Tim Obert, F/V Stacey Jo

Fisherman

Tim Obert skippers two Dungeness crab boats and a commercial salmon outfit along the coast of California. At age 35, he shoulders a lot of responsibility, but he’s never considered doing anything else.  

As a child, Tim wanted to be fishing so badly, his mother homeschooled him.  “When I was about 10 years old, I would take the bus to the Santa Cruz harbor and wash boats,” he said. “At 12, I spent summers working for charter boats.” By the time Tim was 13, he was crewing on a crab boat, but as he explained it, at that time, he was 6-feet tall and 180 pounds.

While he’s a dedicated and successful fisherman, he’s concerned about the future of the industry. There are many things like policy and climate change that directly impact his livelihood. So he has set out to educate himself on the processes that govern the science and laws behind fisheries policy.

Tim has been working with the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust to advise their Leadership Project, which helps sponsors fishermen to attend Pacific Fishery Council meetings, so they learn the science and policies that impact commercial fisheries, and how to advocate for themselves. When back from the sea, Obert stays active in the policies that involve fishing, “I want a future in this industry,” Obert said. “And I want a voice in how it’s managed. Sometimes that means taking fewer fish now, so we’ll have more in the future. “You have to educate yourself. There’s a lot of changing ocean conditions. We are trying our best out here, we don’t want to hurt anything. Most of us do this because we love the ocean. Everything about it.”

Learn more about Tim by visiting our Stories page, linked here.