Giovanni Nevoloso, F/V Gabbiano

Fisherman

At 72 years old, Sicily native and Monterey-based fisherman Giovanni Nevoloso, has been refining his craft since he began fishing on the Mediterranean Sea when he was just 6. Nevoloso learned the intricacies of California fisheries from his wife's family.

Standing on his boat, the F/V Gabbiano, Giovanni Nevoloso looks over the live rock crab in his fish hold, making sure they’re getting enough oxygen to stay happy and healthy before they hit the market. At 72 years old, the Sicily native and Monterey-based fisherman has been refining his craft since he began fishing on the Mediterranean Sea when he was just 6.

“My father and my grandfather were fishermen, maybe more but I know there’s at least three generations,” Nevoloso says. “It’s my life, it’s all I know.”

Nevoloso grew up in Isola Delle Femmine, a small fishing village on the northwest coast of Sicily. He would have stayed in Italy had he not met Rosalia Lombardo, of Monterey, who traveled to Sicily to visit family in 1977, Nevoloso says. The two fell in love and before he knew it, he was married and fishing on the Monterey Bay.

“I learned so much from the old Sicilians here,” he says. “They never went to college but they were the smartest people I ever met.”

Building on the skills he brought with him from Sicily, Nevoloso learned the intricacies of California fisheries from his wife’s family. After a few years he bought his own boat to fish for salmon, rock cod, crab and sablefish, he says. He also purchased a permit to gillnet sockeye salmon in Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

With four decades in the United States and three adult children, Nevoloso now focuses on three species that he sells live in Monterey: Dungeness crab, rock crab and rock cod. He sets off from Monterey harbor around sunrise and is in for lunch by 3 p.m. on most days. Fishing is still hard hard work, but through a lifetime of effort he’s found an efficiency in his practice. 

“I’m 70, but I’m not feeling my age,” he says. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll die, but you know what? I still feel good.”