Introduction:
My research question is: What is the primary meaning of fishing to the community of Santa Barbara fishermen? To best answer this question I decided to visit the Goleta Pier and interview fishermen. I went to the pier twice to conduct my research, on March 2nd and March 3rd, from 1 to 2 p.m. each time. I conducted seven natural conversation ethnographic interviews, as defined by Tony Whitehead: "The discourse is similar to what naturally occurs in a conversation, and usually occurs when the ethnographer is simply another participant in a conversation. However, ethnographers, having some idea of what it is that they want to learn in the setting, aspects of their research concerns are never far from their consciousness, even though …show more content…
Each person I talked to was open to conversation. I told each of them that I was doing a school project for UCSB in which I was trying to learn about the culture of the fishing community of Santa Barbara on the Goleta Pier. To start each natural conversational interview I walked up and asked: "Caught anything yet today?" After that, each conversation took its own direction, but each conversation yielded remarkably similar results. Every fisherman I spoke to said they primarily release what they catch, unless the catch is particularly large, in which case they will bring it home to eat. All seven fishermen said they fish for recreation, not as a mode of subsistence. Another recurring theme in my interviews was the relaxing qualities of fishing. One informant told me: "For me, fishing is meditative. I have a stressful job, but coming here always helps me to relax. You can't beat the view." Another informant told me: "This is like therapy for me." Another said: "There ain't shit to do where I come from, so I come here. I drink beer and smoke and have a good time." All seven people I interviewed were men, and all seven were adults, probably in their thirties and forties. Four of the fishermen I spoke to were part of a bigger group of fishermen also on the