Video Script: Sebastian, Part 4
Florida Waterfront Communities’ Commercial Fishing Heritage
Video Script
- Title: Florida's Fishing Traditions: Sebastian, Part 4
- Type: Informational
- Length: 9:17
- Year: 2009
Ed Mangano: So what a lot of fishermen did was they said, well, maybe we should start figuring out how we can still use our boats and our docks and what we do for a living and turn that into also farming, at least as a part-time thing. So in 1994 when the net ban went into effect, it had a lot of commercial fishermen also get into clam farming.
Narrator: Harvesting clams was nothing new to the Indian River Lagoon. For thousands of years wild clams had been gathered from the river. Their shells, piled high along the river bank to build mounds called middens, were later used to pave the area’s first road. What was new was that clam harvesting was now done through aquaculture. Through clam farming, fishermen treated their catch more like a crop, planting seed clams in mesh bags and allowing them to grow through harvest time.
Ed Mangano: And once the technology was developed to be able to predictably grow clams to market size, I think that many fishermen, on days that maybe the fish they know aren’t going to bite, can plan a day or two a week to go and do their clam farming. And it kind of helped, I think, supplement their income and also helped us tremendously, because we have a lot of good commercial fishermen that became really good clam farmers in the State of Florida.
Ed Mangano: One of the main factors that affected the commercial fishing industry in Sebastian as recently as 2004, were the hurricanes.
Tim Adams: And then the storms of ’04, with Frances and Jean, that really set us on our rear ends there,
Ed Mangano: And many commercial fishermen lost their boats. I’ve seen a lot of boats washed up. The docks got devastated.
Tim Adams: We lost anything that even resembled any operable fish houses on the water, which the last real operating fish house that we had was Archie Smith’s Seafood, and it was completely and totally destroyed.
Narrator: Built in 1935, Archie Smith’s fish house was the last operating fish house on the water in Sebastian. Its destruction in 2004 left a void in the fishing community. More than the loss of a landmark, it was a turning point in the way fishing was done in the lagoon.
Albert Quatraro: We were down to no fish houses on the water at all and it got so difficult to be a hand-line commercial king mackerel fisherman that a lot of guys got out of it. All of the old timers gave it up. It was just too tough, because when you were done fishing, you would have to come in and you kept your boat in a marina, then you would have to load the fish in the truck, your own truck, truck them to the fish house, it was not on the water anymore, and then bring your ice back. And the same with the fuel. And it took a tough, tough breed to do that, because, you know, in the old days you pull up to the dock, there was a guy there to help you unload and everything. It was tough and the fleet was narrowed down, a handful of people, a tougher breed.
Narrator: Those that remained to carry on Florida’s fishing tradition adapted to meet the new challenges head-on. Just as the creation of the Sebastian Inlet gave their fathers access to new fishing grounds, the use of cell phones and Interstate highways are allowing today’s fishermen to be more mobile, to gain access to new fisheries around the state.
Tim Adams: Today, I’m sitting here in Sebastian. I may get a cell phone call from a friend of mine that fishes out of New Smyrna Beach or Jacksonville or Mayport or Pensacola or Key West, or whatever, and say, we’re catching whatever. Within several hours, you could be at that location and fishing. And that’s what’s really changed in the State of Florida is the ability of fishermen to move on almost a moment’s notice to a different locale and be very effective.
Johnny Devane Jr.: Around September, I’ll start fishing for Spanish mackerel in New Smyrna, up by Daytona Beach. And the fish, the Spanish mackerel migrates out to Cape Canaveral, and I’ll usually fish until around Thanksgiving at Cape Canaveral. And then the fish will migrate to Sebastian and I can come out of my hometown, which is pretty nice. You don’t have to live off sleeping in the truck and a lot of motel renting, which is, in my father’s time, they couldn’t trailer their boat up to the interstate and they didn’t have all the boat ramps to use and all the access that you have now, which makes it convenient for me, but it costs more money to do it. But that’s what you have to do to survive in this industry.
Narrator: Commercial fishing is no longer the town’s focal point. But subtle reminders of how it built this community can still be seen around the lagoon. Many of the old landmarks are gone. A few that still stand are weathered and time-worn, serving as memories of a bygone era, while others serve as a source of inspiration, challenging those who carry on to reclaim and rebuild Sebastian’s fishing tradition.
Charlie Sembler: To fishermen, it’s a place where they feel comfortable, because, they’re in control, they don’t rely on anybody else, and they can push themselves and work as hard as they want without anybody giving them directions or, you know, a set of rules that they have to live by, um, and can continue to do what they love to do.
Johnny Thomas: I was very independent, and that was one of the nice things about being a commercial fisherman, that you’re very independent and stuff and you don’t have to, if somebody asks you a question, you can tell them what you think.
Tim Adams: There’s not somebody looking over your shoulder pushing you either. It’s the freedom of it. It’s the ability to go out on your own against Mother Nature or with Mother Nature, depending on how you want to work it and make a living.
Ed Silva: You still have to be competitive and, you know, you actually have to work harder than you would at any other normal job, but it’s, you know, just like to be free.
Albert Quatraro: The freedom. The best part of commercial fishing like that on a daily basis is the freedom of it....
Coolidge Judah: Well, you just seemed to be, I don't know, more free up, freedom out there doing your work and you wasn't having to punch a clock.
Albert Quatraro: And you got the gratitude of knowing that, you know, you're feeding thousands of people. I don't know how many, I must, I put probably 100,000 meals a year on the table, easy.
John Massey: Oh, man, yeah. Along the river, that, you make a good man, some that’s raised along the river. Makes a good man, yeah. He stays busy.
Neal Adams: What I love about fishing more than anything is just being out in the open water and seeing the beauty of everything and not having to deal with somebody telling me what to do or where to do it or how to do it.
Tim Adams: And I don’t know of anything that I could do that would even equal that or rival that. And I’m not going to go looking for it anyways. I’m happy right where I am as a commercial fisherman, and that’s where I’ll stay.
John Devane Sr.: The best part is you bottom fishing and catch a great big old sow snapper about that big on a hand line or a big old grouper on the hand line and the water is clear and you’re pulling real hard and you don’t want to break him off and you don’t want him to get back in a rock or something. And then you look and you can see him coming up. You see that big fish coming up, and then you start talking to him, baby needs a new pair shoes, hold onto that hook, hold on, don’t turn it, don’t turn that hook loose.
