The Fish House Opera tells the story of North Carolina’s Outer Banks fishermen. These fishermen struggle to adapt traditional fishery practices to the requirements introduced by new fisheries management… sound familiar? If so, you should read this book.
Each chapter comes at you from a different perspective, a different fishery or community, revealing an uplifting and at times sad view of towns that were changed forever. The stories highlight how community members used humor and common sense in the face of regulation upon regulation. West and Garrity-Blake offer readers a unique look at how the “labor” class has risen to fight for the protection of resources that sustain their livelihood.
The issues West and Garrity-Blake outline are uncannily familiar, not only to coastal Maine but even more specifically to island communities. One story about the social life of the Outer Banks fishermen describes the tradition of a boom truck parade born out of the islanders’ need to create their own diversions and as a way to avoid thinking about the lack of fishing. Throughout the book the authors’ tales are woven into a celebration of the Outer Bank fishermen’s heritage. Certain issues in the book seem timeless. Tensions between native resident and summer homeowners echo much of the sentiment heard in Maine harbors over the years.
The authors take on many familiar resource-management issues as well, in particular the tensions between sport fishermen and commercial fishermen. At the heart of each issue is the local struggle to retain access to resources, all too well known here. The authors do an excellent job of representing how the island communities of Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands must deal with encroachment of their land and resources, taking on sports fishermen, federal marine fishery management councils and more.
The authors’ creative use of an opera format, each chapter as an “act,” serves as an excellent method to convey stories about the various fisheries that employ the fishermen of Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands. By describing how the individual person is affected the authors are giving readers something they can identify with, making each issue real rather than theoretical.
I recommend this book to any person who has an interest in fisheries or just likes a good story. Further, Fish House Opera would be excellent used in an educational setting.