Oral Histories - Hudson River Commercial Fishermen

The Hudson River Maritime Museum’s Hudson River Commercial Fishermen’s Oral History Collection consists of interviews with commercial fishermen conducted in the early 1990s. Ten of these interviews have been digitized and are available here on New York Heritage through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Locations discussed range from New York City to Albany and time periods from the 1920s to the 1990s. The focus of these interviews is primarily on the decline of the commercial fishing industry, including changes in fishing techniques and gear, changes in water quality and pollution, economic and market changes, and changes in fishing populations, including government regulation.