Neil Guglielmo, F/V Trionfo

Neil Guglielmo, Photo by David Hills

There’s this old fisherman’s tale. Maybe you’ve heard it.

Born into a family of fishermen, the boy learns the way of the sea, its cycles, the patterns of the waves, where the fish are. The boy grows into a man and a life on the ocean. 

The great thing about fisherman’s tales is that they bear a colorful testament to the truth. Neil Guglielmo is a case in point. For 62 years, since he was a young man of 17 just out of high school, Guglielmo has fished for a living. 

“My mom was Yugoslavian and my dad's Italian,” Guglielmo says. “My dad had three brothers. They all are fishermen. My mother had six sisters, and every one of her sisters’ husbands are commercial fishermen. So I was there in the beginning.” 

Despite—or perhaps because of—growing up in a fishing family, Neil’s dad tried to dissuade him from pursuing a career in commercial fishing. “He wanted me to do something else,” he says.  

For Neil, doing something else was unlikely. Even as a kid, he worked on his dad’s boat on the weekends and during summer breaks from school. Indeed, by the time Neil turned 17, that old fisherman’s tale coursed through the young man’s veins. In spite of his father’s warnings, a life on the ocean was exactly what Guglielmo wanted. 

A Net for Every Fish

Neil started his career in San Pedro. He’s fished up and down the California coast over the years in boats with names like Adriatic Star and New Breed for everything from halibut, crab, and lobster to barracuda, swordfish, and even flying fish. 

“I used to say that I’ve got a net for every fish you can imagine,” says Guglielmo.
A fisherman, after all, has to do what they can to stay fishing. 

Neil in his early 20s (left) with his father John (right) and cousin Pete Guglielmo, around 1963.

These days, Neil fishes mainly for squid on his purse seiner F/V Trionfo, which he named after his grandfather’s boat. Over the years, Guglielmo has owned two purse seiners. The first Trionfo he bought in 1974, mainly fishing for anchovy. In 1995, he acquired the current Trionfo.

As needs such a calling, commercial fishermen and fisherwomen are an independent lot. Some might say salty. A skilled crew, a solid purse seiner, a happy ocean, and being left alone to fish are all they need. 

Guglielmo fits that description - to a point. Independence is arguably a required trait of any commercial fisherman. But independence is a complex notion. Growing up in a fishing family, Neil understands the dependencies of independence: family, a supportive community, and a viable market sustain the day-to-day independence of fishing. 

Conservation and Marine Fisheries

Fishermen aren’t the enemy of conservation. At least not the smart ones. And fishing is not a pursuit for the daft. Nonetheless, Guglielmo laments a “bad guy” perception from some regulators. Neil actively supports the role of marine reserves in conservation, serving for two years on the committee that created the Channel Islands Marine Reserve in southern California. Neil played an essential role in connecting regulators and environmental groups with the fishing community. 

“Neil Guglielmo hosted a meeting with members of the squid/wetfish fishery so we could explain our efforts and how their information would be used in the process,” states a 2005 NOAA report. “Neil’s efforts in getting the squid/wetfish fishermen involved contributed greatly to Dr. Pomeroy’s team success.”

F/V Trionfo, Photo by David Hills

Guglielmo works with researchers from NOAA Fisheries and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) every year, assessing squid populations and health. The squid industry group that he’s a part of, the California Wetfish Producers Association, has funded cooperative research with CDFW to better understand squid population dynamics and inform management.

Neil’s efforts advocating for conservation and sensible market incentives continue to this day. “We’re trying to preserve the quietness,” he says.  “We’re trying to cut down on the hours fished and give the fish a chance to spawn. That’s our main objective. Without fish, we’re done.” 

Competing Every Day for a Gold Medal

There’s a slight tug of romanticism for many landlubbers watching from the shore as the tight ball of purse seiners vie with Neil’s Trionfo for the best fishing spot out on the bay. To be your own boss, answering only to the call of the waves and ways of the fish. There is truth in that, but as we’ve seen, the reality is a little more complicated than an idealized notion of fishing for a living. 

Neil Guglielmo in the earlier days

It’s hard work and getting harder to find crews willing to do it. Fishermen and women face skyrocketing costs for fuel and insurance (Neil pays upwards of $65,000 a year for insurance alone), a changing ocean environment, competition from industrial fishing operations that skew the market, and the ever-present regulators. 

But even after 62 years, Neil Guglielmo wouldn’t have it any other way. Sure, things could be better, but what first drew him to his life on the water remains. “The ocean, the freedom, nobody on top of you telling you what to do.” He likens it to a top athlete competing for a gold medal. When you’re fishing, you “compete for a gold medal every day,” he says. “Today, I may get the medal - tomorrow, nothing.” No two days are the same. 

With years comes wisdom. “I’m an old guy now,” says Guglielmo. “I ask these younger guys, ‘what are you doing Sunday?’ Fishing. ‘Where’s your family?” Home. ‘What are you doing on Mother’s Day? On Thanksgiving?’ You’re out here, fishing.”

“When you get to be my age, if you make it… I’ve always said, If you were born to only work only and not have any pleasure, you should die when you're born.”

Neil has three sons and a daughter. All his sons helped him fish when they were younger but decided on other paths. “They all liked it,” he says, “but they didn’t like the hours.” Squid don’t punch a time clock. 

Guys like Neil may be a dying breed, but done right, there’s plenty of room and, so far, plenty of fish for a new generation of men and women to ply their trade, bringing fish into the docks of Monterey for you and me to enjoy.  

F/V Trionfo, photo courtesy of ACSMB