October 1, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Like his father and grandfathers before him, Michael Vlahovich spent part of his teenage years catching salmon aboard a commercial fishing ship. Afternoons, he napped on coiled rope on the upper deck; evenings, he helped steer the boat through the passage of British Columbia while the captain shared seven decades’ worth of sea stories. But the watermen’s culture is now nearly extinct, a victim of overfishing, coastal development, and pollution.
Five years ago, Mr. Vlahovich, now 59, started a nonprofit group to preserve aspects of that culture. Based in St. Michaels, Md., the Coastal Heritage Alliance educates people about the fishing industry, conducts research projects, repairs older wooden boats, and trains apprentices in their restoration.
“Even though an awful lot of our work is restoring historic vessels, the vessel itself is just the means, the medium,” says Mr. Vlahovich. “The restoration of the boats draws people in and allows us to pass on the skills and the stories.”
Mr. Vlahovich’s organization not only does preservation projects in Maryland and other states but also takes people on trips to remote villages in Alaska, where the fishing culture is still vibrant.
The Coastal Heritage Alliance brings in about $180,000 each year. It earns 60 percent of that by doing restoration or research work for other organizations; the rest comes from donors.
A handful of people work two-year stints as apprentices for Mr. Vlahovich, learning his skills and his work ethic. Many get jobs doing restoration work for maritime museums and similar institutions.
Mr. Vlahovich says his guiding principle is to “get out of the darn offices of the museum and into the field and take the knowledge and skills you have and give it back to the community.”
Here, Mr. Vlahovich shapes an oak timber that will become the bow stem of the Caleb W. Jones. When it is completed, the half-century-old boat will be used for youth-education programs in the Potomac River and to dredge oysters.
