Little frame houses once occupied by fishermen and their families are now colorful cottages offering art and unique handiwork. At the dock is a regal shrimp boat offering its latest catch.

Other boats, for chartered fishing trips or sunset cruises line up at the dock, and at least once a year a seafood festival is held in this tiny alcove of the past - where the Fishery Restaurant and the Margaret Albritton Gallery beckon visitors to step into an Old Florida fishing village - Placida.

A setting for the Denzel Washington movie, "Out of Time," the Fishery retains its rustic charm, with the added attraction of tropical-flavored artwork. The Fishery and its famous food have changed little over the years, but the village did after new laws went into effect around 1980 banning commercial net fishing. A number of commercial fishermen retired or pulled up stakes and moved elsewhere.

The seafood festival - once a fund raising event to help out the families of 

Harry Van Petten, born and raised in Boca

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A newly restored boat house in Placida, makes a breezy place to sell his feisty blue crabs and bait fish kept alive in a snazzy tank with circulating water. He's even been a cover-boy for a slick magazine recently for a story about his profession and lifestyle. It's been a way of life for him and his family for several generations.

 Denton is still angry over the commercial net ban that went into effect around 1980. "They should have let the old fishermen die out and put a moratorium on

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Denton surveys the shrimp in a water-
circulating tank.