David Crabbe
Voices of the Bay
In The Capturing the Voices of the Bay Education Program, students take responsibility for their own learning experience as they research, plan, and conduct personal interviews, first with each other and then with citizens of the community, to capture the rich stories, traditions, and knowledge that define Monterey’s fishing legacy. This place-based learning experience allows students the opportunity to deeply explore the historic, economic, environmental, and cultural dimensions of their particular “place” in the world and, perhaps more importantly, how all these dimensions inter-connect through the lives of those who live and work in the region.
David Crabbe is a wetfish fisherman, also known as squid fisherman. He explains the complicated practice behind squid fishing starting from the preparation of the boat to the knitting of torn nets; he also shares his fishing experience. He is a first generation fisherman in Monterey Bay, been fishing for more than 25 years, started fishing in high school and worked his way up to earn his first boat. He explains the different type of corks that are used to suspend the net up in surface water. Crabbe owns a variety of boats: a scout boat that has big giant luminous light that attract squids, and a squid boat that harvest the squids with a crew that uses a giant net. However, he also shares the hardship between being a fisherman and being away from his family. Crabbe then decides that it was time to stay inland; thus he found a trustee personnel to help manage his boat and fish for him, while he stays with his family and attend his children parent conference. David Crabbe shows that with every success there must be a sacrifice. It is hard work to be a fisherman and balance his family at the same time, yet in the end he found a solution to keep fishing and spent more quality time with his family.
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