Bob Dooley: Community champion
This story first appeared in National Fisherman.
People tend to repeat certain words when they talk about Bob Dooley: generous, humble, knowledgeable, smart, nice, friend. Now 63 years old and retired from active fishing, Dooley, along with his late brother and longtime business partner, John, left an edible mark on the fishing industry, particularly in the Bering Sea pollock and Pacific whiting fisheries.
The Dooleys sold their pollock boats in 2013 and finally parted with their last boat, the Shellfish, a Dungeness crabber also used as a tender, in May of this year, shortly before John passed away. Reflecting on retirement, Dooley says 33 winters on the Bering Sea “was enough,” and while he does not miss the long winters or working on boats in the shipyard, he does miss the camaraderie. And his fellow fishermen will miss his solidarity.
Dooley’s long-time fishing partner, Brent Paine, is now the executive director of United Catcher Boats, an organization Dooley helped found in 1994 and would later head from 1998-2013.
“There are two kinds of fishermen. One, the tide just raises their boat, and then there is the kind where a rising tide raises all boats, and Bob was of the latter, for sure. He wasn’t necessarily getting involved in fisheries politics because he wanted to better himself and his company. He was interested in making a better fishery for all the boat owners,” Paine said.