Belford: A Mid-Atlantic Fishing Community Facing Change

Abstract

Belford is a small (about 1.32 square miles), relatively isolated, fishing community. It is nestled between Port Monmouth and Leonardo on Route 36 in the Bayshore area of Middletown, New Jersey. It sits across the bay from New York City such that the view from the fishing port is of New York City and the Earle Naval Pier. Belford is a mix of houses and small businesses, although the primary economic focus is the Belford Seafood Cooperative and the beach/fishing access areas. Ethnographic data was collected for the Belford commercial fishing port as part of a larger effort to provide information that can be used to assess the impacts of changes in the regulatory environment on fisheries and fishing communities. The profile of Belford the follows contributes to other work done on the likely social impacts of alternative regulatory actions, as well as developing scientifically defensible criteria for determining fishery dependency. This research also contributes to our understanding of the role of gentrification on traditional fishing communities, particularly the stress gentrification puts on traditional behaviors.