Jeff’s Blog

“LOCAL INTELLIGENCE – Articles of Association of the PORTUGUESE UNION FISHING COMPANY of La Playa, composed of twenty-six (26) fishermen, were filed with the San Diego County Clerk yesterday.”

(*Source: San Diego WEEKLY UNION newspaper – Thursday, January 13, 1898 – Pg. 8)

While the primary focus of this Timeline, Blog, and Notations are Portuguese-centric and mostly limited to the Portuguese-American community history in San Diego, California; it is nevertheless important to know we exist within a larger, more diverse community as well. The article below, from 1970, is included to add some perspective to that beautiful and diverse community and it’s influences over the previous 60 – 70 years or so. A “look back” from 1970. – ed.

“GOOD LIVING – POINT LOMA BLENDS HISTORY – Know Your Neighborhood, Where Cabrillo Landed – It was Saturday and the yellow wagon would be coming down Rosecrans any minute now, the horse kicking up little clouds of dust. Hardy’s Butcher Wagon was on its way. The 20^th-century was in its infancy and so was Point Loma – even though a Portuguese sailor named Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (aka. João Rodrigues Cabrilho – ed.) had stepped ashore there 366 years earlier.

It was 1908. A 19-year-old bride named Madaline Zeluff took a good, long look around this place called LA PLAYA, this place that was to be her home, and she burst into tears. ~ ‘I was out in the wilderness!’ she remembers. But Time, which Madaline Zeluff had thought would just stop here in Point Loma, passed very quickly. One day the butcher’s horse and wagon were gone, and Hardy’s had a Model T. And then, almost overnight, there were supermarkets on the Point.

HISTORICAL FIGURES LEAVE THE STAGE

Where did they go…, Madame Tingley and her Theosophists and their great glass-domed temples on the hill? For that matter, whatever happened to the Chinese fishermen whose junks used to dot the bay off Roseville? The hardy whalers? The hide houses down by Ballast Point? The Yankee trading ships? And where did they all come from, Point Loma – these sleek yachts with their billowing sails, these man-made pleasure islands, these glass houses standing high on stilts to get a better view? Where did they come from – the billboards, the blinking neon lights, the twirling chicken bucket, the giant donut?

Point Loma is a little like a little girl is born beautiful. Seeing herself, really… seeing herself in middle age can be a terrible jolt. ‘Visual chaos’ is how the group ‘Point Loma Village Beautiful’ describes what has happened to Point Loma’s commercial core. They let it happen while they looked the other way, but now this citizens’ group, six years old (1964 – ed.) and 400 in number, is determined to do something about it!

The ‘village’, as they define it, is Rosecrans Street from Lowell to Talbot Sts. As a starter, Point Loma Village Beautiful (aka. P.L.V.B.) raised $3,000 to purchase and plant 65 jacaranda trees to spruce up city sidewalks. Village Beautiful’s campaign of ‘friendly persuasion’ to encourage merchants to beautify the village has met with some success. A few shops have false fronts. A few signs are down. In 1959, concerned citizens were successful in putting through a HEIGHT ORDINANCE (30’ in residential areas, 60’ in commercial and R-4 areas) and is squelching a hotel owner’s proposal to erect a tower near the bay. Builders of Le Rondelet, the semi-circular apartment complex that sits on Anchorage Lane (where the old Star-Kist Cannery once was) just squeaked in under the line, at 59.5 feet.

Traffic is the Point’s other major headache. At peak hours, both Rosecrans and Catalina Blvd. (running along the crest of Pt. Loma – ed.) are clogged with cars. Peninsulans, Inc. (another citizens group reporting to the City Council) is trying to do something about it. ‘The basic problem,’ say Mrs. Helen Fane, President, ‘is that we’re a residential area and we’re also the throughway to the enormous and very important government installations at the end of the Point.’ ~ *Editorial Note: Now (2024), 54 years later, traffic and encroaching population density continue as ongoing problems.

COMMUNITY PLAN ENCOMPASSES TRAFFIC

A broad community plan, prepared by Peninsulans, Inc., is now being studied by the San Diego City Planning Department. One possibility would be to make One-Way Streets of the arteries paralleling Rosecrans? But the village, the traffic, the clutter – this is only one face of Point Loma. It is the people, the houses, the history, its geographical blessings, that make it what it is. And, all in all, it is delightful.

People don’t live IN Point Loma. They live ON it. They live there because of the ocean and bay, because of the view, because it is only a 10-minute drive to Civic Center. They indulge in a little friendly rivalry with La Jolla and like to talk about La Jolla’s fog, La Jolla’s high-rise, La Jolla’s snobbishness and, of late, La Jolla’s hippies (remember…, this article was written in 1970 – ed.).

Socially, Point Loma has not had a grande dame since the late Mrs. Henry B. Clark (aka. Ms. Lena Sefton Wakefield – ed.) was holding musicales in her stately home on Narragansett Ave. (now the H. Philip Anewalt residence). It was Mrs. Clark (& her mother Harriet) who founded the prestigious, annual Charity Ball (started in 1909, to support Children’s Health, and later to be known as the ‘Jewel Ball’, and which over a period of 100 years has come to include what is now; Rady Children’s Hospital – ed.). The family estate included the home next to hers, which belonged to her brother, the late banker Mr. Joseph Sefton. Today, it is the home of Dr. William Saccomand and family (it’s amenities include an elevator, but not central heat). The vast gardens have long since been subdivided.

No one, however, can dispute that Point Loma’s social credentials are impeccable. Among its residents are no less than *FIVE* former (cont. next page) ‘MR. SAN DIEGO’S’, specifically:

1. Mr. ROSCOE E. (aka. ‘Pappy’) HAZARD

2. Mr. ALLEN SUTHERLAND

3. Mr. ANDERSON BORTHWICK

4. Mr. MORLEY GOLDEN

5. Mr. MAJ. REUBEN FLEET

Mr. Fleet, now age 82 (he is called ‘the Major’), lives in an imposing pink villa on a Point Loma hill. He bought the house in 1936 from a German Count named Von Brulow. That was the year after Fleet moved his CONSOLIDATED AIRCRAFT (now the CONVAIR DIVISION of GENERAL DYNAMICS) here from Buffalo, New York. Fleet’s not inconsequential accomplishments include flying a biplane on the first airmail run ever – from New York to Philadelphia on May 15, 1918. Fleet, Hazard, Ruel Liggett; and Fleet’s son, David, in 1950 subdivided 160 acres of choice Point Loma land and called it FLEETRIDGE. Today it is a pleasant, moderately expensive to expensive, neighborhood of large, shingle-roofed, single story homes (as specified in the deed restrictions).

There is room for conjecture as to what is Point Loma and what isn’t. The Southern boundary is easy: it is Fort Rosecrans. On the North the generally accepted terminus is Nimitz Boulevard. North of that, you’re in Loma Portal. But, on the ocean side, the boundary is fuzzy. There are purists who contend that Point Loma stops at Catalina Boulevard and everything West is Ocean Beach. Still, there are some residents of Sunset Cliffs (right on the ocean), who say they live in Point Loma.

SHOWPLACE HOME

Sunset Cliffs’ showplace is the J. P. Mills house, at 1203 Sunset Cliffs Blvd. It was built in the 1920’s by Mills, the land developer who started Sunset Cliffs. Now the home of the C. Earle Shorts, it boasts seven hand-carved mantels, a gold leaf ceiling from China, six Italian-tiled baths, and a secret liquor room (a reminder of Prohibition [1920–1933 – ed.] days). Unfortunately, Mills lost everything in the 1929 Crash (of the Great Depression [1930-circa 1940] – ed.) and the home was sold for taxes.

