Starting at Sea Level

It was the 1950s, and the violent one-hundred-year struggle for control of the Chesapeake Bay's oysters was still raging. Terry Noble was growing up idyllically in the fishing village of Oriole, Maryland, while his father battled poachers to protect the Bay's last oyster beds. A gunshot, piercing the river darkness, changed the family forever. Faced with the prospect of a hard life as a waterman, Terry chose another path. Supported by a determined mother and an eclectic cast of mentors, he fought to turn his dream into reality. Despite thieves, business setbacks, and injury, he perserved and managed to have fun along the way. The pages of this book are rich with the natural history of crabs, oysters and the men who caught them. Interwoven are delightful stories of boyhood scrapes, high school life, big fish and a host of watery escapades. Complimenting it all are the poignant moments with sick animals and the inspiring veterinarian who made them well. This heartwarming, often humorous tale, told with Chesapeake as its backdrop, illuminates a unique time and place while offering valuable child rearing lessons for today. It portrays a period before the upheaval of the 1960s, when less was given to children and more was expected of them.

Terry Noble was born in 1945 and grew up in Oriole, MD, a Chesapeake Bay fishing village. He is descended from a long line of watermen and boat builders. He and his friends built their first boat when he was ten. Much of his childhood was spent on the Bay, hunting, exploring and harvesting seafood. At fourteen he was operating a thirty-one-foot commercial crab boat. Later in his teenage years, Terry turned his attention to agriculture, as the way to a better life. By sixteen he owned a livestock operation, which led him to meet a young veterinarian who inspired him to follow his profession. The first in his family to attend college, Terry received a B.S. from the University of Maryland and a D.V.M. from the University of Georgia(1970). After twelve years of veterinary practice in Colorado and Maryland, he founded Central Biologics in Raleigh, NC, a company devoted to the research and manufacture of animal vaccines. In 1997, he and his wife sold the business and moved to a ranch in Montana, where they reside for most of the year. At the ranch, they ride horses, hike and watch the wildlife. Their extended family includes a Labrador retriever and six quarter horses. When not in Montana, the couple lives in Maryland beside the river where he grew up.