. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Who's a leader among fishermen? In New England, they're called "; Here, they're known as "smart" or as "; They're the fishermen who are respected. The ones whose names always come up in conversations about commercial fishing. The ones who are first to try something new. They are the leaders. Sea Grant researcher Jeff Johnson, an anthropologist at East Carolina University, recently completed a study of social networks, information flow and the adoption
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Who's a leader among fishermen? In New England, they're called "; Here, they're known as "smart" or as "; They're the fishermen who are respected. The ones whose names always come up in conversations about commercial fishing. The ones who are first to try something new. They are the leaders. Sea Grant researcher Jeff Johnson, an anthropologist at East Carolina University, recently completed a study of social networks, information flow and the adoption of technology among North Carolina commercial fishermen. He found that the relationships in a fishing community have a strong in- fluence on the way fishermen do things. If you ask North Carolina fishermen who their best friends are, they'll say they are friends with everybody in town, says Johnson. But, ask them whom they respect, to whom they talk and to whom they look for advice. Chances are, the names of a few fisher- men will be repeated. Johnson says those fishermen are the leaders in the community. And, they hold the key to getting information circulated through the community. Johnson's study is the first of its kind to concentrate on fishermen. Previously, studies focused on farmers. Those studies pointed to people who had higher incomes, had more educa- tion, and who read a lot as the leaders in the community. "But, fishermen are different from farmers," says Johnson. "Farmers may not see their neighbors for weeks. But fishermen pull into the same harbor every day. We need to know how information gets passed among those ; Johnson hypothesized that people do things because they talk to others and observe others. To test that hypothesis, he took his study to Crab- town, North Carolina. He won't divulge the real name of the town he studied, but he does provide a few clues. Crabtown is a rural village along the central North Carolina coast. Fo
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