Point Loma is people. People like Holt Bradford, who lives in a wooden house tucked away behind the trees up on Inez Lane. Bradford, and other residents of block-long Inez Lane, walk to the corner, to Albion Street, to pick up their mail and that suits them fine. ‘No one ever recognizes Inez Lane’ says Bradford, “except the tax man.“

Then there is Ms. Juanita Steiger, who lives in an old house on a wooded 14-acre plot at the top of Talbot Street that was once the Theosophical Society’s Tent Village. She came to the Point from Nebraska in 1922 and, with her mother, ran the Point Loma Dairy on the site. The barn, which was only torn down in 1968, was once the stables for Madame Tingley’s institute.

And then there is Mr. ANTHONY GOULART, a Portuguese, he has been on the Point for 44 years. He used to go to sea. but now Goulart runs the Point Loma Fix-It Shop on Upshur Street where he fixes everything from plumbing to earrings. Still, his real love is the sea. For his sailing friends, he makes wooden boat models with wood sails so thin you can see through them. Mr. Joseph Jessop’s ‘Catalina’ and Mr. E. G. Gould’s ‘Ballerina’ have been among his models.

DEDICATED HISTORIAN

There is also Mr. John Davidson, now age 93, who has lived in Roseville for over 50 years, having come to be near the Theosophical Society. He was the first Director of Serra Museum.

Mr. Zel Lockwood lives up in Fleetridge. He was the last of the independent greengrocers on the Point — the kind who carried out the groceries, even if there was only one sack. Zel, and Mr. George Leonard, (who had the old Point Loma Store), used to stock the yachts for long races.

There is R. D. Bert Israel, who was born in the old lighthouse at the top of Point Loma. His grandfather, Robert D., was the lighthouse keeper for 21 years. His grandmother used to pitch in as assistant keeper, doing her needlework by the window as she watched the light. Bert Israel left the Point when he was young, but came back to live in 1928. He had to have a boat. He still has one. That original lighthouse, completed in 1854, hasn’t been used as a lighthouse since 1891 because ships’ captains complained that fog often obscured its beam. Now there is a lighthouse down by the water’s edge. The old one today is a companion visitor attraction to Cabrillo National Monument nearby.

AWESOME VIEW

From the monument, there is an awesome view (150 miles, they say, on a clear day) Ballast Point, below, is where Cabrillo stepped ashore on September 23, 1542, claiming the land for the king of Spain. The high road to the tip of the Point leads through Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery, where row upon row of simple white crosses bear the names of those who have fought the nation’s wars from 1846 to Vietnam. The cemetery, established as a National Cemetery in 1934, covers 71 acres — and has run out of room. Fort Rosecrans, named for Civil War Gen. William S. Rosecrans, was set aside as an Army post in 1852, although the Army did not take possession until 1870. The Navy has been its landlord since 1959 and the old fort buildings down by the water are now part of the submarine base.

At Point Loma’s front door, on Harbor Drive, sits the Naval Training Center (now aka. Liberty Station – ed.). Up by the cemetery is the Navy Electronics Laboratory Center. On the low road at the tip is Ballast Point, home port for nuclear boats of Submarine Flotilla One. Also on Point Loma are the Naval Undersea Research & Development Center, a Coast Guard Rescue facility, and a Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel Facility.

Sailors of another kind — rag sailors — long have called Point Loma home. The 84-year-old San Diego Yacht Club has a handsome home at the foot of Talbot Street. Just down the waterway is Southwestern Yacht Club and, over on Shelter Island, Silvergate Yacht Club.

The first of Point Loma’s ‘‘Riviera” Villas is gone. It was the Will Angier house at 555 San Antonio St., now the site of Mrs. Marvin K. Brown’s home (i.e. on north side of Owen St. intersection – ed.). Built in 1914, it was said to be the first house in San Diego with central heat. The star pine on its lawn was long a landmark for sailors. Mrs. E. P. Moses (aka. Carrie Angier) of La Jolla was married in the house. Nearby, Angier’s son, Harold, built a pink waterfront villa that is now the home of attorney Ms.Marie Herney.

You don’t have to be a real oldtimer to remember the fish cannery (mostly referred to as the “High Seas” Cannery, although she had varied names and owners over nearly 35 years of operation – ed.) — the whistle, the smell of the fish, the women in their white uniforms. Or to remember when the Street Car used to go down Rosecrans St. to the fort.

You have to go back a bit further to remember when Roseville was a real town. It was Mr. LOUIS ROSE, an enterprising businessman, who tried to get things going there in 1871 through the San Diego Mutual Land Association, which offered 300 Roseville and La Playa lots ~free~ to anyone who would improve them. He even built a hotel at Roseville, but it didn’t go and it became a laundry.

PLENTY OF FISH

The Chinese came to the Point to fish in the 1860’s. Ah, what fishing — clams, abalone, crayfish were just the bait. The catch included redfish, whitefish, mackerel and rock cod, most of it sun-dried and shipped to San Francisco.

The PORTUGUESE came from the Azores Islands in the 1880’s. They were whalers and whaling was good off the Point (today whale-watching is a favorite wintertime attraction). The Portuguese stayed and became fishermen and built San Diego’s great tuna fleet. Today’s families — families like the Monise’s, Silveira’s, Cabral’s — are descendants. Mr. M. O. (aka. Manuel Oliveira – ed.) MEDINA came in 1912. Often called the “father” of San Diego’s tuna industry, he was the first to build the big clippers. Medina and his wife, Isabel, live in a handsome home on a Point Loma hill. She was ISABEL SOARES when she came here with her family from the Azores in 1904. Here, in the old St. Agnes Church in Roseville, she and Medina were married in 1918. She remembers, as a young girl, dancing at the Chamaritas, the Portuguese dances held in the Portuguese community’s first meeting hall in LA PLAYA (It is a residence today). She remembers her Royal Procession on foot from La Playa to Roseville the year she was named Queen of the Festa do Espirito Santo, the Portuguese religious celebration held seven weeks after Easter (aka. Pentecost Sunday – ed.). Today the Portuguese Hall is at the foot of Addison Street (now Avenida do Portugal – ed.). Next to it is the tiny white frame Chapel (aka. Império Capela – ed.), both built in 1922, which is decorated each year for the fiesta (aka. Festa – ed.). Here the fiesta procession starts and ends.

STRONG TIES

The Portuguese have strong ties to the Point – “My roots are buried very deep here,” says Mrs. Medina. “I hope to die here.”

Just about everyone knows that there once was a coal mine on Point Loma, a shaft sunk by the Mormon Battalion volunteers in 1855 and soon abandoned when the coal proved to be of poor quality. Fewer know of the great steel plant that was to have been built on Point Loma.

It was in 1889 that an Englishman named Dr. Charles Eames arrived to announce that be was on commission from a Pittsburgh steel magnate to find a site for a West Coast plant. That site, said Eames, would be Point Loma. There was only one problem: the ore would have to be brought all the way from Baja, Mexico. Unfortunately, before things really got started, the Pittsburgh magnate died and soon members of the Board descended on Point Loma, and closed the plant. Poorly located, they concluded. All that remains today of the folly is a street named Bessemer Street (named after Englishman Henry Bessemer, whose 1856 patent of his steel-making process revolutionized the industry – ed.).

Then, of course, there was Madame Katherine Tingley and her World Center of Theosophy, a Valhalla of Moorish-Egyptian buildings where California Western University is today. Gone is this lotus land, where young and old, rich and poor, came to study such as ‘The Lost Mysteries of Antiquity.’ Madame Tingley died in 1929 and Theosophy, after 32 years on Point Loma, moved to Covina, CA.

