“Over the last 15 years, with the different closures, restricted areas, and restricted access and a decrease in participation [in the California commercial fishing industry], what I see in my travels is the ocean’s healthier than I remember it 20, 25 years ago.”

“Some years, you make a lot of money. Some years you make a medium amount of money. Some guys make the same kind of money all the time… And for a young guy, [fishing can be] a pretty good living. So, you know, it all depends how hard do you want to work and if the fish are there. But it’s all fishing, so. I mean, like I said, some years, you have a good year. Some years you don’t.”

“[Offshore wind] is a big concern. I don’t think the science is very well settled on what the transmission lines do. I know on the East Coast, the [movement towards offshore wind] stopped because there was evidence that it was hurting spawning. So if fish can’t spawn properly, or their spawning is inhibited, that’s obviously not good for the resource. And just my same concerns before – the more ocean you take away where we can fish, the more concentrated people become. And then you’ve overstrained a resource in those areas. So that’s the biggest thing, is the loss of ocean that’s fishable. I think that’s the biggest impact in the future.”

“My biggest concern with our fishery is the lack of younger guys. We have so few guys that want to deckhand. Young guys are [un]interested in running a boat, much less owning a boat. I think it used to be more family businesses. Parents would fish, and then their kids are fishing with them, and [the kids would] get their hand on a boat or get hooked up with a boat. For some reason, [in] our ports there seems to be a generation gap [of kids that aren’t] interested in fishing. So in our ports specifically in 10 years, there’s going to be a lot of boats that don’t have operators. I don’t know where we’re going to get operators.”

“Port San Luis [has] no processing at all left. We just lost our last fish market. We don’t even have a farmer’s market yet. So we just have extremely limited options, almost no competition. So for live fish, we have one buyer who transports most of the live fish up to the Bay Area. For hagfish, we only have one buyer. For salmon, [name redacted] will buy a certain amount. After that, guys have to call around to find other people to buy their fish. […] It’s bad for the price, it’s bad for scheduling your fishing trips just because you’re so dependent on meeting your truck driver, all that. […] A lot of times [fishermen and the trucks] are on different schedules. So it just makes everything more difficult.”

“Our facilities, due to lack of volume going across the docks where we are able to unload, [makes it] hard [for the port] to keep up on maintenance and repairs and whatnot.”

“Everybody in the [Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization] that is a director or an officer are in contact with people all over the state. You know, the [DCTF, offshore wind, the cable committee, PCFFA, etc.]. So I think everybody’s pretty connected and knows what’s happening and is well informed.”

“The big problem in Morro Bay is a shift in the [community’s] mindset. We’ve got some developers here on the waterfront that are trying to move [fishermen] out. We got a city council and a mayor and a bunch of people [that are trying] to push us out… Most of us don’t get to vote [in local elections because] most of us don’t live in Morro Bay; we live out of town [so] we can’t vote… It’s a big concern.”

“We fought like hell to try to get the [Blue Ribbon Task Force] to really know fishing and how fishing works. And when they put a bunch of MPAs in the best [nearshore] areas that we have fished for years and years, that when they leave little areas open close to port, [those areas] get hammered… I don’t think the MPAs are doing anything, nothing. Except causing overfishing.”

“Well, I think the guys are still able to fill their quota. It takes longer. More fuel to burn, more time on the ocean… You’re still able to do it if you fish hard. These guys fish every day. The nearshore guys that go every day. So they’re still making a living, but of course, they’re spending a lot more going. So it just takes longer, and they are fishing the areas harder than they would if the areas were still open where we saw fish.”

“There’s been a lot of broken trust with the fishermen. The logs were used [during the MPA planning process]. The heaviest fished areas [are] the areas they closed. So now, I mean, the big thing with the fleet is as soon as you get a logbook and you’re new to the fishery, they tell you don’t ever put where you’re really fishing on those logbooks. And there’s just a severe broken trust between the management and the fishermen. We don’t want to work with [managers] if we feel we’re going to work with [them and then they] take the prime area. So that’s one of the consequences, is the trust is broken.”

“During the whole MLPA meetings, [managers and decision-makers] were all hip on fishermen doing the monitoring and working on it and managing it, helping the [California Department of Fish and Wildlife] manage it [and conduct] research. They were going to involve the fishermen, [and] they did for the first couple of years when Packard was still putting money out for it. But [the California Department of Fish and Wildlife] didn’t want to put any money out for it, so they stopped it. I mean, we had a really good protocol going. We were going in and out of the MPAs. We were tagging. Catch per unit effort. Cal Poly was all on board with that, but then all of a sudden it stopped.”

“Enforcement is either over the top or nonexistent. There doesn’t seem like there’s any middle of the road, you know. [There’s] no rhyme or reason why or when [enforcement] happens. So I think there’s distrust in the enforcement.”