Marvin Rankin

Location of Interview
Collection Name

New Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore

Description

The Bayshore Center at Bivalve’s Oral History program is dedicated to preserving the oral history and culture of New Jersey’s Bayshore region by saving for posterity the oral histories and material culture connected with the Bayshore region, by creating a repository of recordings and data that can be used for research, by preserving, treasuring and celebrating the environment, history and culture of the Bayshore region and by sharing the heritage of the Bayshore region today and with future generations through program related activities serving visitors, students and scholars.

Date of Interview
07-08-1991
Audio
Biographical Sketch

Mr. Rankin explains how he got his start in the fishing business. Unlike many who end up in the fishing business he learned the trade later in life. Rankin mentions he fished once or twice when he was young but trapping was a much bigger deal. He got into the fishing business after he got out of the military and settled down with his wife. He became friends with a man who was much older than him (about 20 years older) who taught and introduced the trade. From then on he explained the trade and how it changed over his life time. He chronicles the decline of fishers in the area, the changing equipment, and provides interesting personal anecdotes. Marvin talks of gill net fishing for perch and shad off of Salem County, New Jersey, in the upper portions of the Delaware Bay. He discusses how to set the line, the equipment and boats and the problem with netting striped bass. As a waterman, he crabs in the summer and traps muskrat during the winter. Mr. Rankin has many observations about pollution and how chemicals and the nuclear power plant have affected the fish and muskrat populations. He explains New Jersey and Delaware licenses and regulations on the Delaware Bay and River.

 


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