Point Loma has many fascinating houses with fascinating histories. At 3725 Pio Pico is a small green frame house built in 1919 by Mr. Frederick Elliott and his son, Benjamin. The elder Elliott, an Irishman, came as a Theosophist in 1906 and he designed and built their famous Greek Theater. His granddaughter, Mrs. Leslie Mayo, lives in this house, where she was born. It’s the one with the green mailbox at the curb that says “Alice’s Restaurant.” At 3636 DuPont St. is the Mr. Frank Perkins’ home. It is hexagonal. It was built by the Theosophists in 1901 on another site. Mrs. Perkins (nee Virginia Robinson) was born just around the corner. Her father, Alfred Robinson, started the Rosecroft Begonia Gardens in 1900. And at the corner of Owen & San Elijo Sts. in La Playa is a beautiful white house with green shutters, at the crest of a large sloping lawn (there’s an Easter egg roll there every year). It belongs to Dr. & Mrs. Roy Ledford. It was built in the mid-1920’s by the Treadwells, who came from New Castle, Pennsylvania. They had two daughters, one named Louise, who later became Mrs. Spencer Tracy. Dr. and Mrs. Homer Peabody’s house at Rosecrans & Bessemer Sts. was built in 1898 by famed Drs. Fred & Charlotte Baker, who came to the Point in the early 1890’s. Dr. Fred was an eye-ear-nose-and-throat man and his wife, a general practitioner (and their varied contributions to what would become San Diego have been enormous – ed.).

HOME MOVED

Mrs. John Zeluff’s two-story gray frame house at 462 Rosecrans St. once sat on the hill in what is now the Trepte Tract. It was built, probably in the 1870’s, by a family named Fairchild and moved to its present site in 1915 because George W. Marston had bought the property and wanted the house removed. The lacy side porches had to be taken off to accommodate the new 50’lot and the 8’ cupola was removed to accommodate the neighbors to the rear. Madeline Zeluff is 81 now. The Point Loma she knew as a bride was quite another Point Loma. She remembers the dance pavilion on the pier where San Diego Yacht Club now is. ‘They had dances on Saturday night. The young ladies and their chaperones came over from San Diego on the boat ‘Fortuna’. The ‘Point Loma’ went up to Fort Rosecrans to get the soldier boys and bring them down.’ It was at the pavilion that she met a handsome soldier named JOHN ZELUFF.

This, then, is Point Loma. Has it really been only 428 years since Cabrillo stepped ashore?”

(*Source: San Diego UNION newspaper – Monday, February 9, 1970 – Pgs. B1 & B4)

OVERVIEW

Fishing has long been known as one of the world’s most dangerous professions, but a new study by the FISH Safety Foundation, commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts (~), suggests that the problem far exceeds previous estimates. According to this research, more than 100,000 fishing-related deaths occur each year – three to four times previous estimates.1 Serious injuries and abuses, including child labor and decompression sickness — for example, from workers being forced to make repeated deep dives to harvest lobster — are also well-documented across the sector.
Further, while fishing can be inherently risky, the study draws attention to the harsh reality that many of these deaths were, and are, avoidable. Incredibly, few were even officially recorded. Insufficient and unenforced safety regulations are a key challenge, but the study also points to a convergence of other major factors that leads individuals to risk their lives and die on the water. These factors include scarcity of fish due to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, overfishing, and climate change, and, for many fishers, the added desperation caused by poverty and food insecurity challenges driving them into IUU fishing practices. The study shows that these deaths and injuries disproportionately victimize impoverished people, including children, in low-income countries, which is a major reason they are so seldom noted.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), more than 3 billion people rely on fish and other marine species as a significant source of protein, and experts expect that number to increase.2 As the demand for seafood increases worldwide, fishing could grow ever more dangerous — unless the international community demands and ensures safer practices and accountability among fisheries managers.

QUANTIFYING DEATHS IN AN OPAQUE INDUSTRY

No government or organization has collected accurate numbers on how many fishers die on the job, though some have tried. In 1999, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that as many as 24,000 fishers, including individuals in fishing-related professions such as fish farming, perish each year.3 In 2019, the FAO released its own estimate of 32,000 per year, based on increased fisher numbers and the earlier ILO estimate.
Unfortunately, both the ILO and FAO figures likely underestimate fisher fatalities, according to this new research. Decision-makers, at all levels, have failed to count deaths or to design policies that address the root causes of these deaths and injuries.
There are many barriers to calculating fisher deaths, including lack of data collection and sharing among governments, inconsistencies in reporting, and limited or nonexistent data on deaths within subsistence and IUU fishing activities. Further, many governments have insufficient human and financial resources to collate that data.
To help overcome these challenges, the FISH Safety Foundation cross-referenced official data — as the ILO and FAO had done — and went further by analyzing news, investigative articles, and social media about fishing safety and reviewing responses to information requests from government officials. This approach yielded the most complete picture to date of the number of fishers—and fisher fatalities—worldwide, and showed that the number killed on the job each year is likely much higher than previously estimated. These detailed analyses also allowed for new insight into important trends regarding the nature and location of these deaths and injuries, and their key causes, which can better inform a suite of global solutions.

POOR FISHERIES OVERSIGHT AND MANAGEMENT A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO DEATHS

The FAO reports that a third of all fish stocks are overfished and that another nearly 60% cannot sustain any increases in fishing.4 Stocks can become depleted due to insufficient management measures or lack of enforcement of these rules.
Further, a decline in fish due to poor management or climate change can prompt formerly independent fishers to turn to work on illegal boats where the operators — in some cases, also due to economic losses from the depleted fisheries — engage in dangerous behavior, such as fishing without safety equipment or radio communications devices or limits on how many hours someone can work without sleep. Or it can force poorly equipped boats farther out to sea for longer periods. Increased IUU fishing can lead to catch exceeding science-based catch limits, which can then result in further depletion of the stock.
In its study, the FISH Safety Foundation identified three categories of IUU fishing that can contribute to fisher deaths, and can be interrelated:

(1.) Organized industrial IUU fishing: This is typically undertaken by distant water fleets using larger vessels seeking to exploit highly profitable catch, such as tunas or sharks. Although various U.N. organizations and other maritime and fishery oversight bodies have rules that govern vessel safety in international waters, organized illegal operators disregard these measures, fishing in marginal conditions and putting crews at risk.

(2.) Organized small-scale IUU fishing: Organized fisheries crime also occurs in small-scale and artisanal fisheries. In these cases, fishers often operate within larger networks of illegal traders, some with organized crime or piracy groups, or people knowingly transshipping catch from illegally operating industrial vessels, or using bribery and other forms of corruption to siphon revenue from officials.

(3.) IUU fishing by “necessity“: This category is one of the largest contributors to fisher mortality. In small-scale fisheries, millions of people rely on catch for food and livelihoods. And in all regions of the world, from southeast Asia to inland Africa, individuals engage in IUU fishing because they have no alternatives. Poverty, the need for nutrition, climate change, geopolitical conflicts, and overfishing are the leading causes of these activities. ~ All these factors, in turn, increase human mortality rates, particularly for vulnerable people and communities. The overfishing-lUU-fisher mortality cycle will continue until international and national authorities address IUU fishing at each level and set catch limits that prevent overfishing.

Because the drivers for each type of IUU are different, each requires its own solution. For example, addressing the factors driving artisanal IUU fishing will require a different approach than large-scale illegal fishing. For the former, governments and other fishery management bodies would need to develop equitable solutions, including localized financial support and capacity building — for governments and artisanal fishers. Industrial IUU fishing, on the other hand, calls for more aggressive, large-scale solutions such as regional or global policy and enforcement efforts.

FISHERS FACE DEADLY RISKS AROUND THE GLOBE

Below are just a few of the many case studies highlighted by the FISH Safety Foundation in its report. Each case provides a unique lens into the dangerous conditions facing fishers today, including the prominent role of poor government oversight, IUU fishing, overfishing, and climate change in exacerbating these outcomes.

