Sink or Swim: Aging Workforce and Adaptation in Offshore Fisheries of New Bedford, MA

• In Event: 349 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. Work and Retirement

Abstract

Recent policy shifts in the groundfish and scallop fisheries of New Bedford, MA present a prime opportunity to explore the influence of an aging workforce on adaptation. Because of marked distinctions in resource availability and income generation between these two fisheries, the groundfish industry was put under a new catch share system in the 2010-2011 fishing season, whereas the scallop fishery, as a means to maintain productivity and conservation efforts, has seen stricter regulations on crew size, closed areas, and days at sea in the past three years. In the face of these differences, what these fisheries share—workers, physical space and infrastructure— offers a means of examining social capital as a tool for adaptation to policy and demographic shifts. As an inherently adaptive industry fishermen navigate across fisheries as political, ecological and economic climates change, however the recent surges in economic instability has dissuaded the younger generation from entering into the industry, resulting in an aging workforce overall. For those that are able to adapt, the choice to do so is shaped by social capital, a product of both age and experience. I pull from oral histories from the Voices from the Fisheries Database, interviews with key informants and archival data to relate the lived experience of individual fishermen to community adaptation. Results show that financial resources, namely vessel ownership, more than traditional socialization patterns, such as multigenerational knowledge transfer, influences community level adaptation to changes in policy, contributing to a growing social stratification between vessel-owners and non-vessel owners.

Author

• Apollonya Maria Porcelli, Brown University