Natalie Ameral, Port sampler. New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Natalie Ameral, a port sampler in the large fishing port of New Beford, Massachusetts, talks with fieldworker Madeleine Hall-Arber about her specialized job collecting and analyzing the species, sizes and genders of fish harvested by the port’s fishing fleet. She reports her findings to the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which uses her results to inform their regulatory and environmental decisions. One of the first women to work serve as a port sampler, she was interviewed for the Occupational Folklife Project “Working the Port of New Bedford.”