoolteacher, and his paternal grandfather was a dredge boat operator. His mother’s family were shrimpers. He is married to Rhonda Olier Floyd (born November 7, 1956, in South Korea).

Mr. Daniel Nguyen is the environmental justice coordinator for the Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation in New Orleans Versailles Community. He also currently serves as the project manager for the Viet Village Urban Farm and Sustainable Aquaculture Park, managing daily activities and helping to organize community fisherfolk and gardeners in a cooperative effort to market their goods to local New Orleans restaurants.

Mr. Oscar Sanzin was born October 15, 1925, in Yugoslavia. When he was thirteen years old, the Nazis overran his hometown in Yugoslavia, destroying the town and killing its occupants. Sanzin escaped and served in the Resistance. He was later a prisoner of war in Germany, and he was taken to Africa in the hold of a ship as a slave laborer. He was liberated by the Americans, and he immigrated to the United States where he became a commercial fishermen on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. On June 22, 1950, in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, he married Helen Martin (born July 12, 1930).

Peter Floyd was born in Mayport, Florida, and has spent his career as a commercial fisherman in Pascagoula Mississippi.

Mrs. Hang Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American, the wife of a shrimper, and a resident of East Biloxi, Mississippi. She was the only child of Binh Nguyen and Nhung Nguyen, born in 1968 in Can Tho, South Vietnam. Her father, who passed away in Seattle, Washington in 2009, served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese Army). Her mother worked in the home. After the fall of South Vietnam, Mrs. Nguyen’s father was sent to reeducation camp. It was then that her mother had to go to work selling fish, coffee, and fabrics in different places.

Mr. Joseph D. Jewel (b. 1957) is deputy director of the Office of Marine Fisheries at the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. He was born in 1959 on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the small fishing community in east Biloxi known as the Point. His parents were Mr. Thomas Jewell and Mrs. Betty Jane Seymour Jewell. He was the second son in a family of six sons and one daughter. Following the return of his parents to his father’s ancestral home in Oregon, Joe was raised by his maternal grandparents in a commercial fishing family.