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Fishing in the Family
The Miller family has fishing in the blood. For 310 years, generation after generation, the family has earned its living on the ocean. Current patriarch Joe Miller thought he'd be he last, though, when his son Levi decided against pursuing fishing. The family tradition seemed set to end.

That's when Levi's sister, Becci, 13, decided she'd become the first female in the family line to take to the seas. Since the 1690s when Henry Miller first set sail off of the coast of Dorset, England, it's been a male dominated business. Nine generations of males have fished the seas but Becci is changing that.

Fishing with her father since she was just a baby, Becci already helps out her father for several hours after school each day and plans to finish her education and become a full-time fisherman when she turns 18. "I am usually out for about two hours and I love every minute," Becci told the Daily Mail. "I have been going fishing with my dad since I was baby - he used to sit me on the floor before I could walk.

"I just love being out at sea and want to be a fisherman.

"If I don't take it up full time then the tradition might stop and unless our children want to fish, it might not start again."

She adds that, "Apparently my auntie would have liked to have done it but my grandpa wouldn't let her." For his part, Becci's dad is proud of her choice.

Becci said her brother Levi sometimes helps on the boat but "usually moans about it."

First family fisher Henry Miller began the tradition by setting up a fishing business in 1678. It passed to his son John, then to John's similarly named son John through the 1700s. The second John's son, also named Henry, guided the business into the 1800s and passed it down from father to son through Joseph, Edwin and Charles - Becci's great grandfather.

Charles was the first Miller to benefit from a motor on his boat after installing an old Ford car engine on it in the late 1920's. After Charles, Jim took over and then Joe Miller, Becci's father, who started fishing 32 years ago.

To see previous Spotlights in our new, easier to read Spotlight archive, click here, or discuss this story on our new message boards.


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