Mid-Atlantic Fishing Community Profiles

Montauk-6.jpg

​The Social Science branch of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center has compiled profiles of 177 fishing communities throughout the Northeast region.  The profiles provide historic, demographic, cultural, and economic context for understanding community involvement in fishing. The profiles can be used for many purposes. In the fisheries management process community profiles are often used to describe: (1) regulatory changes (e.g., the implementation of an FMP, or an amendment or framework measure to an FMP) and the reasons for their being proposed; (2) the oceanographic, biological, economic, and socialsettings within which regulations will take effect; and (3) the anticipated effects/impacts resulting from the proposed regulatory changes. In an EIS, the “port profile” contains an overview of the historic, demographic, cultural, and economic conditions of a community and its involvement in fishing. The profile provides basic descriptive information for the Affected Human Environment section (AHE) of the EIS, and also furnishes a baseline from which to measure future change. Each profile provides a historic, demographic, cultural, and economic context for understanding a community’s involvement in fishing. 

Each profile contains sections on People and Places, Infrastructure, Involvement in Northeast Fisheries, and The Future. People and Places presents information on regional orientation, historical background, demographics, issues and processes, and cultural attributes. The section below includes the profiles that have been developed for the Mid-Atlantic region.  Additional information about these profiles can be found at:

http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/read/socialsci/communityProfiles.html

Profile Authors: Patricia M. Clay, Lisa L. Colburn, Julia Olson, Patricia Pinto da Silva, Sarah L. Smith, Azure Westwood, and Julie Ekstrom