AFRICAN COUNTRIES FACE COSTLY I.U.U. AND OVERFISHING

The 22 member States of the Ministerial Conference on Fisheries Cooperation Among *African* States Bordering the Atlantic Ocean have a yearly fatality rate of about 1,000 per 100,000 fishers — over X12 times the rate the FAO used for its most recent global estimate of fisher deaths. The region is a hotbed of IUU fishing, carried out by both distant-water and local fleets. The European Union IUU Fishing Coalition estimates that illegal fishing accounts for (U.S.) $2.3 BILLION worth of fish in the waters of the six countries of West Africa alone and has adversely impacted more than 300,000 jobs in the industry.5
Contributing to the region’s high fisher mortality rate are deaths within the sizable artisanal fleet, where boats have limited safety, navigation, and communications equipment and are also — although mainly unintentionally — run over by industrial vessels fishing relatively close to shore.6 Additional contributing factors to fisher deaths in this region are overfishing and climate change, which both affect fish abundance in local waters and increase time at sea and at risk for fishers. In the Indian Ocean off Madagascar, illegal fishing may make up as much as HALF of that country’s total catch due to IUU activity by both the artisanal and industrial sectors. Only *1 in 5* artisanal fishing canoes are even registered with government authorities, leading to vast amounts of unreported activities in this fleet.7

At the same time, the Madagascar government has allowed 28 large-scale industrial Chinese vessels to access local waters and fish without a formal license by allowing them to fish under the Malagasy flag – and thus skirt obligations normally expected of foreign-flagged vessels – for an annual fee.8 This concomitant (i.e. a related feature or circumstance – ed.) overfishing has caused a decline in populations of local octopus, tuna, and roughy that has negatively affected the vulnerable coastal communities. Local fishers have lost revenue due to the drop in accessible catch, and have been forced to go farther out to sea, significantly increasing their safety risk and leading to higher levels of mortality.

IN THE BAY OF BENGAL, POOR WORKING CONDITIONS & CLIMATE CHANGE DRIVE FATALITIES

The FISH Safety researchers estimated that there are more than 20,000,000 fishers working throughout Sri Lanka, India, and Bangladesh; but acknowledged that the number is likely an underestimate. In Myanmar, fishers on RAFTS – bamboo platforms of about 100 square feet each – land catch that accounts for as much as 80% of the country’s fish paste and dried prawn.9 Thousands of individuals are recruited annually to work on these rafts. Because wages are paid “upfront” via brokers, many fishers facing poverty or drug addiction are persuaded to sign contracts and set sail on poorly run rafts for up to 8 months at a time. The brokers often steal fishers’ wages as well, essentially enslaving them for months.10

Working conditions on these rafts can be dire. Many fishers become malnourished due to lack of fresh food and water, and there is little to no access to medical care. Fishers and observers also say violence and torture in this sector are common. For Myanmar, the FISH Safety Foundation combined recorded fatalities with the number of individuals reported “lost at sea” and hospital and police records to estimate that fisher death rates may actually be as high as 690 per 100,000 per year.

UNSAFE WORKING CONDITIONS & VIOLENCE PLAGUE INLAND FISHERIES – *Editorial Note: The fisher mortality rate is also high on seven major *LAKES* in Africa (but for “space contraints” and the fact that I am examining only OCEAN fishing facts, I have omitted a transcription here. However, I still suggest reading this in the full text, of which a link to the entire brief is provided at the end of this transcription). *FYI, please know the statistics for inland fisheries deaths are *especially* high and horrifying, resulting in extensive child-labor abuses; & with an estimated *AWFUL* fatality rate of 1,800 per 100,000 annually.

PACIFIC ISLANDS RECORDING CRITERIA & VAST WATERS MAKE FATALITIES DIFFICULT TO TRACK

Fish are vital to Pacific Islanders, making up about 50% to 90% of the protein in the diets of rural residents.12 But collecting data on fishing in the region is difficult, and many countries record only the number of fishers involved in tuna fleets. Underreporting is also a challenge. For example, some regional regulations make it hard to quantify accurate numbers because the length of time it takes to register someone “lost at sea” to “deceased” can take years in some countries. This leaves them out of mortality statistics, and stalls potential efforts to quantify loss and better regulate fisheries.
The Pacific Islands also have some of the largest exclusive economic zones in the world, which, along with limited resources for policing, make these areas highly vulnerable to IUU activities. According to “The Scale of Illicit Trade in Pacific Ocean Marine Resources,” a report by the World Resources Institute, an estimated 24% of Pacific marine catch, which includes fishing from Southeast Asian and Pacific Island fleets, is underreported each year — with half of that underreported catch reaching international markets. In recent years, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, and Fiji have all had crews killed, arrested, or reported missing over illegal activities, such as poaching or encroachment on another country’s territorial waters.13 As these vessels go farther afield, the nature of their activity means that associated deaths are often unreported or unattributed. There are many other areas of the globe where, likewise, border disputes and unilateral action by other vessels or authorities result in unrecorded deaths at sea.

WEAK OVERSIGHT AND POVERTY DRIVING FATALITIES IN CENTRAL AMERICA

In Central America, lobster fishing is a big business. It dominates the fishing industry in Honduras, which exports more than 1.3 million metric tons of lobster to the United States each year. Honduras is also one of the poorest countries in Latin America, with more than 60% of the population living in poverty. Given the importance of lobster to the economy, and the poverty of many workers and families, fishers are vulnerable to exploitation.
Although lobster fishing — which is done either with traps or by hand by divers — is regulated, fishers often ignore these rules. This laxity particularly affects divers. The Honduran government limits divers to no more than two dives per day that go deeper than 60 feet, but the World Wildlife Fund has observed divers performing up to 13 each day either because there aren’t enough fish or prices are too low. These divers are at increasing and deadly risk for decompression sickness because of inadequate availability of health care. Yet divers continue because diving is one of the only ways for them to earn money. Consequently, Honduran lobster divers face an extremely high mortality rate — between 400 and 900 (call it 650?! – ed.) deaths per 100,000 fishers — largely because of the lack of oversight and enforcement of the rules by the authorities.

FISHING IS SAFER IN EUROPE, BUT SIGNIFICANT RISKS REMAIN

Compared with lower-income nations, higher-income countries have lower mortality rates among their fishing communities due to stricter safety measures, better — and better-enforced — management regulations, and lower poverty rates. But that doesn’t mean all fishers in those higher-income places aren’t at risk. For example, while research indicated an average mortality rate of 85 per 100,000 fishers for the EU fleet, the rate for fishers on vessels less than 15 meters long was 124 per 100,000 (a nearly 46% increase – ed.). In addition, exploitation of foreign workers is a prominent problem in European fishing sectors, where fishers — especially migrant workers — may be paid below the legal minimum and work in abusive conditions.

SOLUTIONS FOR A SAFER FISHING SECTOR

The FISH Safety Foundation study provides evidence of fishing-related deaths on a much larger scale than previously thought, and across diverse geographies, from marine to freshwater, and from the high seas to territorial waters.
Lack of data collection means mortality numbers are uncertain. What is certain, however, is that governments and other oversight entities need to act urgently across many fronts. Although it will take time to design systems and solutions to adequately address this crisis, here are some steps that authorities can take now.

