Dr. John Field - Fishery Biologist

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.

Dr. John Field knew early on that he was interested in fisheries. He was studying Oceanography at UC Santa Cruz and was offered the opportunity to join the crew of F/V La Dolce Vita, a sardine fishing vessel owned and operated by Italian fisherman, Nardo Olivieri. John was given the unique opportunity to learn about the science of fisheries while also gaining the fisherman’s perspective on the water. He fished with Olivieria for two years here in the Monterey Bay area. They targeted pompano, mackerel, and squid, but what excited Olivieri the most was going after sardines and anchovies. Nardo would use bioluminescence to fish. He could tell simply by how the water would light up what was down there. John reminisces,”He {Olivieri} was the ultimate predator, he was dialed into his prey.” This exposure, along with his studies, as John puts it “set the hook in {him}” and confirmed that studying fisheries dynamics was what he wanted to pursue as his career. John tried his hand at fishing a few more times, even fishing for salmon up in Prince William Sound, which didn’t prove to be very lucrative and steered him back in the direction of academia. 

John returned to Santa Cruz and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of California Santa Cruz. Then he followed with a Master’s of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington (UW). After spending some time working as a Sea Grant fellow in Washington DC, he realized policy work was not as aligned with his passions, so returned to UW to complete his PhD in the School of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Upon finishing, he was then awarded a Post Doc position at the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Santa Cruz working with legendary rockfish scientist Steve Ralston, who hired him into a permanent position a year after.  

Now in his 19th year at NOAA Fisheries, John spends most of his days working on a local seafood favorite, rockfish! John has led numerous rockfish assessments including for  chilipepper, boccaccio, and blackgill rockfish and contributed to assessments for several other species. For the past 10 years he has served as the Principal Investigator for a rockfish recruitment survey which has a 40 year time series. This survey involves catching pelagic juvenile rockfish in midwater trawl up and down the west coast and trying to use that information to understand what leads to a strong or weak year class in rockfish populations. Generally speaking, a year class is the amount of fish hatched in one annual spawning period of a given species. Through these annual surveys, John and several other scientists have greatly contributed to understanding regime shifts in the pacific from warmer to colder years. Ultimately they are trying to understand processes that drive successful recruitment (or the number of fish surviving that will make it into a given fishery). 

Photo of Dr. Field with a juvenile wolf eel taken on the NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker during a juvenile rockfish survey. Photo courtesy of Dr. John Field.

Having been surrounded by fisheries for so long, John was tuned into the importance of local and sustainable seafood early on. Being a student in the 90’s, fisheries issues were mounting as it became evident that overcapacity and heavy fishing were taking a toll on groundfish populations (on both coasts). He notes that a lot of progress has been made to recover our rockfish stocks on the west coast, there are a lot of tools and potential initiatives out there that can help create positive change but there is still a lot of confusion. Some people think that fisheries resources are in fine shape and do not need management, and there are also a lot of various definitions for what is sustainable depending on whom one might talk to. He acknowledges though that if it wasn’t for the unprecedented effects of climate change, we’d probably be doing pretty well regarding sustainability. The future of fisheries, he continues, is highly uncertain. There is still a lot that we don’t know and don’t understand. 

A seafood lover, John tries to eat local whenever he can. One of his favorites is Chilipepper rockfish (stay tuned for his favorite rockfish recipe next month!). He also notes his love for California King salmon, but acknowledges the current state of the closed season. Another favorite is California halibut - which he quotes, “is one of the tastiest fish on the planet”. John also loves sardines - even though we’re not getting them from California at the moment. There is something special about canned fish, he says. “There is a whole universe of canned fished specialists and canned products” that he’s become really aware of and has piqued his interest. 

Knowing John’s background and interest in seafood, it's no surprise that he has connected with the work we do at the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust, but we still wanted to dig a little deeper and hear what it was that made him interested in joining our Board. John’s answer was heartfelt and succinct. “ I’m a local, and a seafood consumer. I know commercial fishermen and spent a sliver of time working in commercial fisheries. I’ve been a little saddened to see that even with the recovery of groundfish populations, the economy of commercial fisheries in this area haven’t really recovered. {Operations} have shut down or moved to other places. I would like to see MB fisheries thrive again. There is a balance to be had between seafood production and managing fisheries well. I think on the science and biology side we’ve figured out where we are a little better than during the 80’s/90’s when things were in crisis. So it saddens me that the human side of this fisheries system hasn’t really come back as well as it could. Understanding what the constraints are and doing anything I can to help alleviate them would be great and a good use of my time.” 

We finally checked in with John to see who his biggest influences were and if he has any advice for young aspiring fisheries folks. Nardo Olivieri was named, not surprisingly, as well as his professor at the University of Washington Dr. Bob Francis. He showed John the various depths of fisheries, how they are systems and the interactions between the science and the modeling side and the industry and the management side. On the NOAA side, both Steve Ralston and Alec MacCall were critically important mentors. His words of advice for those interested in pursuing a career in fisheries is that there are a lot of opportunities to get involved. Find the one that works for you. Whether it's being a responsible consumer, being involved in the fishery, or research, it's not that difficult to find out what's going on in the system and make a difference.