Monique Coombs, 43, exudes energy. Currently the director of community programs for Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Coombs has been involved in Maine’s fishing circles for many years. But she did not come from a fishing family. While both her parents were from Maine, she did not grow up here. “My dad worked for the military. I grew up in Germany. I was 14 when we moved back to the states,” Coombs said.
Photo by B. Hyde.
Growing up in a tight-knit community on military bases was a little like living in a fishing community, according to Coombs. “Everyone is in it together, you know. We were there during the Gulf War. In the military there is an element of risk so you all pull together,” she said. Life on the bases was a little different, however. Coombs recalled that they watched only one television channel, the Armed Forces Network (AFN), on the base. There were no commercials on that channel, only public service announcements. When her family moved back to Maine, she found watching regular television with its barrage of commercials “weird.”
Coombs graduated from North Yarmouth Academy where she had been introduced to a friend’s brother, Herman Coombs. His family has fished for many generations from Orr’s Island. Some years later the two began dating, married, and started a family. Their two children took an interest in fishing—a daughter who now has her lobster license and a son who has his student license.
“In 2008, with the financial crash, I really got interested in seafood and how a fisherman could support a family,” she recalled. She began writing a blog and reaching out to people in the local food movement in Maine. “I started going to meetings and asking, ‘What about seafood?’,” she said. “It was important to me that my children should have the opportunity to fish and be part of the fishing community.”
She got involved in the Eat Local Food Coalition of Maine, which broadened her horizons greatly. “I learned a lot! I began to understand more about agriculture and seafood, which are absolutely, completely different. The U.S. Department of Agriculture advocates for farmers. NOAA and NMFS do not advocate for fishermen. Fishermen don’t have anything like the support system that farmers have,” she said. “It gave me a good lens to think about the fishing industry.”
Coombs worked for Hancock Gourmet Lobster Company for a couple of years, learning more about the value of lobster as an ingredient in prepared food items. The work was interesting, but Coombs began to chafe at being in an office. “Ben Martens [executive director of Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association] and I talked over coffee. I started there part-time in 2016,” she said. “It’s a wonderful experience and privilege to work for other fishing families like my own.”
During her tenure at Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Coombs’s position has evolved. As director of community programs, she now concentrates on the working waterfront and fishermen’s health and well-being, particularly mental health. A $90,000 grant through the Young Fishermen’s Development Act last year funded production of three videos specifically tailored to fishermen’s health.
Coombs has watched as Maine’s commercial fisheries have undergone tremendous changes in the past three decades. And change is something many fishermen find difficult to adapt to.
“Change is difficult when it’s due to something outside of your own control,” Coombs noted. “That’s more difficult than change you do yourself.” Such things as a changing Gulf of Maine, gentrification in coastal communities, and rising business costs put stress on the region’s fishermen; possible future regulatory changes add to that stress.
Helping fishermen adapt to what’s happening now connects to building resiliency, and that in turn means looking at new ways to make a living while remaining a fisherman. “I am a huge advocate of the trades and the opportunities they can provide for anyone,” Coombs said. Her daughter Jocelyne, a commercial lobsterman, took vocational training in high school, graduating with a certificate in welding, and went on to study at community college. “She has her [lobster] license. She can fish in the summer and fall and then do other things related to fishing during the other months,” Coombs said.
The desire to learn new things and the confidence to explore new avenues is something Coombs credits to her upbringing on military bases. “We moved every three years. You learn to be disciplined. Change is healthy,” she said. That same childhood also fostered in Coombs a deep attention to family and community. “I knew that I wanted a place where I could have roots. I wanted a place where my kids could grow up with their friends, people they’ve known since they were babies. There’s something wonderful about that.”
Comentarios