"Before there were roads, before there were bridges, before there were towns — there was fishing. The first people here, the Ais, fished the lagoon for thousands of years. When the settlers arrived, they fished too. Fishing wasn't a hobby — it was survival, and it was the first real industry on the Indian River Lagoon."
Fishing Is Florida's Oldest Story
Fishing is the oldest human activity on the Indian River Lagoon. The Ais people, who lived along the lagoon for thousands of years before European contact, were skilled fishers who harvested fish, oysters, crabs, and shellfish using weirs, hooks made from bone, and nets woven from plant fibers. When American settlers arrived in the mid-1800s, they immediately turned to the lagoon for food and commerce. Early settlers fished with handlines, small nets, and oyster tongs. Fish were salted or smoked for preservation and shipped by schooner and later by steamboat to markets in Jacksonville, Savannah, and beyond. Commercial fishing was the first real industry on the lagoon — it built the first towns, supported the first families, and created the first wealth. For over a century, the Indian River Lagoon was one of Florida's most productive fishing grounds.
