Right out Straight

Success! On Tuesday afternoon I finally got to meet the man whom I've been talking on the phone with for a few weeks. His name is John Borden. We were supposed to meet on Sunday afternoon but as he explained to me on the phone, "I was working on the boat till noon and then I was right out straight." That's a Maine expression - for those of you who don't know. It means really busy.

John has been in the fishing business since he was 14 years old. In 1987 he bought his own small, wooden, lobster boat. Since then his primary business has been in lobster and scallops.

The scalloping industry was recently dealt a huge blow. A formerly under-regulated business, scalloping has recently come under severe government tampering. A control date of 2000 to 2004 was selected and basically what happened was scalloping permits were only given to people who scalloped in between those years, this act restricted 2000 fishermen from scalloping.

John knows another man, Tommy Eaton, who was a life long scalloper. Tommy took a break to fish other sea life and then wanted to recently return to the business. Tommy purchased a new scalloping boat...and then found out he was unable to get a permit.

My interview with John went very well. He is very chatty, very invested in the subject obviously, and is a passionate fisherman. He works in a very difficult business; fuel prices have risen, seafood prices have fallen and it is the most highly regulated industry in the US.
When I asked him why he was still involved in such a difficult business he just laughed, shook his head and said, "I don't know."

He is also allowing me to be very involved. Soon I am going to go take photos of him putting a new rudder on his boat the Intrepid. When the Intrepid is ready he is going to let me go out on the boat for a typical day of fishing. This typical day starts at 2 a.m. You read that correctly... 2 a.m. When I first asked about when the boat leaves I said, "So when would I meet you? Like... 6... or 5 in the morning...?" Yea, I was a little off.

When we met for coffee John had been painting his boat. He was covered in maroon paint and I took a picture of him after the interview but since it was outside of Breaking New Grounds, it doesn't look very good. He also brought pictures with him, which is great! He has photos from many of his expeditions and they are really good. There are pictures from good days, where the boat looks ready to sink under the weight of scallops, and pictures from bad days where all he hauled up was starfish and sand dollars.

It's an interesting story - and important. I can't believe it isn't getting more press. I am just worried I am not experienced enough to do it justice...