Colleen Bouffard has been with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection since 1996. Starting as a seasonal employee — after graduating from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island — Bouffard is now the supervising fisheries biologist in the marine fisheries program of the Fisheries Division of the CT DEEP.  She currently oversees the recreational and commercial fishing statistics programs.

Recreational fisherman, lobsterman, and writer, David Fox shares his thoughts about lobster fishing in the Long Island Sound. While the sport of fishing is a large part of the interest for Fox, he gets the most joy out of educating others — especially children — about the wonders that exist right in their own waters. By bringing families and children out on his boat to catch lobsters, he enjoys sharing with others the significance and natural beauty of the Long Island Sound watershed.

Based in Waterford, Connecticut, lobster fisherman Michael Theiler initially worked for a pharmaceutical company after college. He left that industry to pursue his passion for being on the water. He was a successful lobster fisherman during the 1980s boom and into the late 1990s when the lobster began to die off.  He has been actively involved in the politics and policies surrounding fishing and lobster industries and has witnessed the difficulties fishermen have faced and adaptations implemented to try to save the lobster fishing industry.

Born into a fishing family in Stonington, Ct., Richie Maderia had his first experiences on a boat at the age of 9 before becoming a professional lobster fisherman after high school. Maderia’s experiences running a lobster fishing boat allowed him to see the industry boom in the 1980s through to the late 1990s when he began to see the lobsters — and the industry — die out.