Randy Roberts, Del Mar Seafoods
Randy Roberts of Del Mar Seafoods
When Randy Roberts was a boy, he loved spending time outdoors. “I was always into hunting, fishing, and camping, stuff like that,” he says. His dad taught him how to hunt and fish. For Randy, learning about conservation was visceral. In the lakes, streams, and woodlands near his Modesto home, he acquired a sense of practical conservation that serves him to this day.
Out of high school, Roberts joined the California Conservation Corps, where he furthered his experience in the hard, on-the-ground realities of conservation.
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.
Del Mar Seafoods is a vertically integrated seafood business, primarily handling anchovies, California squid, and Pacific sardines from catch to sales and export. A family-owned business in operation since 1962, Del Mar Seafoods owns and operates fishing boats and processing facilities in several locations along the California and Oregon coast. Headquartered in Watsonville since its inception, Del Mar Seafoods also operates a facility on the end of the commercial fishing wharf in Monterey. The company exports upwards of 80 million tons of seafood to nearly every country on the planet under its Ocean Angel brand.
Knowledge and Experience: Taking the Long View
While he’s worked on fishing vessels numerous times, Randy doesn’t consider himself a commercial fisherman. Nonetheless, few have Randy’s broad experience in the fishing industry, earned from his nearly four decades of plying the trade.
From unloading and supervising dock operations to his current position with Del Mar, Randy has grown up with the industry and understands the many challenges it faces: maintaining viable fish stocks, navigating the shifting regulatory landscape, and the vagaries of global markets.
Black cod offloads happening at Del Mar Seafoods at the end of Monterey’s Municipal Wharf II
A Common Sense Approach to Sustainable Fisheries
Like many of his colleagues, Roberts advocates for a common-sense approach to resource conservation. Randy grounds his philosophy of well-managed, sustainable fisheries in a lesson from his father: use what you catch. Even as the phrase rolls off the tongue, the real-world concept is complex, especially in commercial fishing.
Commercial fishing has never been an easy business. The work is hard, the hours long, and understanding the patterns of the ocean take years to discern, let alone, as in Randy’s case, the unpredictability of markets and supply chains. It can be boom and bust—in the water and marketplace.
Like all responsible professionals in the industry, Roberts understands the vital importance of sustainable fisheries. He and his colleagues work every day to bring fresh fish to an expanding market. He knows that maintaining viable fish stocks is a team effort. For the team to be successful, Roberts suggests, everyone should be on the same page. But Roberts laments that the fishermen and women of Monterey and elsewhere are often cast under a net of suspicion. It’s a sentiment often heard in the fishing community
Trust and Common Ground
For Randy and many others, nurturing a stronger sense of partnership, collaboration, and community between all stakeholders in the process is the key to better outcomes.
As anyone who follows fisheries management issues knows, setting and assessing biomass thresholds is a complex, contentious issue. Roberts advocates for improved accuracy for stock assessments and landing reports.
When regulators see the fishing community more as partners, everyone wins, says Roberts. “We should find common ground,” he says. Work with people and not against them.”
Finding common ground and promoting partnerships is a core pillar of our work at the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust.
To Love What You Do
There is a running thread in the stories of people we feature, and Randy Roberts echos that thread: “I love what I do.”
Whether hauling in a fresh catch, preparing it for market, or providing consumers a sustainable alternative to mass-scale industrial fishing, the community is made better by the cumulative experience and hard work of people like Randy Roberts.
Squid offloads in Monterey (Photo Courtesy of the City of Monterey)