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CNN Live Today

Fisherwomen of Cape Cod Promoting Trade With Hot New Calendar

Aired July 08, 2002 - 11:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Firemen do it, playmates do it, and now the fisherwomen of Cape Cod are doing it. They're promoting their trade with a hot new calendar. Shareen Davis is co-founder of the Nereid Network, which is a nonprofit woman's organization on the Cape, and she with us today, along with Renee Gagne. Is that how it is pronounced? Gagne? There she is. Ms. Renee Gagne is Miss August. And Elisa Costa is Miss September. The ladies join us this morning from Boston.

Hey, how are you all doing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Great.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wonderful.

HARRIS: Yes, how is the calendar doing?

SHAREEN DAVIS, THE NEREID NETWORK: The calendar is doing great. We are starting to fly off the shelves. We are selling like hot cakes.

HARRIS: Are they selling hot cakes in your neighborhoods?

DAVIS: Yes. We are getting a lot of interest all over the country actually.

HARRIS: Is that right?

DAVIS: Yes.

HARRIS: Where is the furthest place from Cape Cod you heard about your calendar selling?

DAVIS: We got an e-mail from Alaska, from a gentleman in Alaska.

HARRIS: Let me ask, was it a lonely fisherman up there in Alaska?

DAVIS: I didn't ask.

HARRIS: OK. I'm sure he asked.

Anyway, where did this idea come from in the first place? DAVIS: Initially, this is-this came from the Ladies of Ralstone (ph) Calendar that was done a few years ago. We were putting our organization together, the Nereid Network and realized that we needed something colorful to do to raise awareness about fisheries issues and also to raise money for a scholarship fund. We saw their calendar, and we were inspired by it, and said, well, we have the raw materials to did a fisherman's calendar, and we did a calendar, kind of tongue in cheek, of our local fishing guys last year, and then this year, it was the lady's turn.

HARRIS: You mentioned scholarships. Is this true, Renee, that you have a degree from MIT?

RENEE GAGNE, MISS AUGUST: No, no, no, no. I actually worked on a grant that came through MIT, sea (ph) grant. I went through the program at URI.

HARRIS: OK, all right. How do you -- first of all, who talked you into doing something like this?

GAGNE: You mean the calendar or fishing?

HARRIS: Okay, let's start with the calendar, and then go to fishing.

GAGNE: They didn't have to talk me into it at all. It's a really great cause, and it's a great tool to show people that people who work harvesting natural resources are real people, and it's great for scholarships, too.

HARRIS: Elise, as I understand it, you've got fishing in your family's blood, right.

ELISE COSTA, MISS SEPTMEBER: Absolutely, right.

HARRIS: Your dad and your grand dad were tuna fisherman, correct.

COSTA: Yes, and my great grandfather.

HARRIS: Great grandfather, too. Well, did dad or grandpa have anything to say about you showing off the wares a little bit in this calendar, or what?

COSTA: No, they are really happy. Coming from a fishing family and going to college, they know how hard it is to get the money and go to college and put yourself through college. So they are just really happy I'm doing it, and that it will benefit someone else.

HARRIS: You are putting yourself through college by fishing.

COSTA: Yes, absolutely.

HARRIS: You've got to be kidding me.

COSTA: No. HARRIS: How much money are you able to make in a summer fishing, if you can tell us?

COSTA: Quite a bit. Tuna fishing, if you have a good season, you can make over $10,000. But charter fishing, I made money, and my family owns a local fish market, and I work there, so I make some money there, too.

HARRIS: That is more than I made my first year at CNN. I'm not ashamed to say. That ain't too bad. As I understand it, most of us who at least watch the movies think that fishing is an all man kind of pursuit up there, that there wouldn't be any women out there on those boats. Are there a lot of women out there?

COSTA: Absolutely. That's a very big myth, a very common misconception. There's a lot of women, and women are just as good as men. They're just women. We've had to prove ourselves to everybody, and to ourselves that we can do it. There are tons of women. There always have been, and always will be.

HARRIS: OK, Elise, you have to talk us through the next one. This one I think is my favorite picture. Ooh la la. What is that? Is that seaweed hanging off of you.

COSTA: That's not me.

HARRIS: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You guys got my hopes all up for nothing. Which is this one?

COSTA: That's Melissa. I'm September.

DAVIS: OK, the picture you're actually -- I think you're actually seeing right now is Miss February. That's another Nereid Network member, Melissa Wideman (ph), who works with a local fishing activist group on the Cape and has been very willing to put a lot of seaweed on and help us out.

HARRIS: Was that seaweed she had hanging off of her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I tucked it in.

HARRIS: Now you guys are friends for life?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.

HARRIS: Listen, that's actually -- I know it is generating a lot of conversation, and we are having a lot of fun with this. But you guys are also trying to pursue a very serious cause here. As I understand it, you are worried about regulations that are putting the clamps on your industries up there.

DAVIS: We have a lot of people in our community, as many coastal communities along New England, all along the country, that dependent upon our natural resource of fish. And we are being faced with some corporate interests wanting to take over fisheries in the United States. We have been regulated by our government. We have well intended environmentalists that are trying to conserve our resource, and we are kind of falling victim in the middle.

And I would like to -- when you see seafood in the grocery store or you see it in the fish market, it is really important to ask where it came from. Would you rather have it come from families who will spread the wealth within their communities, or would you rather have it from a big factory troller that has no ties to your community at all? And that's part of our project is to get that word out there, to start asking questions about what kind of seafood you are buying around the country.

HARRIS: If you are too successful with this calendar, as have you been with me this morning, you are going to have people thinking other thoughts, aside from that, when they sit down eat tuna.

Hey, listen, real quickly, are you guys going to do this again for next year, and if you do, is it going to show any more of your flippers, or what?

DAVIS: Well, we're up in the air about that right now. We just want to focus on this particular project and move forward next year.

HARRIS: Oh, yes. That's what you say now. Wait until you start seeing all the money come in.

DAVIS: We hope so.

HARRIS: All right, Shareen Davis, and Renee Gagne and Elisa Costa, thanks ladies. We sure do appreciate it. You guys were a real pleasure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES: Thank you.

HARRIS: Good luck. I will have the calendar oh in my office. On the way out, we will show you more pictures from the calendar. Thanks. Have a good one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You, too.

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