Fishery Towns on the Great Lakes is Next Great Lakes Seminar Topic

The Inland Seas Education Association will present a seminar that focuses on the Great Lakes fishery at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, January 11th, at the Inland Seas Education Center in Suttons Bay. The program will be presented by Amanda Holmes, Executive Director of the Fishtown Preservation Society. This seminar is free and open to the public.

The shores of the Great Lakes and their islands were once fringed with commercial fisheries like Leland's Fishtown, where fish were processed for the burgeoning Midwest. As it has been for over a century, Fishtown is still a commercial fishery, although on a smaller scale. Holmes will share her explorations of some of the few remaining fishing operations throughout the Great Lakes, why they have survived, and what they have taught her about the rarity of Fishtown.

Amanda Holmes has worked with the Fishtown Preservation Society for four years and serves as its Executive Director. Holmes holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife and a Certificate in Historic Preservation, both from the University of Pennsylvania. She has written numerous architectural, landscape, and engineering studies for the National Park Service, as well as published an award-winning history of Omena, Michigan. Her background in Folklore has led her to gather as many stories as possible about Fishtown, and to broaden her scope to capturing the stories of commercial fishing and fishermen from all over the Great Lakes.