Suspicion, growth and co-management in the commercial fishing industry: the financial settlers of New Bedford

Abstract

Origins and organization of New Bedford financial settlement houses are examined. Settlement houses are an important part of the extensive fishing community and have made significant historic contributions. Economic, political and social factors leading to the development of formal settlement houses in New Bedford are traced and the contemporary organization and responsibilities of settlement houses are investigated. Settlement houses and fishing routines were observed from 1986 to 1998. Interviews of the settler/owners of the five largest settlement houses in New Bedford and early settlers and fishermen from the 1930s and 1940s were conducted. Financial settlers helped bring order and increased trust to financial settlements that, prior to the 1930s, had largely been conducted in cash and based on unwritten agreements. Most contemporary and many of the earliest settlers are female and women’s contributions to the fishing industry are discussed. Emphasis is also placed on the fisher-based solution that settlement houses represent; implications for use in co-management strategies and the need to reduce the adversarial atmosphere in fisheries governance are discussed.