“Just so you know, I’m driving a damn forklift at Fisherman’s Wharf right now,” huffs Kirk Lombard. Of course, after days of trying to reach Kirk, the only time he answers my FaceTime call is when he’s handling a piece of dangerous machinery. 

“We can reschedule if you want,” I say quickly.  “No no no, don’t do that. I can tell you everything you need to know right now,” he says, wiping his brow with his left hand and balancing his Samsung in his right.

This man fears nothing. 

I grew up knowing my Dad’s best friend was a fisherman. For years I’d hear my father reminisce about the days when he and Kirk built fly rods together and lured eels, bass, and lingcod along the California coast. I also knew that these adventure-book tales eventually became a career reality for Kirk. 

After years of bumming around Point Reyes and Half Moon Bay, Kirk founded his company, called Sea Forager, where he ethically catches, guts, and delivers fish to San Francisco residents.

He has more than 2,000 customers, leads ocean exploration and sustainability tours on the side, and is the author of two books. And, as I was reminded by Kirk, he holds the record for the largest monkeyface eel ever caught in California.

For tens of thousands of years, humans have caught and eaten fish. Fisherpeople created their own equipment, waded into unknown waters, and patiently waited hours to hook or scoop up the perfect catch. But we have strayed far from these practices and now the global demand for seafood has turned fishing into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Industrial fishing operations across the world breed thousands of fish specifically for human consumption and keep them in crowded tanks or pens. Large weighted nets rip across the ocean floor, bycatching innocent sea life and damaging ecosystems. And more than 100 million pounds of plastic from industrial fishing gear pollute the oceans each year — all in pursuit of maximum profit.

Kirk explains that the California fishing industry is no different than the rest, often valuing corporate ties over the conservation of the ocean. Corporations and big business pressure the California Department of Fishing and Wildlife to allow endangered species of fish to be caught, such as the longfin smelt. 

“They use huge nets that kill all surrounding wildlife and exploit poorly paid undocumented immigrants,” explains Kirk. What he does is very different. “I catch certain types fish when it is sustainable to do so and I also don’t interfere with the livelihoods of these undocumented folks,” says Kirk.

Kirk was introduced to fishing by his grandfather, a retired vaudeville performer who took his grandson fishing wherever he could in New York City. Kirk learned early to cast a line underneath piers before and after school, catching eels, groupers, and striped bass.

“I was a bit of a juvie kid growing up,” says Kirk. “I was very lost. Fishing was the only thing that kept me grounded in those days.” 

His pastime soon developed into a full time passion, leading Kirk to move across the country in his early twenties to California where he could build fly rods and explore a new coast.

To make ends meet, he started working on San Francisco party boats as a deckhand and quickly made friends with a biologist on board who would, despite working on a party vessel, weigh fish and catalog their data for the state of California. “I basically asked him, ‘How do I get your job?”

He was soon put in touch with a woman at the California Department of Fishing and Wildlife whom he emailed once a month, “begging her for job.” And it worked.

For seven “goddamn” years he catalogued fish with the Department of Fishing and Wildlife off the Farallon Islands, a notable great white shark breeding ground off the coast of San Francisco. On the side, he began to lead tours for locals and tourists on how to find your own food sourced from the ocean.

Kirk gradually gained the funds and support he needed to found Sea Forager, with his wife Camille, with a mission to embrace sustainability and ethical fishing.

When he is not catching, gutting, and delivering fresh fish, Kirk continues to lead walking tours, foraging classes, and expeditions, if you will, where he discusses local sustainability, migration patterns, and the many rules and regulations governing coastal species. 

What Sea Forager has to offer, from food to education, is truly special. Sea Forager’s rigorous sustainability standards and eccentric owner have captured the attention of San Francisco. Kirk has shared his story with NPR and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. He is a published author, lead singer of his own sea shanty band named ‘The Fishwives.’ And his wife and two kids, Django and Penelope, actively participate in and help run his business. All thanks to Sea Forager.

Kirk pauses (still on the chair of his forklift) and breathes in the fresh salty air around him. From the other side of the phone screen I ask, “Would you do anything else?” 

Kirk slowly cracked a grin. “I wouldn’t do anything else, I couldn’t do anything else with my life because...I hate shitty fish.” 

Luci Paczkowski is a Stone Pier Press News Fellow based in San Anselmo, CA.

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