A CLARION CALL FOR URGENT NATIONAL LEVEL INTERVENTIONS

Most urgently, there are clear opportunities in the short term for fishers’ groups, advocates, and others already on the ground to engage national and local governments to reduce injuries and deaths. The information provided in their report can help to inform whether this engagement should be accomplished by implementing fisher safety measures directly or by addressing some of the key drivers of reduced safety, such as IUU by “necessity“. National and local governments may need financial support and capacity building to collectively address some of the most egregious causes of mortality and injury in the artisanal fleets and fisheries.
A requirement that governments collect and share data on mortality would also be an important part of the solution. Simply by starting to count these deaths, countries will take stock of the extent of their fishing safety issues, which should help motivate them to prevent the unnecessary deaths of their citizens, mandating adequate food and accommodation, occupational safety and health protection, and medical care for workers on all commercial fishing vessels. Greater adoption and stronger implementation of this treaty would help set better safety and oversight standards for fishers around the world and encourage better information sharing among States.
Once a State adopts either of these treaties, all vessels using that State’s ports and waters are required to meet its provisions. The United Nations, International Maritime Organization (IMO), FAO, ILO, regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), and regional cooperative bodies must also work to ensure that their member States are following reporting and safety rules. In rare cases in which a country might lack the resources to fully comply, it must be able to explain its situation and request help.
To reduce the contribution of overfishing and IUU fishing within international fisheries to fisher deaths, Pew continues to call on RFMOs to improve governance over these fisheries. This call includes better tracking and monitoring of fishers, vessels, and fishing activities; establishing more effective systems to deliver compliance with existing fishing regulations and rules; and adopting precautionary harvest strategies that end overfishing and maintain stocks at population levels that support healthy marine ecosystems and coastal communities.
Governments should also look to close gaps for IUU fishing and improve existing regulatory frameworks. For example, the Port State Measures Agreement, which entered into force in 2016, is an important treaty for oversight of vessels internationally. It requires vessels to report — before entering port to offload their catch — where and when the fish were caught. This treaty increases information exchange among port and flag States and encourages governments — through their port officials — to improve their assessments of which vessels might be involved in IUU, which in turn helps States better target inspections of vessels on arrival. The treaty also calls for States to share the results of those inspections with each

IMPORTANT ROLE FOR INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES MANAGERS

Although deaths within internationally managed fisheries, such as those targeting TUNA, are a (relatively – ed.) small percentage of the deaths identified in the report, the responsible management bodies and their member States should show leadership and demonstrate that they are treating this issue seriously. Individual States should focus on ratification, adoption, and enforcement of existing international agreements and safety policies as a simple but critical step. That action would help avoid preventable deaths and serious injuries among commercial fishers and would help improve the data that will inform future policies. Further, regional fishery management bodies can set the tone for their member governments on how to address key drivers of fisher mortality domestically.
The 2012 CAPE TOWN AGREEMENT, adopted by the International Maritime Organization, outlines design, construction, equipment, and safety standards for fishing vessels at least 24 meters long.14 Urgent ratification of the agreement would help show the international community’s concern for fisher safety. Many developed States already have stronger requirements in place for their own vessels, but some other countries do not. By ratifying the agreement immediately and encouraging others to do so, States that are already leading on fisher safety could inspire others to follow suit. Once implemented, the Cape Town Agreement will improve transparency and vessel identification and tracking, and provide concrete mechanisms to assess and record vessel safety and crew welfare for larger-scale operations.
Additionally, the 2007 ILO Work in Fishing Convention C188 – which is “in force“, but in fewer than 20 countries — sets the requirements for onboard living conditions, including by mandating adequate food and accommodation, occupational safety and health protection, and medical care for workers on all commercial fishing vessels. Greater adoption and stronger implementation of this treaty would help set better safety and oversight standards for fishers around the world and encourage better information sharing among States.
Once a State adopts either of these treaties, all vessels using that State’s ports and waters are required to meet its provisions. The United Nations, International Maritime Organization (IMO), FAO, ILO, regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), and regional cooperative bodies must also work to ensure that their member States are following reporting and safety rules. In rare cases in which a country might lack the resources to fully comply, it must be able to explain its situation and request help.
To reduce the contribution of overfishing and IUU fishing within international fisheries to fisher deaths, Pew continues to call on RFMOs to improve governance over these fisheries. This call includes better tracking and monitoring of fishers, vessels, and fishing activities; establishing more effective systems to deliver compliance with existing fishing regulations and rules; and adopting precautionary harvest strategies that end overfishing and maintain stocks at population levels that support healthy marine ecosystems and coastal communities.
Governments should also look to close gaps for IUU fishing and improve existing regulatory frameworks. For example, the PORT STATE MEASURES AGREEMENT, which entered into “force” in 2016, is an important treaty for oversight of vessels internationally. It requires vessels to report — before entering port to offload their catch — where and when the fish were caught. This treaty increases information exchange among port and flag States and encourages governments — through their port officials — to improve their assessments of which vessels might be involved in IUU, which in turn helps States better target inspections of vessels on arrival. The treaty also calls for States to share the results of those inspections with each other.

IMPROVED DATE NEEDED TO INFORM FUTURE POLICIES

To improve accountability of their fishing fleets, the FISH Safety Foundation and Pew recommend that governments and RFMOs should urgently work to improve their records and reporting of fisher deaths and injuries. More than 100,000 people are dying each year, and they are not counted in many parts of the world.
In particular, the FAO, IMO, and ILO have a role in protecting the sector’s workforce. This oversight includes finally ensuring transparent reporting and information sharing on fisher deaths and injuries, and establishing an accessible and universal repository for fisher safety data, that all countries can contribute to equally. This effort would provide critical data necessary for governments to better target their policies and practices to protect people and communities.

*Editorial Note: The “ENDNOTES” Section for this Brief are both extensive and harrowing, and I must seriously encourage any truly interested parties to “drill down” on these topics and study them diligently. For links, photos, and charts not already included here, please see link below.

https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2022/12/fisher-mortality-brief-v3.pdf

(~) “The PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS is an independent nonprofit organization that was founded in 1948. It is the sole beneficiary of 7 individual charitable funds established between 1948 and 1979 by the children of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. The organization uses data to address the challenges of a changing world by conducting research, informing and engaging citizens, and advocating for effective policies and practices. The Pew Charitable Trusts are known for their nonpartisan, evidence-based, and innovative approach to achieving long-term impact. The organization’s work encompasses a wide range of areas, including public policy, civic life, education, job creation, and opportunity. It has a history of supporting initiatives such as cancer research, the Red Cross, historically black colleges, and universities, and federal policy programs. The organization’s mission is to provide trustworthy information to ground public discourse and advance solutions, and it is committed to operating with humility, inclusion, and integrity.”

“TUNA IMPORT CURBS URGED BY FISHERMEN – San Diego’s tuna industry is being caught in a squeeze… between low-cost fish from South America and Japan on the one^: hand and by high costs of domestic production on the other. ~ Boat owners, who have millions of-dollars invested in the industry, predict that the tuna business will be killed here if the squeeze doesn’t stop. ~ They see little hope of reducing their own costs of production, which are allied to the high American standards of living. ~ The only alternative, they claim, is to reduce foreign imports. So far, these imports have been increasing steadily without restriction from quotas or tariffs.

IMPORTS SCORE RECORD

San Diego fishermen were worried last year when foreign imports of frozen tuna into California ports alone hit a new high of 82,500,000 pounds (equivalent to 41,250 tons – ed.). ~ With frozen tuna imports to San Diego and San Pedro totaling more than 38,000,000 pounds for the first four months of 1955, the San Diego fleet predicts disaster for the industry unless the government takes immediate action to slap quotas on imports.

REMAIN IN PORTS

Since last fall, San Diego tunaboats have been forced to remain in port for a month or two at a time with fish on board. ~ About 70 clippers now are in port with tuna in their holds. Some boats have been waiting 50 days to unload. ~ Operators claim they have to make three trips to make a profit; two trips just to pay expenses.

BOAT SITS AT DOCK

‘I have a $300,000 boat (equivalent to $3,368,721 today – ed.) sitting at the dock,’ says ED SOARES VARLEY of 448 Rosecrans St., owner-skipper of the clipper ‘SUN VICTORIA’. ‘Expenses go on every day. We’ve got a full load of fish aboard. We sit here while the canneries buy tuna from Japan and South America.’ ~ Tuna imports into the United States from South America and Japan show a 63% increase for the first three months of 1955 over the same period for 1954, according to Mr. Harold Cary, Manager of the AMERICAN TUNABOAT ASSOCIATION (A.T.A.) here. ‘What are we going to do?’, he asks? ‘Throw the San Diego tuna industry down the drain? Let’s face it. Japan can produce fish a lot cheaper than we can. Their fleet is growing while ours is dwindling away.’

