Life on the River

For our first trip for, we visited Eastpoint to interview a houseboat owner about living on the water and how the water war has affected him. After interviewing him at his office, his friend then took us to see the houseboat and also was able to talk to us about his experiences living on the water as well as his perception of the water war. While at the houseboat we met a woman who also lives on the water part-time, with her two kids, and were able to interview her as well.

For our second trip, we traveled to Apalachicola Bay to speak to a woman who owns a houseboat rental business. While we did not get to interview her on camera, she did provide great insight into owning a business and living full time on the river. She did however, direct us to a ship captain who had been living and sailing for a long time in the Apalachicola region. Here we learned that the water community expands far beyond people who live on houseboats; for example, there is a whole other community of people who also live on functioning boats, such as the captain we met. This is an extremely different lifestyle to that of houseboat life. Captain Jerry, as we called him, has been residing in the Apalachicola area for close to 30 years, and possessed extensive knowledge of the area. He explained in great detail the differences between “houseboat living” and “living on a boat”, something we were all unaware of prior to meeting him. We then spoke to the county commissioner, a man who wears many different hats in the Apalachicola area, not only is he the county commissioner, but he also runs one of the most profitable shrimping companies in the region. Smokey, as he liked to be called, was able to provide us with information from two different perspectives due to his unique standing in the community. On one hand he explained how the river and the effects of the water war affected business, and on the other hand he was able to explain the political reasoning behind certain decisions and what would need to be done to secure Apalachicola’s future for those who depend on the river. Overall this was an eye-opening experience which brought to light many critical issues that we as a group were unaware of until diving into the community. We are sure many others in the state of Florida, just as we were, are currently unaware of the dire consequences surrounding this “water war” and can only hope that our video can shed some light on this most urgent topic.