A Beach Sabbatical

While Steve Jacob, PhD, associate professor of sociology at York College, was finishing up his sabbatical this summer on the beach in Florida, he took time out from his schedule to talk to York College Magazine about his research and how he will use it in the classroom this fall. The results of his research will help preserve the vitality of the nation's fisheries and the communities and fishers dependent upon them.

Editor: What type of research were you conducting? 

Jacob: For my sabbatical research I have been working on a project funded by the Saltonstall-Kennedy competitive grant program. The grant program supports research that benefits the fishing industry or improves fisheries management. The research is part of an ongoing effort to develop an information system that allows fisheries managers to assess the impact of regulatory changes on fishing-dependent communities. 

Editor: Why do fisheries managers need to monitor changes?

Jacob: Federal fisheries managers are required by law to consider the social and economic impacts of their proposed regulations on fishing communities. For social impacts, this is often achieved by intensive qualitative research that does not easily integrate into fisheries models. Efforts have been underway to utilize more quantitative measures that rely on secondary data: information that has already been collected, usually for another purpose, such as the census, public tax records and business directories. There is, however, a great deal of debate as to whether the use of secondary data is an effective way to assess the possible social impact of fisheries regulations. 

Editor: Is this the basis for your research?

Jacob: Yes. Our research team, consisting of a sociologist (me) who works with secondary data and two anthropologists that observe people, events and artifacts, selected 11 communities throughout the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic. The anthropologists directed a large group of PhD students in gathering data. During the summer of 2009, while the anthropologists were collecting field data, I developed a secondary database, and over a longer period of time, developed indicators. Separately, we ranked all 11 communities on various measures such as dependence, vulnerability, resilience and gentrification (the change associated with the movement of more affluent individuals into a lower-class area). When we compared our results gathered separately, we were shocked at the level of concordance. In fact for most measures the rankings were substantively identical. In other cases there were minor differences, often due to the secondary data not reflecting very current events. Our report has concluded that secondary data can be used in social impact assessment and will produce similar results to intensive qualita-tive research, while offering significant cost and time savings.

Editor: Did the groups agree on anything else?

Jacob: One other thing both groups of researchers agreed on was the vulnerability of the Galveston Bay area to natural disasters. In our study both groups identified Galveston as the most vulnerable to natural disasters of the 11 community sites. For the anthropologists, this was based on the interviews with past hurricane survivors and emergency management officials. The secondary data included historical hurricane patterns and past levels of damage. 

Editor: Have you ever worked on any similar research?

Jacob: In addition to the large project I completed on sabbatical, I also contracted with the National Marine Fisheries Service Southeast Regional Office to analyze field data collected since 2005 for nine hurricane-impacted (Katrina and Rita) fishing dependent communities located in Louisiana, Texas and Florida. In this study, hundreds of open-ended interviews were conducted with fishers and fish dealers on the impacts of the hurricane and their thoughts on the fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico. The consensus among these fishers is that the hurricane was only one of a number of growing disasters for the fishing industry, which has included the market being flooded with cheap imports, high costs of fuel, low prices and increasingly restrictive regulations.

Editor: Fishing communities seem to be a huge focus of your research. Have you always wanted to conduct this type of research?

Jacob: My interest in the community level impacts of fisheries management stems from my background. I was raised on the eastern shore of Maryland where many of my family were watermen. While I was an under-graduate student at Salisbury State College, I was in a seminar class where we read a book titled Fisherfolk: Two Communities on the Chesapeake Bay by Carolyn Ellis. It was a wonderful study of places similar to the communities nearby where I was raised. 

Later that semester I met Carolyn Ellis, and I decided that if I were to become a sociologist, this was the kind of work I wanted to do.

Editor: Are you ready to get back into the classroom?

Jacob: Most definitely. My sabbatical has rejuvenated my career. I am excited to get back in the classroom and share some of the things I have learned with my students.