CALLS FOR CONFERENCE

Cary called today for an immediate Japanese-American Tuna Conference to set a reasonable quota on imports. He regards Japan as San Diego’s major competitor. ~ The industry feels that the Japanese should have 30% of the American market. This, roughly, was the total of Japanese imports of frozen tuna last year. South American imports last year ran about one–third of Japanese shipments. ~ Capt. JOE S. ROGERS, of 416 Rosecrans St., a pioneer of the San Diego tuna industry and managing owner of two clippers, puts it this way: ‘The Japanese have to live, too. We don’t want to freeze them out of the market. We wants them to have a fair share. Capt. JOHN CARDOSA, of 3145 Carleton St., part owner of the clippers ‘NOTRE DAME’ and ‘CRUSADER’, says; ‘We’ve got to keep the boats sailing to keep this industry alive. How can any business keep going when it can’t produce. That’s what’s happening to us. Too many Japanese imports…, our boats can’t produce.’ ~ Capt. DAN CURRIER of 4383 Coronado Ave., skipper of the clipper ‘CHARLENE’, says his boat has been tied up since before Easter. ‘Some people think this business is all profit,’ he says. ‘My boat costs me $16,000 a year for insurance alone. Our expenses were $43,000 last trip. Most of it was spent in San Diego for fuel, groceries, and shipyard repairs.’ ~ Capt FRANK MEDINA, owner of the ‘BERNADETTE’, says his clipper has been in port for six weeks now with fish on board. ~ On the last trip, the only one so far in 1955, the boat grossed $92,000, he says. Expenses ran $22,000, including $3,600 for a license to fish in Ecuadoran waters. The boat pays $2,500 City Tax. ~ Capt. JOE MADRUGA says his big clipper ‘PARAMOUNT’ has been waiting 67 days to unload. ‘Maybe we’ll unload in three more weeks,’ he says. ‘Why should the canners take our fish? They buy it cheaper from Japan.’ ~ Mr. FRANK PEARY, managing owner of two boats, says if Japanese imports continue to increase “there won’t be any San Diego tuna fleet three years from now.’ ~ ‘A 30% quota is the answer,” says Capt. CLARENCE GONZALES of the clipper ‘VICTORIA’. ‘If we don’t get action soon, there will be more boats leaving San Diego to fish out of PUERTO RICO and PERU.”

(*Source: San Diego EVENING TRIBUNE – Thursday, May 26, 1955 – Pg. 16)

*Never mind the onset of the Great Depression…, Is this a *SCAM*?!? As it turns out; *NO*! (ed.)

AD – “YOU SHOULD SHARE in the HUGE PROFITS of the TUNA INDUSTRY – Practically every day, San Diego newspapers report huge catches of TUNA, the ‘Chicken of the Sea’, and the payment of prices as high as $300 per ton (equivalent to $5,412 today – ed.) at the canneries. And $7,500,000 (equivalent to $135,297,486 today – ed.) was the value of the pack last year. Still, the public demand grows for this delicacy. New boats, owned privately or by closed corporations, are launched weekly, yet seldom do you hear of the INVESTING PUBLIC being allowed to participate in these enterprises. But now a local group of tuna fishermen have designed one of the largest of the new ultra-modern long-distance cruisers. They have subscribed their own money. A small amount of ADDITIONAL CAPITAL is necessary. YOU CAN PARTICIPATE!!! The time is limited – the keel will soon be laid. Your money will be deposited with the Corporation’s in an escrow bank account arrangement. Investigate this opportunity today. The right is reserved by the Corporation to reject or allot all subscriptions.
~~~~~~~ LESS THAN $30,000 NECESSARY! (equivalent to $541,190 today – ed.) ~~~~~~~

~ Mail Today ~

Please Send NAME: _______________________________________________________________

Me More Data ADDRESS: ____________________________________________________________

GALAPAGOS FISHING & TRANSPORT CO., Ltd.
820 Bank of Italy Bldg.

Tel. Franklin 5639 San Diego, Calif.

(*Source: San Diego UNION & Daily Bee newspaper – June 14 & 15, 1930 – Pg. 14 of Financial Section)

~~~~ AND T-H-E-N! ~~~~

Via published announcement on January 17, 1931 promising delivery late July ’31…

“TO BUILD CLIPPER FOR S. D. COMPANY – Ordered built for the GALAPAGOS FISHING & TRANSPORT CO. of this city, the tuna clipper ‘SANTA MARGARITA’ is to be constructed this winter and spring by the AL LARSON BOATBUILDING COMPANY of Terminal Island. The clipper, 105′ in length and of the raised-deck type, is to be ready for service about July 31st, reports here state. With a beam of 25′ and a depth of 11.5′, the ‘Santa Margarita’ is to be powered by a 275-h.p. Atlas-Imperial Diesel. The vessel’s fuel tank will be in the stern.”

(*Source: San Diego EVENING TRIBUNE newspaper – Saturday, January 17, 1931 – Pg. 12)

*Editorial Note 1: You could perhaps say the new “Santa Margarita” had a *Rough Childhood*?! – This vessel made her ‘maiden voyage‘ in August of 1931 under PA Capt. FRANK MACHADO, then eventually under PA Captains JOHN G. CARDOZA and MANUEL COELHO (who withdrew by 1957), and later; JOHN E. LEANDERS. Even later, her name was changed to the ‘ST. MARIE’. One of her ‘novel features’ at her launching was her ‘big 22″ spotlight‘, with a special amber lens (said to be highly effective in fog). – She would go on to have some ‘highly controversial/NEWSworthy happenings’ aboard in the next year, including a collision and an alleged rare ‘mutiny‘. To Wit…

SAN PEDRO, Sept. 9th, 1931 – (A.P.) – Capt. FRANK MACHADO‘s crack new bait boat, the ‘SANTA MARGARIDA‘, leaking badly from a stove-in starboard quarter, returned from her first voyage with 150 tons of tuna, a story of collision at sea on a clear, calm day; and a threatened damage action against the ice-boat ‘ST. VERONICA’ on the lips of her owner. ~ But for the alert action of Manuel Gonzales, navigator of the ‘Santa Margarita’, Machado said, his ship would have been severed squarely amidships by the ‘St. Veronica’ last week off the Uncle Sam banks. ~ Machado related that his craft lay motionless in a great school of tuna with crew and fishermen busily engaged in heaving a good catch over the side when…, the ‘St. Veronica’ bore down on him and the nearby purse seiner ‘Flamingo’. ~ The possibility of a collision never entered his mind, Machado said, until with a warning shout Gonzales started his engines and the nose of the ‘St. Veronica’, cruising at *full speed*, loomed dead amidships! ~ Her propellers churning frantically against a hard-over helm, the ‘Santa Margarita’s’ stern swung around sufficiently to take only a glacing blow on the quarter, but one that resulted in estimated damages of at least $5,000 (equivalent to $98,902 today – ed.). ~ At the last moment, Machado said, the ‘St. Veronica’ reversed her motors and tried to avoid the crash. He charged, furthermore, that the ‘St. Versonica’ failed to STOP and continued on its way *without* making ANY effort to ascertain the extent of damages or to render aid and assistance.”

