Botelho goes down to the docks regularly and sometimes gets to work a trip as a mate or deckhand. I am a sick puppy sometimes. I dont know why. I miss the ocean so bad. So, so bad.
Alternatives are sparse.
It is a paltry amount compared with the magnitude of the problem, and little of it has trickled down to Botelho or his friends in New Bedford. But he managed to get his GED last year and is studying refrigeration. Botelho has just entered a GED program too. He has some contacts in the trucking business he hopes to exploit when he gets the certificate. But, as with many Gulf of Mexico fishers, underneath it all lurks a belief that fishers are always the first to take the hit, and they always will be.