Values: quick money.
The opportunistic fisher is a young man, between 25 and 30 years of age, with no background or roots in fishing. He is a local lad or moved into the area/community some time back (in the case of the latter he is rather itinerant with no strong ties anywhere in particular). He has general vocational experience in a variety of manual or physical jobs, but no formal education since leaving school. He has been scrambling for work of any sort and has no clear career path and was looking for easy-in alternatives.
He saw that many fishing vessels in the local port were struggling to find crew due to an ageing fisher population and many young people not wanting the irregular hours or being prepared to put up with the hard work and sea sickness on fishing vessels. But he doesn’t mind that too much, and while he had no background or knowledge of fishing, he thought it was something he could do, and he is desperate to earn some money to support himself however he can.
Having approached vessel owners for work, he is now employed on a short-term basis as crew onboard large and medium-sized trawlers targeting demersal species and shellfish. While he works predominantly on one vessel, he isn’t averse to working on other vessels when they are short of crew, or when his vessel isn’t going to sea. He has no knowledge or any real concern for the marine environment.
Onboard, he is a bit of a loner and doesn’t take much pride in his work. For him, it is just a way to earn some money, even though the salaries are not very high and dependent on the catch. He doesn’t have much interest in understanding fishing regulations and whether his vessel complies with them, nor in learning about the species he catches. He does not belong to any associations and does not feel sympathetic to their demands either because he does not hold any particular respect for ‘professional’ more experienced fishers. This reflects his lack of commitment to fishing as a line of work and profession, but he does it for now as it pays the bills.
This list of fishers’ profiles today is not exhaustive. It is meant to capture a broad range of characteristics in order to inform the next phases of the project. Possible profiles of future fishers will be published at the end of the study.