This piece is excerpted from a story that was originally published by the Weekly on Feb. 21, 2019.
Tom Dimaggio is 96 years old and blessed with full head of neatly combed white hair and a warm handshake. A fisherman for his whole career, he’s been retired for over 20 years and remains a vibrant member of the fishing community – only these days, the community is far from the dock and instead gathers at the East Village Coffee Lounge in Monterey to while away weekday mornings, sipping espresso and swapping stories.
Some of DiMaggio’s buddies still fish part-time and others are retired, but most of them have spent at least a few summers in Alaska, fishing for salmon in Bristol Bay. DiMaggio himself notched 50 seasons, enduring his fair share of ups and downs. His first year, 1949, was spent on a sailboat; he says upgrading to a diesel-powered engine didn’t make much of a difference.
“The fish are seasonal,” DiMaggio says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a sailboat or a motorboat. If the fish don’t come in, you don’t catch them.”
Commercial fishing is an unpredictable profession in many ways, though the two greatest uncertainties are how many fish are caught and how much those fish sell for. The nature of the job means many fishermen want to surround themselves with a crew they can trust, which often means family.
Ask the East Village table of old-school fishermen how they got started, and they all have a similar answer: They were brought fishing by their father, uncle, grandfather or another relative. Many of them took over the permit upon that relative’s retirement, and they plan to do the same, passing their permit down the family line.
“It’s rare to sell your permit to someone you don’t know,” says Peter Guerra, a 42-season veteran of Bristol Bay and longtime Monterey Bay fisherman whose son, John, now fishes with his permit.
Fishing is an expensive profession. While boat costs vary, a vessel capable of weathering the elements and catching enough salmon is likely upward of $200,000. Newer, better-equipped boats can cost close to $1 million. Currently, permits to fish sockeye in Bristol Bay run about $175,000 (a one-time purchase that can be transferred without cost), making it a significant investment for fishermen looking to get started. Many of these fishermen pass their boats, nets and way of life on to family, as well.
Mario Pennisi, who’s fished in Alaska’s Bristol Bay for 34 seasons and works in construction in Monterey for the rest of the year, has a way to describe life as a fisherman for the uninitiated: “Go take a cold shower while tearing up hundred-dollar bills.”
Most of the vast area known as Bristol Bay is rolling tundra, dotted with a complex system of lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. In some places, mountains dot the horizon, but few fishermen spend the summer months in Bristol Bay for the scenery – the rich river system and extreme tidal exchanges come with weather that can be cold, rainy and unforgiving.
It’s the ecological diversity and abundance of salmon that bring thousands of commercial fishermen to the region for the annual sockeye salmon harvest.
In some cases, salmon face natural barriers when returning upstream to spawn, such as waterfalls. With no such challenges at Bristol Bay, a high percentage of salmon can return, ensuring a thriving population – and lots of fish for fishermen.
Last summer saw a record 62.3 million sockeye salmon returning to the six rivers of the Bristol Bay watershed to spawn, and over 2,800 permit-holders from all over the U.S. (including 30 from the Monterey Bay area) descending upon the region. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports the sockeye run was valued at $275 million in 2018.
“If God was a sockeye salmon, Bristol Bay is what he would design,” says Greg Buck, a fishery biologist in Bristol Bay for Fish and Game. “It’s perfect – the rivers and lakes – it’s got the exact mix. The watershed is gigantic and it’s slow-moving, with no waterfalls and no fish blockage. It’s what you would design if you wanted a habitat that was to maximize sockeye production.”