“To succeed at fishing, one must be creative and constantly find ways to outsmart nature.”
Newfoundland captain and fisherwoman Tracy Button adds another dimension to her thoughts on the career path she’s chosen: “Fishing is a fine way to exercise my gambling instinct,” she says.?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

That’s why fishing people are among the most interesting people in the world. In Sea Folk, Jim Wellman recounts the stories of twenty-three men and women who make their living from the sea and introduces the reader to some of the most courageous and creative gamblers from Atlantic Canada. A departure from Wellman’s critically acclaimed Final Voyages series, this book explores the lives and livelihoods of people who prosecute the fishery both on shore and off. Originally published as human interest stories in the Navigator magazine—the voice of the marine industry in Atlantic Canada—these biographies now appear for the first time in book form.

Jim Wellman grew up in Port Anson, a small fishing and logging community on Newfoundland’s northeast coast. The son of a schooner captain, Jim never strayed far from his marine roots despite choosing a career in journalism. For fifteen years, Jim was host of the popular radio program the Fisheries Broadcast on CBC Radio in Newfoundland. After taking an early retirement from the radio business in 1997, Jim turned off the microphone and picked up a pen. He has written ten books with marine connections. Jim has been contracted by several agencies and corporations such as Marine Atlantic, the Canadian Sealers Association, and Heritage Canada to draw from his marine knowledge, particularly in the fishing industry. Jim became managing editor of the Navigator, Atlantic Canada’s premier fisheries and marine magazine in Nov. 2002, he continues to write the very popular column Final Voyages today, as he has since their first issue.

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