Comm202

Blog Post 1: Introduction

A community that I am apart of is the fishing community. Fishing is a discourse community because it allows you to spend time with other people, learn new techniques from other people and discover new places. Fishing is an excellent way to get yourself outdoors, out of the house, while doing something you love. This is a great way to interact with people who share the same interest as you do. I believe that fishing is a healthy way of relieving stress while taking a bit of a break and participating in an activity that is of such great interest. Fishing has taught me many valuable things that have helped me within my fish and wildlife program at Fleming College this past year. For example, fishing has allowed me to have a bit of a head start on the fish identification that is one of the major identification tests I will have this semester. It has also helped me to become familiar with the outer anatomy of a fish. Cleaning fish has helped me to become familiar with the internal anatomy of a fish as well. These things have really helped me out with my program so far and will be even more helpful later on. Fishing can allow you to travel to other parts of the world that you may have never been to without this hobby. For an example last summer, my Dad and I drove to Florida and went on fishing charters during that week. They were deep sea charters, which I had always wanted to go on. On that trip I caught a King Mackerel and an Amberjack, along with many other interesting ocean fish. This was an experience that I will always remember. Fishing is a way to create great life-long memories like the example I shared.

 

Blog Post 2: Skills Inventory

The discourse community that I have chosen (fishing) may provide me with transferable skills that could serve me well in my future career. This community has allowed me to gain a greater knowledge of fish species and the underwater ecosystem. I have gained a variety of aptitudes from fishing as well, including tying a variety of knots. Most importantly, fishing has taught me many transferable skills such as research, handled complaints, social media, and many more. If you’re going on vacation or just fishing in a new area for the first time, research is worth it’s weight in gold. If you’re not familiar with the area and you don’t do a bit of research before going out, you could potentially miss out on opportunities of catching fish. There are many reasons why research is important. The career I would like to secure in the future (marine biologist), consists of a lot of research. Another important skill that fishing has taught me is how to handle complaints. I caught a goby one time when I was fishing so I through it up on shore, rather than releasing it. This is the right thing to do because it’s an invasive species. Someone on the shore was complaining to me and wasn’t happy about what I had done, they thought I should have released it. I resolved the conflict by informing them about the species. This is an important skill within the workplace, that will come in handy while dealing with the public during my position. Within the fishing community, a lot of people use social media to share their experiences and knowledge. These skills will come in handy during my position because social media is a great way of getting information out there to the public. These are just a few examples of the transferable skills fishing has taught me for my future career, although there are many more.

 

Blog Post 3: Trend

A trend in the fishing discourse community would be salesman overselling the latest fishing gear to new fishermen. This is unfortunately one of the biggest trends I have noticed within this community. All Salesman are worried about is making money, they’re not very concerned with experience level and newbies. Someone who would like to start fishing but has no experience, would be taken advantage of at fishing and hunting stores. The salesman would set them up with a bunch of gear that they really don’t need to buy but having never fished before, they will agree with them and purchase those items. This is also an issue with foreigners that are here on vacation from out of the country. Salesmen in these stores will also take advantage of them and try to get them to buy as much as possible. In my opinion, this isn’t right. Fishing can get expensive if you choose it to be although it really doesn’t have to be. Half of the gear that these people are convinced to buy, they probably will only use once or not at all. Fishing has turned into a whole other world of overselling. This is very unfortunate for people who can’t afford this gear, due to being so convinced that it’s the greatest thing and they need it in order to go fishing. While watching fishing shows, they are always advertising new fishing gear. People see this gear that is being used by the professionals and they think they need to go out and buy the exact same gear in order to be successful. This is sometimes beneficial when it comes to buying certain bait and lures although not with all of the extra accessories. If it were me, I would save my money to go on fishing trips rather than buying all of the unneeded accessories. This is a trend with this community that I disagree. People who may not have a whole lot of extra money will be discouraged because they can’t afford the gear that they have been convinced they need for fishing.

 

Blog 4: Conflict

A conflict that has arose in the fishing discourse community, is the bad reputation that all fisherman will leave their garbage behind. People who do this, have ruined the use of fishing spots for the people who clean up after themselves. They have the reputation of leaving fishing line and other garbage on the shore where they have been fishing. An example of this happening, is at my old fishing spot in Sarnia. Since I was a kid, I have always gone fishing along the St. Clair River, on the Aamjiwnaang reserve. I have always spent time while I have been fishing, picking up other people’s garbage that is along the river. My family has been fishing in this spot for Walleye, for over twenty years. A few months ago when I was home from school, I went down to that spot to go fishing. I proceeded to walk down to the water, until I was approached by a security guard who turned me around. The area now consists of signs that say: “Aamjiwnaang members only, no trespassing!” I was told by the security guard that the Aamjinaang First Nations think that the land is being destroyed by fisherman leaving their garbage. As a result, people who aren’t from the reserve, now have restrictions. This is an example of a very unfortunate situation, due to the reputation fisherman have gained. The Aamjiwnaang’s point of view is valid because the garbage and fishing line ends up in the water, which eventually will harm the fish and the wildlife on the shore. It isn’t fair to the people who take care of the land to lose their fishing spots, all because other people can’t pick up their garbage. Unfortunately, this is how the situation had to be resolved. It could have been resolved by people taking care of the area by not littering.

 

Blog 5: Leader Profile

A person within my discourse community that excels at what they do would be a fishing guide known as the “Marlin Hunter”. My Dad and I drove down to Florida last year to go on a fishing charter with him. I would say that he excels at what he does because he is well known and very professional. All of his equipment was up to date and reliable, which is very important when your taking other people out on a charter. He had all of the proper safety equipment, which is another extremely important aspect. On his depth finder he had all of his good fishing spots marked so he could take people straight to them, rather than fishing aimlessly in spots where we might not have caught fish. He always made sure everything, such as our rods and bait were all set up so we could spend more time fishing. I haven’t met someone who excels so much within the fishing community. I could tell that he had several years of experience, allowing him to be so knowledgeable. He had a variety of different bait, ranging from small fish to squid and Bonito for sharks. He also had a variety of different fishing rod sizes for the different species of fish within the spots that we had stopped at. He was well equipped with all of his tackle and kept it organized. Whenever we arrived at a new spot to fish, he always knew what species of fish would be around and the proper set-up and bait to be using. This is something that you have to have experience with in order to know. When we arrived back at shore, he cleaned all of our fish for us and prepared them so we could take them with us. He was very quick with cleaning the fish but also did a great job. This was another reason why I could tell that he had lots of experience.