Geoff Bettencourt
-President-
Geoff Bettencourt is a fourth-generation Point Pillar Harbor commercial fisherman. Geoff began fishing salmon with his grandfather and father before he was tall enough to see over the boat’s railing. In high school, he continued to fish for salmon and crab and trawling for rockfish, halibut, and sole. Geoff and his Dad bought the Moriah Lee in 1997 to continue fishing for Dungeness crab, groundfish, and salmon. Geoff is one of the only fishermen on the West Coast to participate in the Bottom Trawl fishery both with trawl gear and fixed gear. Geoff realizes he has many years ahead of him and the only way to both protect the resource and secure his family’s future is to combine that old school honor & wisdom with a progressive modern approach to the future of fishing.
Steve Fitz
-Vice President-
Steve Fitz is a second generation fisherman and Owner/operator of the fishing vessel, Mr. Morgan, out of Pillar Point Harbor. Steve grew up in Massachusetts, where he watched his father and uncle return from Georges Bank with abundant loads of cod. Steve followed in their footsteps, working summers and winter breaks during college to help finance his tuition and earn a degree in business. After 25 years and multiple fisheries, the Mr. Morgan has become his passion. Today, Mr. Morgan is the only vessel left in the United States using Scottish seines, a method that is considered to be environmentally-friendly and harvests high-quality sand dabs, sole, and rockfish for the local markets.
Bill Blue
-Member-
Bill Blue moved to Morro Bay in 1974 after graduating high school in southern California. Sport fishing with his dad while growing up had given him a love for the ocean and the dream of owning his own boat. Walking the docks in the afternoon for a couple of weeks, he finally found work on a crab boat. For the next two years he was mentored by two long time Morro Bay fishermen, Fred Cefalu and Al French. They taught him what hard work and commitment was all about. In 1977 Bill bought his first boat. Forty five years later, Bill is still pursuing his dream, fishing for black cod, Dungeness crab and rockfish using pots and longlines up and down the California coast. Bill’s family is still sharing the dream and his youngest son, Scott works with him on their boat the F.V. Brita Michelle.
Our Story
About Us
Established in 2013, HMBGMA is a non-profit fisherman’s cooperative marketing association based in Half Moon Bay, California. Through implementation and marketing of industry-leading fisheries co-management and on-the-water sustainability initiatives, HMBGMA is bringing high quality, locally harvested wild seafood to consumers, protecting the health and productivity of fish stocks and habitat, and helping to stabilize fishery activity and business in Half Moon Bay, California. Our fishermen all participate in the highly regulated West Coast Groundfish Trawl Catch Share Program and in the California Groundfish Collective (CGC).
We make up a coalition of organized groups of fishermen from Morro Bay, Half Moon Bay, and Fort Bragg who are collaborating with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to develop real and effective solutions to local fishery management challenges. This collaboration is known as the California Groundfish Collective (CGC). The fishermen in the CGC work with scientists from TNC to share information and create geographically specific fishing plans that enable us to target healthy, abundant stocks of fish while avoiding sensitive habitat and vulnerable overfished species.
HMBGMA fishermen harvest groundfish including: Sablefish or Black Cod, Sole (Dover, Petrale, etc.), Thornyhead (Longspine and Shortspine), Rockfish (Chilipepper, Bank, etc.), and others. Gear types include Scottish Seine and pots.
History
COLLAPSE OF THE GROUNDFISH FISHERY
Half Moon Bay is a small coastal town in San Mateo County, California, Just south of San Francisco. The community has a long and vibrant history of supporting local commercial fishing off the Central Coast.
Over the last three decades, the West Coast ground fish fishery came to rely on bottom trawling as its primary means to catch fish. Millions of pounds were landed annually in Half Moon Bay until the 1990’s, when a sharp decline began. In 2001 the fishery was declared a disaster.
In January 2011, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) imposed an Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) catch share management system for the West Coast Groundfish Fishery. Under a catch share management structure, fishery access rights are allocated in the form of quota share permits for a portion of the total allowable catch assigned to a species. Transferability enables fishermen, communities, cooperatives, or enterprises to buy, sell or lease their quota share permits. Traditional catch share programs generally improve the condition of marine stocks and habitats but they are also very expensive to participate in and likely to result in consolidation of the fishery as market economics drive transferrable quota to large-scale fishing operations in larger ports. Communities that rely on small-scale fishing fleets stand to lose significant income from fishing activities that fund community infrastructure, jobs, tourism, and local culture.
Read more about catch share: catchshareindicators.org