(*Source: San Diego UNION & Daily Bee – Thursday, September 10, 1931 – Pg. 16)

~~~~ AND T-H-E-N! ~~~~

“MUTINY ON TUNA SHIP; ONE MAN IN IRONS, SAYS RADIO MESSAGE – One man aboard the San Diego tuna clipper ‘SANTA MARGARITA’ is in irons and two others are refusing to obey orders, according to an Associated Press dispatch reported San Francisco quoting a radio message from the clipper to the U. S. Coast Guard. The clipper, according to officials of the AMERICAN TUNABOAT ASSOCIATION (A.T.A.), is believed to be in the vicinity of Magdalena Bay, 500 miles south of here. ~ In his message to the Coast Guard, the Master of the ‘Santa Margarita’, Capt. FRANK MACHADO, reported that he did not want to proceed with the three men aboard. Capt. Eugene Blake Jr., the California Division Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard was quoted in the dispatches as saying that NO action would be taken by the U.S. Coast Guard since the clipper is apparently in Mexican waters and under Mexican jurisdiction. ~ International News Service dispatches from San Francisco, CA today state that the Captain of the ‘Santa Margarita’ has received instructions to seek help from the Mexican government.”

(*Source: San Diego EVENING TRIBUNE newspaper – May 30, 1932 – Pg. 1)

*Editorial Note 2: But THE-E-E-EN!?!…

“NONE IN CHAINS AFTER ROW ON BOAT, CLAIM – A *denial* that any member of the crew aboard the tuna clipper ‘SANTA MARGARITA’ had been put in chains while the vessel was off the Lower California coast several weeks ago, was made today by Capt. FRANK MACHADO, commander, upon the arrival in port here of the clipper. The ‘Santa Margarita’ berthed at the south side of the Boardway pier, after a voyage which took it nearly 600 miles south in search of tuna. ~ Indications that there was trouble aboard the vessel during its cruise, however, were seen in the fact that Capt. Machado, upon leaving the clipper, went to the Federal Building and attempted to find U. S. Commissioner Henry C. Ryan. But Judge Ryan has not been at his office this week, due to illness. ~ Capt. Machado admitted that there ahd been a fist fight aboard the craft. ~ Meanwhile, Mr. Frank Kruger, a crew member, (and the *luckiest* side note in this whole story! – ed.) was washed overboard when the vessel was south, but was rescued by fishermen aboard the clipper ‘POINT LOMA’, Capt. Machado said. Kruger was later returned to the ‘Santa Margarida’. ~ Reports of asserted ‘trouble’ aboard the ‘Santa Margarida’ were current several days ago, when it was reported that a request for aid had been made to the U.S. Coast Guard service. But because the vessel was in Mexican waters, Capt. Machado was advised to get in touch with Mexican authorities at Magdalena Bay. From these, he said today, he was unable to obtain assistance.”

(*Source: San Diego EVENING TRIBUNE newspaper – Friday, June 10, 1932 – Pg. 6)

“CHICKEN’ STARTS ROW? – Who catches the most fish, the crew of the ‘LUSITANIA’ or the men aboard the ‘CHICKEN OF THE SEA’?
The question came up yesterday, following the announcement that the ‘Chicken of the Sea’ had knocked over The Record, by bringing in 154.4 tons of accepted fish in just 10 DAYS! But…, wait a minute! While very impressive and a “larger” Total catch at 154.4 tons…
The ‘Lusitania’ brought in her 110 tons…, in just 6 DAYS, so that makes HER (the ‘Lusitania’ – ed.) ~daily average~ of 15.71 tons…, The “Winner”; if compared to the 15.44 ton ~daily average~ for the ‘Chicken of the Sea’?”

*Editorial Note I: They may *still* be arguing about this, even if only in Heaven.

(*Source: San Diego UNION & Daily Bee newspaper – Friday, July 25, 1930 – Pg. 18)

*Editorial Note II: Meanwhile…, “…The tuna fishing industry as a whole, however, was able to draw some consolation from the arrival of the ‘SAN JOAO’ yesterday with a NEW CLAIM to the local fishing record! With *180 TONS* of fish in the hold (with only 3/4 of 1 ton not yellowtail tuna)’…, it would seem the ‘Lusitania vs Chicken of the Sea’ “controversary” may be Old News?

(*Source: San Diego EVENING TRIBUNE newspaper – Tuesday, August 26, 1930 – Pg. 31)

“LAUNCHED – TUNA SEINER ‘GRANADA’ LARGEST YET – ‘This is a prime example of a fishing vessel that can get there fastest with the mostest.’

With these words, Mr. George J. Soares, President of CAMPBELL INDUSTRIES, yesterday ordered the launching of the ‘GRANADA’, largest (to date) in a series of high-seas tuna superseiners (i.e. extremely large ‘Super Seiners’, a term Mr. Soares coined some time ago – ed.) built by the company. Mrs. Diane DeSilva Grant, sponsor and daughter of the ship’s Manager/Owner Mr. JAMES S. DeSILVA JR., smashed a bottle of champagne on the $3.6 million (equivalent to $21,950,545 today – ed.) vessel, and the latter slipped into the water amid music and shouts from the more than 500 persons who attended the ceremony at the company’s compound at the foot of Eighth Avenue. According to Soares, the new clipper is the first ‘increased-size version’ of the company-built superseiners. The ‘Granada’ is 236′ long, 41′ wide, and has a carrying capacity of approximately 1,400 tons of tuna, compared with the 1,200-ton payloads of her predecessors (i.e. 16.6% more – ed.). But company officials said the ‘Granada’ will *cease* to be the largest superseiner within 6 months or so, because now being built by the company is a still unnamed superseiner with a length of 250′! ‘These ships will create ripples in all fishing shores of the world because of their size, their speed, their capacity, and their efficiency,’ said Soares. ‘The longer design allows the vessel to carry an additional 10,000 gallons of fuel oil in her double bottom, substantially increasing her operating range,’ Campbell officials said.”

(*Source: San Diego UNION newspaper – Sunday, June 30, 1974 – Pg. 21)

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE – “A new SAN DIEGO FISH CANNING establishment is to be opened in San Diego. The company has secured a building near the waterfront and will CAN FISH, fruit, and vegetables. The Managers are said to be experienced men. The industrial growth of San Diego is keeping pace with progress in other directions.” – *Editorial Note: While this is NOT exclusively a fish cannery, would THIS qualify as San Diego’s *FIRST* fish cannery? – More info needed…, and the *TWO* best “guess-timates” (emphasis on “guess” – ed.) of this/these “specific” business/es is from the 1892 San Diego City Directory; (1) The “San Diego Canning and Packing Co., S. C. Blanchard, Mgr. – Atlantic St. between C & D Sts.” OR, (2) The “San Diego Fish & Produce Market, J. Goulden, Proprietor – 1316 F St.” Did I mention “guess”?

(*San Diego Union & DAILY BEE newspaper – Thursday, September 25, 1891 – Pg. 5)

EXCERPTS from Book’s ‘CONCLUSION’: “A few years ago, I attended a presentation by a professor who studies scientific, medical, and technological innovation. The presentation was specifically focused on different barriers to innovation, mostly political and other policy barriers that make it difficult for scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to create and bring to the market new products and services; that have the potential to improve lives and help solve societal and global challenges. He also discussed cultural and psychological barriers to progress — specifically, NOSTALGIA. According to this expert, nostalgia is distinctly at odds with a progress mindset.
The presenter saw nostalgia as antithetical to progress because he imagined that it causes people to privilege the familiarity of the past *OVER* the possibilities of the future. His position is not at all unique. I regularly encounter advocates for progress who suggest that nostalgia is a formidable barrier to our efforts to improve the world. In their minds, you’re either focused on the past or planning for the future, and people who are focused on the past are ‘standing in the way‘ of progress.
These critics have a point. Indeed, resistance to new ideas and nostalgia frequently go hand in hand. That being said, these pundits don’t fully understand the relationship between nostalgia and innovation because it is often the case that people who are highly resistant to new ways of doing things are also nostalgic. These people have personalities that make change particularly challenging and anxiety-provoking for them, and therefore they have a strong attachment to order and stability. And because negative psychological states such as anxiety trigger nostalgia, it makes sense that these people would be highly nostalgic, particularly in a fast-changing world. They are living in a world that changes regardless of their preference for stability. This makes them anxious, so they turn to nostalgia for ‘comfort‘.
