In Seascraper, Thomas Flett works at the only trade he has ever known: shrimp fishing. His daily labor on the seaside is the legacy of his grandfather’s work as one of Longferry’s many “shankers.” By the age of 13, Thomas was out with his grandfather, learning how to manage the horse, cart, and baskets and to avoid the dangers of the beach’s sinkpits and tides. What’s more, the novel clarifies that this was something Thomas himself desired: “[H]e would beg his ma to let him do, believing it to be a rite of passage” (34). Now 20, however, Thomas has found that what was “supposed to be a weekend job” has become an apparent life sentence with significant drawbacks (34).

Part of the problem is that the trade no longer exists in the way it once did. By the 1960s, most shrimp fisherman have either found other professions or mechanized their fishing. Thomas is thus the only traditional shanker left, working his horse alone on the beach at low tide each day. This isolates him from a community within which he is already isolated due to the circumstances of his birth. Moreover, working a job that is fast becoming obsolete limits Thomas’s prospects for the future, exacerbating an already difficult financial situation.