Lucas Raymond
Young Fishermen in the Northeast United States
Interviews with 39 fishers between the ages of 18-35, located along the US East Coast from Maine to North Carolina. Collectively, they represent a wide variety of gear types and fisheries. All had been fishing full-time for at least two years and wanted to make fishing their career. They describe motivations for choosing a fishing career, strategies used, barriers encountered, and facilitating factors that have enabled interviewees to defy the graying trend to become successful fishermen.
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Sarah Schumann
Lucas Raymond, 28 years old at the time of the interview, is a deckhand and relief captain on the F/V Witchcraft in Rye, NH.
Scope and Content Note
In his interview, Lucas describes the toll that fishing takes on spending time at home with his young family, and admits to having conflicted feelings about sticking with a fishing career. Lucas reflects on the difficulties of making a living as a fisherman, particularly due to low fish prices and the dominance of large corporate fishing operations. He discusses the decline of the fishing fleet in New Hampshire, with many fishermen leaving the industry or retiring, leaving only a handful of active fishermen. He also discusses the decline of young fishermen in New Hampshire and how there is a lack of understanding and support for the fishing industry.
In addition to fishing, Lucas emphasizes the importance of small-scale fishing and farming and how they contribute to better care for the environment. He believes that smaller boats, with reduced fishing quantities, could lead to improved quality of food and more sustainable practices. He highlights the difference between smaller-scale fishermen and corporations, stating that local fishermen care more about the resource they are extracting rather than just focusing on profit.
"It's very hard to describe. A lot of it's the entire experience, I guess. Being on the water, the things you see, even the things you smell, like the fresh saltwater air, and the sunrises in the morning, and dolphins and whales swimming around you. People pay to see that stuff, and I get to get paid and see it. I love the whole thing. I love that it's physical work. I think just catching fish is just enjoyable. I think it's important. We bring in very high-quality food. We're the last hunters. It's the last commercial wild food source that's widely available. I think that alone is very important... There's nothing like it... The freedom of being out at sea. I don't know. Everything about it. Things you see, smell, everything. Like I said, it's just a different world. It's experiencing a different life in some ways. Very different than being on land."
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