The Workboats of Core Sound

June 3, 2013
In these short essays and photos, writer and photographer Earley (Looking for Longleaf: The Fall and Rise of an American Forest) provides readers with a detailed guide to the fishing culture of small towns in “Down East” North Carolina, a region about 200 miles southeast of Raleigh. Earley focuses on the importance of the boats, all handmade, from skiffs to run boats, which haul crews and pick up fish from the workboats that carry fishermen to fish houses. He profiles one 20th-century master boat builder, Ambrose Fulcher, and notes that the “stories and memories associated with a boat are like family tales... passed down from one generation to another.” Earley also devotes one essay to long-hauling, which involves capturing fish in huge, joined nets, rooted in stakes driven into the ocean bed and extending 1–3 miles. The local fishing industry is in significant decline, partly because of pollution, and partly because of competition from foreign fish farms. While, with a few exceptions, Early’s black-and-white photographs are not particularly aesthetically pleasing, they do an excellent job of highlighting Down East fishing culture. 109 duotones; 6 figures; 1 map.