William C. Stewart is a commercial shrimper on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  He was born on February 11, 1963, at Gulfport Memorial Hospital, Harrison County, Mississippi, to Mr. William Stewart (born in 1933, in Woolmarket, Mississippi) and Mrs. Barbara B. Stewart (born in 1940, in New Orleans, Louisiana). His father was an attorney and a judge in Gulfport, Mississippi. His father’s family were schooner captains, loggers, and shrimpers. His mother was a homemaker, who worked as William Colmer’s secretary and as a medical administrator.

Mr. William “Billy” Thiroux is a commercial fisherman on the Gulf Coast.  Thiroux was born on July 4, 1937, in Biloxi, Mississippi, to Mr. Louis Thiroux and Mrs. Katherine Pauli Thiroux. His father was a commercial fisherman. His mother worked in the seafood plants as a shrimp picker and a crab picker. His mother’s family were commercial fishermen. Mr. Thiroux finished the eleventh grade, and thereupon joined the US Navy.

Mr. William W. Walker is a resident of the Gulf Coast. At the time of this interview he was Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. Walker was born on September 16, 1945, in Hammond, Louisiana, to Mr. and Mrs. William Byrd Walker. Mr. Walker attended Hammond High School, Southeastern Louisiana University for his bachelor’s degree, and Mississippi State University for his master’s and doctoral degrees, graduating in 1972. He married Sharon H.

Mrs. Xuyen Pham is a Vietnamese-American oyster shucker and gardener living in New Orleans East, Louisiana. Pham was born in 1948 in a small village near Hai Phong, North Vietnam. Her father, Thoan Van Pham, was a fisherman. Mrs. Pham helped her mother, Xuy Thi Pham, dry fish and shrimp to make and sell nuoc mam sauce. Her father and grandfather fished on stilts and made a boat carved from bamboo. In 1954 her family, disguised as merchants, made it to Hai Phong, then escaped North Vietnam to the South upon hearing of the country’s division.