'THERE'S NO ONE WORKING': Community rallying to help fishermen survive

DESTIN — A couple of groups are working behind the scenes this holiday season to better the plight of Destin’s fishing captains.

They are working in conjunction, and even together, though they remain distinct from one another.

One is a group of about 12 fishing captains who meet every Thursday for a bible study. They are relying on the power of prayer to support their brethren, who due to stringent federal fishing regulations and a down economy, are hurting badly.

“We need to have outreach, because that’s what Christians do,” said the Rev. Michael Hesse of Immanuel Anglican Church in Destin, who leads the weekly Bible study.

The second organization has established the Destin Fishermen’s Fund. This group, which can be found at DestinfishermenforChrist.com, sells T-shirts to raise money for local fishermen in need and is also conducting a fund raiser and canned good drive.

Marc Wren has served as spokesman for both the Fisherman’s Fund group and the bible study organization.

In 2008, the first year for the fishermen’s fund, Wren and others raised $5,000. With that they were able to feed 50 fishing families and provide four presents for every child on their list.

“This is our way of helping them subsidize the holidays,” he said.

This year the hope is to raise twice as much money and help 100 families, Wren said.

Wren said sales of the Fishermen for Christ T-shirts already have brought in $2,200 and the fund organizers have collected four to six boxes of canned goods.

Locations of collection sites and other information can be found on the group Web site.

Fishermen are proud people, Wren said, but the pressures that have been put on the Destin charter fleet in just the last three years are tremendous.

For two years now, the National Fisheries Service has imposed strict limits on the number of red snapper caught.

This year, the same agency determined Oct. 20 that enough amberjack had been caught to justify closing the season. The announcement came with 11 days left in the Destin Fishing Rodeo, the most important time, economically, for the fleet.

“There are a lot of people out of work. You can go down to the docks and see there’s no one working,” Wren said. “It’s going to be worse this year than it has been.”