By Julia Robins, Staff Writer
“Watermen need to diversify now more than ever,” says Glenn Markwith, Virginia Sea Grant-funded program coordinator of the Virginia Watermen’s Heritage Tour Program.
He reflects on a story of a friend of his, a dairy farmer whose business met hard times due to industry trends. To supplement his income, he “diversified”—taking Girl Scouts on hayrides, growing asparagus, and selling Christmas trees in December.
“I see parallels there with Virginia’s working watermen. We need to explore every available opportunity to keep our working watermen where they love to be—out on the water,” says Markwith. “That’s one of the main reasons for the program.”
Virginia’s Watermen Tourism Training Program, developed in 2013 by Chesapeake Environmental Communications (CEC) and Rappahanock Community College (RCC), offers tourism-related business training for watermen looking to supplement their incomes. Watermen in the program learn how to offer on-the-water tours, get speaking opportunities to highlight watermen heritage, and partner with charter boat captains and ecotourism guides. The program also promotes working watermen as educators and stewards of the environment and encourages the purchase of local Virginia seafood.
This summer, CEC decided to take a step back from the training, both to better understand consumer interest in the program to market it appropriately, and to learn more about obstacles that make it hard for watermen to enter the tourism business. To do so, CEC brought on Michelle Lechman, a Virginia Sea Grant-funded business intern and MBA student at William and Mary’s Mason School of Business.
Throughout the summer, Lechman conducted market research, analyzed current tourism programs, and interviewed tourism representatives from Maryland and Virginia. In all, she interviewed 41 watermen, industry members, conservancy members, tourism representatives, and potential partners.
Lechman found that watermen’s concerns are mostly logistical. Many feel that the time and cost are too high to meet marine regulation, secure Coast Guard licensing, and obtain insurance. Some are also concerned that there might not be enough customers for watermen tours.
Yet Lechman found that both the tourism industry and local communities are not only interested in the program, but requesting CEC’s assistance to expand training opportunities and build a larger program.
“It is amazing the amount of support and collaboration from all of these different stakeholder groups that we’ve been talking to,” says Lechman. “I’ve never seen a program that encompasses so much diversity and people who have different angles to their interest all coalesce and align. There’s something really special here with this program.”
That special thing is authenticity. More and more people are traveling to experience authentic representations of culture.
“Authenticity is about bringing people into the real experience of life on the water, a life where you’re making a living off of the water,” says Lechman. “It’s still a very real component and an important part of life here.”
Even watermen who have no interest in participating in the program themselves are supportive of the overall idea. Says Lechman, “They are very supportive of helping other watermen, sustaining supplemental income, and giving the next generation opportunities to stay and make a living on the water.”
Previous graduates of the program have offered a range of tours, including charter-fishing trips and sunset cruises. Yet despite enthusiasm for the program, there are still some obstacles to address. Lechman notes that some watermen who provide tours currently make little profit off their part-time business due to factors such as limited passenger capacity and potential interference from weather.
She is optimistic about the possibilities, however, and looks to aquaculture as a way to bolster the watermen tourism business. As fishery populations continue to decline, the World Bank forecasts that aquaculture will surpass commercial fishing in volume in 2015. Lechman says that, for now, “I think it’s a minority of people in aquaculture that see this as an opportunity for them, but I think in terms of bringing in visitors to experience what it means to have a life on the water, that it has to have a bigger shared voice.”
Lechman finished her work with the program in August and expects to graduate with her MBA in December. Markwith, however, has just begun and is looking forward to a year of hard work strengthening the program.
“My father is a retired commercial fisherman,” says Markwith. “I see this program as a way for our watermen to continue to make a living out on the Chesapeake and its tributaries, throughout all of tidewater Virginia; it’s getting harder and harder every year.”
He adds, “Without that diversification, I think we’re going to lose a lot of watermen, and with that goes history, cultural heritage, everything. I see it as preserving a centuries-old part of Virginia’s legacy. I don’t want our children to have to go to a museum just to learn about watermen and life on the Chesapeake—I want them to be able to experience it for many years to come.”
The Virginia Watermen’s Heritage Tour Program is modeled after the Maryland-based Waterman Heritage Tourism program, which was developed in 2008 by the Chesapeake Conservancy, the Coastal Heritage Alliance, and the Maryland Waterman’s Association.
Virginia watermen’s tours are currently available through the Virginia Watermen’s Heritage Tour Program, a partnership of the Virginia Waterman’s Association, RCC Workforce Development, and Northern Neck PDC.
