I'm a writer/editor currently working at Houghton Mifflin in Boston. I'm also an amateur u/w shooter, hoping to combine some photos and fish illustrations with my freelance writing about marine subjects. I'm wondering if any of you have had success getting permission from fishermen to photograph their fishing operations or fixed gear (gillnets, longlines, traps). I know that fishermen are very wary of having cameras on the deck, especially when the gear is getting hauled. When I was a NMFS observer, some captains gave me a hard time for pulling out the disposable cameras that NMFS required us to use in certain situations, and I suspect that my own camera would've been tossed overboard if I'd ever taken it to sea. But I also know that some fishermen who don't have a lot of incidental takes (mammals, birds, turtles) and/or are eager to see their fishery given a fair shake in the media might be amenable to having some u/w photos taken of their "clean" gear coming to the transom or stern. And obviously a captain might be more agreeable if the story's likely publisher is going to be, say, National Fisherman or National Geographic rather than Greenpeace or PETA campaign materials.
Anyone had any luck with this, either by asking to ride along with a boat or finding some other way to approach fixed gear without getting shot? I'm talking commercial boats, not rec boats. We've all seen photos of turtles and birds hanging limply from longline gear, but there are so many other situations that occur when gear is soaking or being hauled back that would make for compelling images--and not necessarily for anti-fishing articles.
Pelagic sharks strafing a scalloper to gobble up the skates and other bycatch tossed over the rail...
A string of cod and haddock rising up to the transom of a small hook boat off Cape Cod...
A harpooned bluefin tuna...
A codend full of 5,000 dogfish getting dumped instead of hauled up...
That sort of thing.
Fishing also attracts a lot of action, meaning a ride-along with a commercial boat could result in a chance encounter with a great white (a lot cheaper than flying to South Africa or riding the boat to Guadalupe) or a pod of pilot whales feeding on small herring that's slipping through the mesh of a trawl net.
Anyhow, just wondering if any of you have figured out inroads to these often- off limits u/w subjects.
