Dear Readers, It was 1984 when I first met Bob Edic. I was researching the archaeology of the Calusa Indians, ancient inhabitants of Charlotte Harbor. Bob had been collecting oral histories with today's senior fisherfolk. As Bob and I talked, I realized that these men and women had in their youth fished the waters of Charlotte Harbor much as the ancient Calusa Indians had – without today's monofilament nets, motorboats, and ice, and in an undeveloped and unpolluted environment quite different from that of today. I began to pepper Bob with questions. What was it like to net-fish before monofilament and motorboats? How had storms and red tides affected early twentieth-century net fishers? What fish were netted, and which ones were caught with hand lines? In what ways had the harbor changed over the past 50 years? "I'll ask them," he said. The result is this book, but it is far more than the answers to an archaeologist's questions. It is also a personal, often poignant account of one of Florida's oldest industries. To all readers who love the coast of Florida, I recommend this evocative portrait of a world now rapidly vanishing. Sincerely,

Voices from the Past: Elmer Johnson on profits: In them days you didn't make much money. I fished [for mullet] many a night for a penny a pound. Nellie Coleman on hard times: Pinfish were eaten when times were tough. They were always available. Raymond Lowe, Sr. on nets: The only thing we had was flax net and cotton net.... but if we would have had glass nets, the way they tell me it catches fish, there wouldn't have been any fish left. We would've caught them all! Esperanza Woodring on changes to the environment: And the clams, we eat them most any time of the year. We used to. I am afraid to eat a clam now... There are so many bugs. The tourists are about to wreck the clam beds. Tom Parkinson on a vanishing way of life: The independent commercial fisherman is a dying breed. Too many laws are made by people who don't know the area or the local people.

Bob Edic interviews Esperanza Woodring in 1990 at her home on Sanibel Island. Mrs. Woodring came from a long line of fisherfolk. Her grandparents were Tariva and Laini Padilla who ran a fishery on Cayo Costa at the end of the 19th century. Many of the Padilla descendants made their living fishing the waters of Charlotte Harbor. (Photo by K. Walker)

Robert Edic has collected oral histories of fisherfolk in southwest Florida for more than 10 years. Trained in anthropology, Edic also experienced the commercial fishing life firsthand, working at the Boca Grande Fishery on Gasparilla Island for four years. Edic is a field representative of the Florida Museum of Natural History.

"Robert Edic provides a fascinating and historically accurate account of one of Florida's oldest industries---fishing. Through conversations with the author, the fisherfolk provide from their own experiences the rich detail that makes this study so important." ---Samuel Proctor, Distinguished Service Professor of History, Director of the Oral History Program, University of Florida

Softcover $19.95 ISBN 1-881448-04-5

Florida Museum of Natural History PO Box 117800 Gainesville, FL 32611-7800

To order Click Here.