The Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust has been fortunate to bring on two new board members in recent months. We wanted to share a little more about who these new members are and why they want to serve the Trust’s mission. Up first is Dr. John Field. We sat down with him to learn how he ended up working in fisheries science and why supporting local fisheries is important to him.

She had fallen into a freezing Rhode Island pond near her childhood home and stayed there long enough that she shouldn’t have survived. Only she did. The Providence Journal newspaper she has saved—published Friday, May 13—reported she evaded brain death by a miracle of hypothermia that preserved her neural network. It didn’t predict what might result. Keep reading to learn more about this amazing local fisherwoman! A bit of a longer read than usual, but absolutely worth it!

The day starts early for Santa Cruz-native Matt Rockhold, 49. Most days he wakes up before sunrise to motor his boat, F/V Friendliest Catch, out of the Santa Cruz harbor to fish for either rock crab or California halibut and lingcod. By lunchtime his boat is tied up at the dock and he’s off to his other full time job as marketing director for Buell Wetsuits & Surf. If the surfs up, he’ll paddle out before heading home. Learn more about Matt’s many talents and presence in this community.

The best word to describe what is happening at the Big Sur Bakery is “family.” Not only do you feel it walking through the doors and seeing the collaborative nature of their team, but also speaking to anyone working there, the support and appreciation they have for one another is immediately evident. Leading that effort is Tim Eelman, Head Chef. Learn more about what makes him such an exceptional chef!

Born and raised in central Wisconsin, Elsah Payne grew up on what she describes as a hobby farm. Her family raised goats, chickens, and ducks. Everything was made from scratch, and she was surrounded by whole organic foods. This was a normal part of life throughout her upbringing and ultimately served as the source of her inspiration to follow a culinary path leading her to the helm in the kitchen at Wild Fish Restaurant.

When thinking about local seafood, people often imagine fishermen and women on Monterey Bay harvesting fish, crab, and shrimp. But behind the scenes, many indispensable people are working hard: cleaning, fileting, and packaging local seafood before it hits your dinner plate. Marthá Lopez Ramirez, a fish cutter at Lusamerica Seafood in Morgan Hill, is one of those people.

Calder Deyerle is one of the most recognizable faces in the Monterey Bay fishing community. He’s young, approachable, and engaged, having taken a lead on finding solutions to many of the biggest problems that local fishermen and women face.

As quality safety manager at Lusamerica , Carmen Madrigal is the person in charge of making sure all quality control and safety procedures are followed. Here's how she makes sure that the seafood on your plate is high-quality and delicious.

Roberts currently manages domestic sales and operations at Del Mar Seafoods based in Watsonville. Randy started with the company in 1993, learning the ropes and advancing up the ladder to where he is today.

A few years before community-supported fisheries (CSFs) even became a thing, Heidi Rhodes was offering locally caught fish at farmers markets in Santa Cruz. Fast-forward nearly two decades, Rhodes is still selling fish at farmers markets but is also managing a CSF, a fish market at Santa Cruz Harbor, and Shucked Raw Bar — a seafood catering business.

Neil Guglielmo, owner of the F/V Trionfo in Monterey, has been commercial fishing for 62 years. While his dad tried to dissuade him from fishing for a living, a life on the ocean was exactly what he wanted.

Women are an integral part of our fishing community, often running the family businesses that bring seafood from the ocean to our tables. Meet Heidi Rhodes, Jenn Gerard Lovewell, and Kristen Deyerle, who all work in local family fishing businesses.

While the commercial fishing industry often attracts those with an independent spirit, creativity, and a sense of entrepreneurship, few embody these traits as fully as Santa Cruz fisherman Khevin Mellegers. He currently fishes for sablefish and Dungeness crab on the F/V Areona.

Being the spouse of a commercial fisherman or woman is not easy: They’ll be gone for long hours if not days, income can vary wildly from year-to-year, and they make their living in one of the most dangerous occupations in the country. But for Kristen Deyerle, the challenges of being the better half of a commercial fisherman have been tempered by the adventure, community, and tradition of commercial fishing in Monterey Bay.

Jacobo, 33, grew up in Michoacán, Mexico and came to the United States when he was 19 years old. He now lives in Salinas with his wife and two children. He has worked for the Deyerle family for 8 years and has been a manager for 5 years.

There are many ways people get into the seafood business. For Jenn Gerard Lovewell of Real Good Fish, an early career providing locally sourced, nutritious meals to school children in cafeterias led her to her current work sourcing sustainable seafood from the Moss Landing docks.

Seventeen years ago, before seafood was called “sustainable”, fisherman Hans Haveman was selling his catch at Monterey Peninsula farmers' markets and telling people why they should buy local fish. “I saw that there was real passion in organic food,” he said. “And I liked being a part of that.”

Few people in the Monterey Bay fishing community have a resumé quite like Kathy Fosmark. Feeling that fishermen weren’t adequately educating themselves about their rights and how to navigate the complex web of bureaucracy that directly affected their livelihoods, she quickly became a fearless and respected advocate of fishermen.

Scott Fosmark is a fifth generation commercial fisherman from Monterey. He came of age learning how to wrestle salmon, albacore tuna, and even swordfish onto the deck and into the hold.

The first line of this National Fisherman story on Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust board member Bob Dooley says exactly what we know about him: ”People tend to repeat certain words when they talk about Bob Dooley: generous, humble, knowledgeable, smart, nice, friend.”