For centuries, the commercial fishermen of Point Judith have worked in one of the most dangerous fishing grounds in the world. But now a downward spiral of crushing regulations and bitter feuds over how to protect fish stocks (and livelihoods) has fishermen in the fight of their lives on land.
In late summer on Point Judith, the port of Galilee is at its most festive, from ferry parking attendants waving flags to Block Island day-trippers lined up for fried seafood. Down by the docks, the scene is less picturesque. Worn-out draggers are in need of paint, barrels of bait stink and draw flies, but the working waterfront stirs a sense of pride for the historic port. Yet in the wake of crippling regulations, commercial fishermen have reached their breaking point — solely blamed for depleted fish stocks, torn apart by feuds and barely breaking even in one of the world’s deadliest jobs. Still, the fishermen are driven by an indomitable passion for their work. They are among the few who will ever know the ocean as intimately as their own homes.
“It’s too hard a job to just break even.” Tony Faciano is the forty-seven-year-old captain of the Shelby Ann, a seventy-foot trawler that fishes south of New England and part of the year on notoriously dangerous Georges Bank. We’re at port, standing in the wheelhouse, where his view includes two loves: the ocean and photos of his three children. He has been fishing in Rhode Island since he was seventeen years old.