Shaping the Shoreline: Fisheries and Tourism on the Monterey Coast

Abstract

On the shores of Monterey, California, land and ocean meet. In this community, people—Native American, Spanish, Mexican, Anglo, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and Portuguese—likewise met, mingled, and clashed. Fishing and tourism had emerged as Monterey's two economic pillars by the late nineteenth century, and these two industries often conflicted, pointing to different futures for the community and its abundant natural resources. In Shaping the Shoreline, Connie Y. Chiang uses this diverse community and its divergent industries to craft an excellent environmental history. Yet this is not merely a history of Monterey, tourism, or the fishing industry. It is a history of the complex and often-hidden relationship between labor and leisure in America. In Monterey—and many other places—the boundaries drawn between labor and leisure obscure underlying connections that tie human societies to nature and link us to each other. In highlighting those connections, Shaping the Shoreline gains significance far beyond Monterey. Chiang begins with a discussion of the successive waves of settlers who gave Monterey its diversity, from Chinese drawn by abalone to Portuguese whalers. In 1880 the Southern Pacific Railroad opened the opulent Hotel Del Monte, where tourists and health seekers relaxed amid gardens planted with exotic species. Local Chinese provided hotel labor and served as exotic tourist attractions for eastern Anglos. At the same time, tourism promoters complained that Chinese fishermen drying squid produced noxious odors, while sewage from the hotel damaged the local ecosystem.