The boats hit the Gulf of Mexico before dawn, engines rumbling out diesel smoke while dead-eyed gulls clear their throats and wait to feast on the fishermen’s leftovers.
When the sun rises off Galveston, Texas, “I think, for me, it’s like being reborn – daily rebirth,” says Buddy Guindon, a commercial fisherman who’s spent decades hauling red snapper, grouper and mackerel from the Gulf waters. “It’s like the adventure is about to begin again.”
Except when there are no fish.
Then, says charter boat captain Scott Hickman, “You would hate the sunrise, because you’re like, ‘This is going to suck.’”
It wasn’t long ago that America’s fisheries were in a state of collapse, with cratering fish stocks and impractical regulations that threatened a $180 billion dollar industry.
