Interviewer: Preetam Prakash

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I had been told some time ago to contact Patricia and Victor if I wanted to learn more about the history of the fishing and shrimping industry in the area. I eventually called and spoke with Patricia who was enthusiastic about the idea of meeting for an interview and told me to come on over to the house later on that day to speak with herself and her husband Victor. I interviewed Patricia and Victor in their kitchen. Victor still goes out crabbing and shrimping and they still operate a seafood processing business from behind their home.

Patricia and Victor were respectively born in 1953 and 1951 in the Coden area and had lived and worked there throughout the course of their life. Both of their families had a lengthy history in the seafood industry. Victor’s father had also worked running supply boats for the offshore oil industry for much of his career and Victor discussed the events that had resulted in his father beginning to work for the industry. Victor had worked offshore very briefly and expressed not having enjoyed the work. Since the late 1980s Patricia and Victor had operated a seafood shop which they had expanded upon in various ways over the years. Originally they had only processed seafood, but had over the years had come to market a variety of gourmet products. They said that these efforts had worked for a long time but that more recently numerous factors had contributed to making it increasingly difficult to make a living in the seafood industry.