Big Boats for offshore fishing for grouper and gulf shrimp. Photo from the book "Cortez - Then and Now"

Cortez Commercial Fishing Village

Project highlights Cortez commercial fishing village, a historic working waterfront whose first industry was fishing when it was built some 111 years ago by fishing families who had migrated from Carteret, North Carolina. Cortez's fishing industry has survived the great hurricane of 1921 that destroyed all its docks and boats, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the disappearance of the mullets for several years. Today it is struggling to survive the effects of a net ban passed by voters in 1995. New aquacultures and new fishing methods are being explored, and fishermen have adapted by becoming crabbers and learning to throw cast nets.

Project documentation includes several pages of text, a book Cortez - Then and Now, and two videotapes: "Cortez - Down a Lonesome Road" and "Cortez - A Community Portrait."

Originally submitted by: Dan Miller,Representative (13th District).

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