Valerie Peacock
Voices of the Maine Fishermen’s Forum 2019
Voices of the Maine Fishermen’s Forum 2019 is a project of Maine Sea Grant, The First Coast, College of the Atlantic, and the Island Institute, with support from the Maine Fishermen’s Forum Board of Directors.
Eliza Oldach
Valerie Peacock is an education consultant and advocate for fishing communities from Bar Harbor, ME who is the head of the Eastern Maine Skippers Program. Valerie has experience in the fishing industry, including scalloping, lobstering, and sea sampling.
Scope and Content Note
Valerie speaks about how she came to love the ocean and fishing communities, her background working in the fishing communities of Bar Harbor, and her concern about Maine communities losing a sense of the cultural value of fishing. She talks about her childhood, her early interest in scuba diving, and her immersion in fishing activities such as scalloping and lobstering. She emphasizes the importance of intentional decision-making to ensure that fishing communities and the cultural significance of fishing are preserved. Valerie believes in empowering people to protect resources and maintaining the owner-operator model in fishing rather than allowing corporate consolidation. As the curriculum creator for the Skippers Program, she works with high school students interested in pursuing fishing or learning about fishing-dependent communities.
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