A River of Words

Capturing the Oral History of Hudson River Fishermen

by Kate Fraher

“For much of human history, work and energy have linked humans and rivers, humans and nature. But today…. the link between our work and nature has weakened. We no longer understand the world through labor. Once the energy of [a river] was felt in human bones and sinews; human beings knew the river through the work the river demanded of them…. Not just muscle power, but knowledge and art.” Richard White

In his book, The Organic Machine, Richard White laments losing the knowledge and culture of a community that had lived and worked on the Columbia River during the Nineteenth Century. Here on the Hudson, The Beacon Institute (formerly The Rivers and Estuaries Center) is preserving the culture of a vanishing community of our own through an oral history project: Preserving the History of Commercial Fishermen of the Hudson River Valley. The project honors and celebrates the Hudson River Valley, but it is fueled by more than simple nostalgic interest. A community’s oral history, which details the human relationship to the land, is a valuable tool in the assessment of a region and the formation of its environmental policy. 

Commercial fishermen were chosen as the first subject in a series of oral history projects partly because of their dwindling numbers. “Mismanagement and abuse of the Hudson has been mirrored dramatically in the plight of commercial fishermen,” reads a Fall 2005 pamphlet that introduces the project and refers to the fishermen as an endangered species. Bob Gabrielson, a former fisherman from Nyack, remarked in 1992: “When I was a young man there were 17 fishing camps in Nyack. Now there is one. And we were a very close knit group.” Since Gabrielson’s interview, the one fishing family in Nyack has also given up the trade. The Beacon Institute links the dramatic decline of Hudson River commercial fishing to bureaucratic regulations enacted in the seventies, after PCBs and other pollutants were first detected in the river. Today, commercial fishing on the Hudson is limited to shad and blue crab. Says James Bleakley of Buchanan, interviewed in 1992, “A fisherman today that’s fishing… if he breaks even, he’s lucky. He’s doing it more because it’s tradition than he’s doing it to make money…. He’s doing it more because he’s done it all his life.”

Response from the fishing community was mixed, at first, according to Patricia Dunne, Program Coordinator. “Finding the fishermen is a difficult thing,” she says. Much of the difficulty was due to their reluctance to participate. Dunne attributes their reticence to the misconception that history doesn’t concern itself with the everyday lives of ordinary people. Oral history is, in fact, somewhat controversial in the historical field. Many historians believe it is not “rigorous” enough, says Dunne. She disagrees, contending that oral history is both valuable and important. “[The fishermen] don’t know how rich their knowledge is,” she says. Their perspective of the river is very intimate. Fishermen possess an understanding informed by years of strenuous labor and quiet contemplation. Of working with his fishing partner, Charles White, James Bleakley says: “We would discuss different areas of the river, different currents in the river, different temperatures at different times of year, and we would sit down and figure out when the fish were going to move and when they weren’t going to move, and we did very well by doing that.”

The Institute owes some debt of gratitude to Margaret Holloway who, while a graduate student at Columbia University, conducted over thirty interviews of commercial fishermen of the Hudson. These and other existing oral histories were used to jump start the search for commercial fishermen. In addition to advertising (you may have seen the photos of fishermen with the caption, “Do you know these people?” in this paper), they also procured a list of everyone holding a commercial fishing license in New York State and pared it down to those working the Hudson. Locating fishermen who’d long stopped fishing happened like a domino effect. “During an interview,” says Dunne, “a narrator would mention five guys he’d fished with and, of those, three would be unfamiliar to us.” The network grew as locations were put to unfamiliar names. The enthusiasm of the fishing community also grew as more of the fishermen became involved in the project.

Commercial Fisherman of the Hudson River Valley is realized as part of the River Culture initiative of the Beacon Institute. According to the 2005 pamphlet, the goal of River Culture (formerly called the Cultural History Program) is to “demonstrate[e] the vital connection between rivers, estuaries and human communities. It is envisioned as a major resource for researchers, students and all those seeking a deeper appreciation of how rivers shape – and are shaped by – each generation.” Director Dr. Roger Panetta is Professor of History at Fordham University as well as an experienced oral historian. Of the six initiatives set forth, River Culture is the one that comprises all non-science endeavors of The Institute. From its inception, spearheaded by Governor George Pataki, The Institute has sought to assert itself as an innovator in the field of rivers and estuaries research. The technology of Riverscope, a continuous real-time observation system launched on the Hudson in August, 2004, is expected to eventually be exported for use in other rivers and estuaries around the world. As a pioneering organization, The Institute emphasizes the importance of a multidisciplinary approach. Preserving the specific culture, art, and history of the river is as much a priority as monitoring the physical, biological, and chemical systems. River Culture’s objective is manifest in exhibits at The Institute’s gallery at 199 Main Street, and now in the commencement of a series of oral history projects.

Much of the leg work of the project is accomplished by local volunteers. They are trained by Dr. Panetta in the techniques and terminology of oral history. For example, interviewees are called narrators, and each narrator’s story is an oral history.  Interviewers are taught to subtly guide the narrator, asking questions sparingly so as to produce large portions of uninterrupted monologue. The volunteers work in pairs: one to handle equipment and one to focus on developing the narrator’s story. Thus far, community involvement has been outstanding, according to Dunne.  “We’re trying to keep up with the demand for work,” she remarks. Volunteers working on the commercial fishing project are composed of such diverse participants as retirees, recent graduates, and full-time moms. To date, they have increased the collection of oral histories by fifteen. Most volunteers are currently at work on the next phase of the process, transcribing the interviews. The Institute procured a space at Bull Dog Studios in which they plan to maintain a public archive. Recordings are saved for use in future exhibits both in the Main Street gallery and at The Institute’s new campus, currently under construction, at Dennings Point. Dunne hopes the volunteer base will continue to grow as The Institute prepares for its next oral history project, the first in a series entitled Major Environmental Initiatives; the power plant controversy is one topic being considered. Dr. Panetta’s next training session is scheduled for June 24, and work will commence at the end of this summer. A third project, scheduled for the spring of 2007, will treat the Hudson River Pilots, the navigators required to guide commercial vessels up the Hudson.  Other plans include traveling exhibitions, and a map of the Hudson labeled with the local names used by fishermen and river pilots.