July 24, 2024

By Brian McGreal, WSG Science Communications Fellow

Recently, Rob Seitz’s sister wished him a happy 31st wedding anniversary and asked what he and his wife Tiffani would be doing to celebrate. “I told her, ‘We’re working with our family serving fish to our community in a business we built together.’”

Rob Seitz (right) with his son in front of the family boat, The South Bay. Photo courtesy of Rob Seitz.

From Seitz’s upbringing in Alaska to working through the Pacific groundfish collapse of the 2000s to operating his own vessel in Oregon and California, fishing has always been built on a foundation of family and community. “I grew up working with family members – it’s just kind of natural,” Seitz says. “Working with my wife helps us communicate better, and working with my kids has changed my perspective on fishing and sustainability.” The Seitzs’ South Bay Wild Fish House in Astoria, Oregon provides endless opportunities for the family to connect with the local community. Seitz is also a regular participant in Astoria’s annual FisherPoets Gathering, reciting poetry composed at sea during his fishing voyages. In addition to all this, Seitz has also found time throughout his career for political activism, advocating for catch share reform and local stewardship of fisheries.

Ever since his youth, Seitz has been a family fisherman. After World War II, Seitz’s grandparents became homesteaders on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, farming potatoes under the northern lights. Eventually Seitz’s grandfather moved into fishing, longlining halibut and gillnetting salmon. Seitz’s first experiences as a commercial fisherman came from working with his grandfather during summers while attending high school in Fairbanks. These formative years instilled in Seitz both a love of fishing and an understanding that for many fishermen, the industry is driven by family and tradition.

After graduating from high school, Seitz attended the University of Arizona while continuing to spend summers in Alaska working with his grandfather. While spending time in Astoria, Oregon Seitz met Tiffani, and eventually decided to relocate permanently to the coastal town. In Astoria the couple began raising their children while Seitz found work trawling for groundfish. When overfishing led to the collapse of the West Coast groundfish fishery in the early 2000s, the boat Seitz had been operating was sold. Out of a job and with young children and a mortgage, Seitz and Tiffani decided that going forward they would go into business for themselves rather than rely on others for their livelihood. The family moved to Morro Bay, California, where they purchased the fishing vessel they still operate to this day: the 59-foot South Bay.

In Morro Bay, Seitz was able to secure a groundfish catch-share through a public-private partnership. Due to low quotas, he and Tiffani decided to focus heavily on the quality of their catch and market fish directly to consumers. They opened a family operated fish market on the Embarcadero in Morro Bay where they could engage with customers directly and encourage interest in the recovering groundfish fishery. Their company, South Bay Wild, also sold their catch directly to restaurants and at farmers’ markets up and down the central coast.

South Bay Wild is Seitz’s family seafood market and restaurant. Photo courtesy of Rob Seitz.

In the late 2010s the family decided to move back to Astoria, with Seitz transitioning to fishing pink shrimp and Dungeness crab. Seitz and Tiffani resolved to build the same strong connections with the local community that they had in Morro Bay. They opened the South Bay Wild Fish House, a restaurant and fish market emphasizing quality, local, sustainable seafood. The fish house sells shrimp and crab caught by Seitz, as well as fish caught by other local Astoria fishermen. Seitz believes a business must pay attention to a triple bottom line, focusing not only on profitability, but on social and environmental success as well. The fish house provides an opportunity to talk directly with customers and build trust in sustainable fisheries. “I like to educate people about how the product is harvested,” he says. “It’s their fish too.”

Seitz’s belief in strong connections with his community is also reflected in his participation in Astoria’s annual FisherPoets Gathering. The event, now in its 27th year, attracts fishermen from across the country to play music and recite poetry and prose. Seitz has been a regular at the event since his time fishing out of Morro Bay, reciting his own poetry that reflects his experiences and philosophy as a fisherman. Seitz notes that his relationship with poetry began at an even younger age than his relationship with fishing: “When we would get in trouble as kids, my dad used to make us memorize poems. I like the ones that rhyme because the rhyming ones were easiest to memorize.”

Throughout Seitz’s life, fishing has been inseparably linked with family and community, and his views on sustainability and fisheries management speak to these deep connections. “I never really understood the concept of sustainability until I had kids,” Seitz says. “I want to ensure that they find the same opportunities fishing the same grounds as I have.” Seitz is a firm believer in fisheries management by and for local fishers and their communities, ideally with multigenerational stewardship of the fish and the industry. He has advocated for catch share reform in Washington DC with the North American Marine Alliance. Of particular concern to the group is the growing presence of investment funds and corporate processors controlling quotas and influencing the industry. This sentiment is summed up in the alliance’s motto: “who fishes matters.”

For thousands of years, fishing has been a way of life fostered at the community level and passed down from generation to generation. Seitz is excited to see his children inheriting his love of fishing, and looks forward to the day the next generation of Seitz fishermen take the helm of the South Bay.

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Washington Sea Grant, based at the University of Washington, helps people and marine life thrive through research, technical expertise and education supporting the responsible use and conservation of coastal ecosystems. The National Sea Grant College Program is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.

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