But that doesn’t mean that nostalgia is the cause of their resistance to change. Their resistance comes from their personalities and resulting anxiety about change. By providing them ‘comfort‘ in what feels like a chaotic world, nostalgia may actually help them deal with change as best as they can. These people are probably never going to be champions of bold new ideas, but nostalgia has a soothing effect that can make the change they can’t control a little easier to navigate.
It goes without saying that most people aren’t this extreme. Sure, some people never want to change, but others are on the polar side of the continuum — they prefer novelty, turnover, and bold risk-taking. But most of us are somewhere in between these extremes. For us, nostalgia does MORE than provide psychological comfort in a changing world — it helps us become AGENTS OF CHANGE. ‘Nostalgia‘ isn’t a barrier to Progress; it’s a RESOURCE for *advancing* Progress.

NOSTALIA DRIVES PROGRESS

In addition to my work in the psychology of nostalgia, I’ve been developing a new area of research on the psychology of Progress. I’m specifically interested in how our current mental states influence our motivation and ability to build a BETTER FUTURE.
When people discuss progress, the talk usually focuses on the scientific, technological, political, and legal variables that influence progress. People rarely talk about the impact of PSYCHOLOGY, even when it’s clear that psychology plays a central role. Progress begins with ideas that are subsequently explored, tested, shared, and debated. Each of these steps relies on psychological processes.
Ideas don’t magically transmute themselves into tangible Progress all by themselves. People must ADVOCATE for them. Influential others must be persuaded. And people must be motivated to advance Progress, even when it’s difficult or unpleasant. Social Progress starts with a Progress MINDSET. People with a progressive mindset are Agentic, Resilient, Inspired, Optimistic, and Creative. And as I’ve shown throughout this book, Nostalgia supports all these positive psychological states.
Since progress requires experimentation, it inherently involves failure. Imagine if every time a new idea failed, our collective response was to ‘give up’!?! If this were how our minds worked, we’d all still be hunter-gatherers, and not very skilled ones at that, because we’d be resistant to any new attempts to make our hunting and gathering more efficient and successful. Perhaps to some people, this doesn’t seem all that bad!? As someone who enjoys spending time in nature, I certainly see the benefits of reconnecting with simple, straightforward, and older ways of living. That being said, I also appreciate the scientific, technological, and medical advances that make my life easier, safer, and more comfortable. I think most of us are like this. We’re sometimes apprehensive about new changes, but in general, we appreciate progress and want it to continue.
We don’t want failed attempts at innovation or the damage that’s sometimes caused by new ways of doing things to prevent us from pursuing Progress as a whole. This means we need to be both agentic and resilient. We need to believe that despite barriers to progress and our failures at trying to solve problems, it’s within our power to eventually succeed, and this feeling of agency is what will drive us forward. That agency needs to be coupled with resilience. Failure is difficult. It also happens a lot when we’re testing new ideas and exploring fresh possibilities. But we can’t let setbacks keep us from trying again. We must persist.

Since nostalgia inspires an agentic and goal-oriented mindset, it can be a vital resource for finding the drive to move forward when things get difficult. When we face setbacks or failures and need to restore our confidence, nostalgia helps by offering a BROADER PERSPECTIVE as well as reminders of past triumphs. Just like nostalgia can help people who suffer from loneliness or social rejection use past experiences to restore social confidence and motivation, it can help people working on major challenges draw from past successes for inspiration.

To build a BETTER FUTURE, people need to ENVISION a Better One, and they need to feel motivated to make that vision a Reality. When society faces major challenges, it’s easy for people to feel hopeless and to see Progress as impossible. When people are pessimistic, it’s hard for them to find a reason to try to improve things. Instead of looking for ways to go out in the world and make a positive difference, pessimistic people turn inward and can become more self-centered. After all, personal sacrifices don’t make sene if the whole thing is pointless. Why not just ‘do your own thing‘ for as long as you can with the maximum amount of enjoyment? But as illustrated in some of the studies I’ve cited, nostalgia *encourages* people to become more optimistic.

Nostalgia also inspires Creativity, and Progress relies on ‘thinking outside the box‘. One of the reasons Progress is often so difficult is because it requires finding new ways of approaching a problem. Creativity leads to Innovation. STUDIES FIND THAT PEOPLE THINK *MORE* CREATIVELY AFTER ENGAGING IN NOSTALGIC REFLECTION. Looking to the PAST for Inspiration helps open new possibilities for the future.

I think *meaning* is at the core of a psychology of Progress. It’s when people believe their lives are meaningful that they are best positioned to adopt a Progressive mindset, to feel inspired to act with agency and resilience, to go out in the world with an optimistic attitude, and to use creative problem-solving to address the challenges of our time and build a *BETTER* Future.

Again, nostalgia plays a key role in all of this. In our nostalgic memories, we’re reminded that Life is full of experiences that make it meaningful and that make the world worth improving and humanity worth fighting for. This encourages a more agentic and optimistic mindset. And when we feel more agentic and optimistic, we’re more likely to persist, even when it feels near impossible. We are also more inspired to explore new ideas.

Historical and cultural nostalgia may be especially useful for promoting a progressive mindset. Individuals and groups working to advance specific causes that could help improve the world (or even just their ‘little corner’ of it) can nostalgically look to previous stories of progress. When you find yourself thinking that the world is getting worse, that Progress is a myth, or that the future is hopeless, it might be useful to look to the Past for contrary evidence. People in previous generations made discoveries and sacrifices, created new technologies and medicines, and fought for social and legal changes that people greatly benefit from today. Many of them faced what were widely believed to be ‘impossible’ or ‘hopeless’ conditions. We can look to their stories as the types of cultural memories that should be *preserved* and *passed down* to future generations.

NOSTALGIA AS A FUTURE-ORIENTED EXPERIENCE

I started this book by arguing that humans are Progress-oriented by nature. We can certainly be set in our ways and we need a certain amount of stability to thrive. We don’t do well in chaos. But we also *oppose stagnation*. We are curious, explorative, and creative. We like to build and tinker. As much as we’re Defense-oriented, we’re also Growth-oriented. We strive for self-improvement.

It seems intuitive to view nostalgia as in opposition to our progress-oriented nature because it involves mental time travel to the past. But it turns out the journey to the past that nostalgia takes us on is really about the Present AND the Future. If nostalgia were just a past-oriented experience, it wouldn’t make us feel better about our lives today and more optimistic about our futures. But it does! If nostalgia were merely about the past, it wouldn’t inspire us to feel agentic today and motivated to *pursue* the goals that will improve our lives tomorrow. But it does! If nostalgia were just about how great our lives were when we were younger, it wouldn’t inspire us to engage in the PROSOCIAL behaviors that will pay dividends in the future. But it DOES! Nostalgia exists not because we are a past-oriented species, but because we are a future-oriented one. When we look for GUIDANCE and INSPIRATION to build a better tomorrow, we NEED OUR CHERISHED MEMORIES. ‘Nostalgia‘ isn’t a weakness. It’s an undeniable STRENGTH.

(*Source: ‘Conclusion’ [Pgs. 189 – 194] of Book “PAST FORWARD” by Clay Routledge, PhD. – Published 2023 – ISBN #9781683648642 )

In a “Memories‘ retrospective published in 1931, a now-elderly Mr. J. S. PHILLIPS, an “Old Timer” from 19th-century San Francisco, CA – Mr. Phillips offered this recollection: “First the Genovese were here; they were the most skillful boatmen & fishermen that we had. After the Genovese came the Greeks…, hundreds of them, and then the little dark people from Naples and Sicily. Finally, last of all, came the PORTUGUESE. They fished in skiffs, mostly, because they were very poor.”

(*Source: WEST COAST FISHERIES Magazine – May 1931 – Pg. 64)