August Felando was born in San Pedro, California, in 1929. His family roots reach back to Viz Island, Croatia, and Guernica in the Basque province of Spain. He fished on two-family owned tuna and sardine purse seine vessels during 1946-1950. In 1951, he became a co-owner of the F/V Challenger, a tuna baitboat, and as managing owner sold the vessel in 1958 for conversion to a tuna seiner. From 1960-1991, he managed the affairs of the American Tunaboat Association, including participation in hearings before the California State legislature, Congressional Committees, and federal agencies.

Captain Frank Gargas, Sr., and his two sons, Frank Jr. and Steve, reflect on their experience as a fishing family. Frank Sr. relays a time when the family was with him on the tuna boat and they encountered rough weather from Hurricane Camille (1969). Steve talks about his mother and what she faced as a wife of a fisherman, having her husband at sea much of the time. Frank Jr. reflects on what drew him to become a fisherman.

Captain Frank Gargas, Sr., and his two sons, Frank Jr. and Steve, reflect on their experience as a fishing family. Frank Sr. relays a time when the family was with him on the tuna boat and they encountered rough weather from Hurricane Camille (1969). Steve talks about his mother and what she faced as a wife of a fisherman, having her husband at sea much of the time. Frank Jr. reflects on what drew him to become a fisherman.

Captain Frank Gargas, Sr., and his two sons, Frank Jr. and Steve, reflect on their experience as a fishing family. Frank Sr. relays a time when the family was with him on the tuna boat and they encountered rough weather from Hurricane Camille (1969). Steve talks about his mother and what she faced as a wife of a fisherman, having her husband at sea much of the time. Frank Jr. reflects on what drew him to become a fisherman.

Mary Misetich was born in 1912 in Washington. Her family later moved to San Pedro, where she lived for 90 years. In 1932, she married Dominick Misetich, a tuna fisherman. Both of their families came from the island of Brac, Yugoslavia.

Roland Wigley was born in 1923 in New Jersey. He studied at the University of Maine at Orono, where his college career was interrupted by World War II. He served in the Army Air Corps during the war. He returned to the University of Maine after the war and received his PhD from Cornell University, where he did a dissertation on the life history of the sea lamprey of Cayuga Lake. He began working for the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries as student in 1949 and was hired in a permanent capacity in 1954. His first research project was the haddock food study.

Tom Balf is an environmental professional with diverse experience in regulatory policy, environmental management, and sustainability in the corporate, consulting, and non-profit sectors. His current consulting work, as founder of Oceanvest, LLC, focuses on projects that support sustainable fishing communities, maritime technology applications, and 21st century working waterfronts. He is the former executive director of Maritime Gloucester.

Scope and Content Note

Anthony Gross was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1952, and moved to Gloucester as a child. As a teenager, he worked at the Empire Fish Company, where Anthony's father was General Manager. At 18, Anthony began lobstering on a 16-foot skiff and crewed on a local tub trawler. Then, at 20, he began offshore lobster fishing and worked his way up from cook to engineer and first mate. When Anthony turned 22, he served on a tallow tanker, the "Y/O Olive Oyl," that carried tallow from Miami to Honduras and Guatemala.

Ann Molloy was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1965. Her ancestors all came from Sicily, where they fished.  She graduated from the University of Northern Colorado and began to work for the family business, Neptune's Harvest, a division of Ocean Crest Seafoods, Inc. as a bookkeeper and is now in charge of sales and marketing.  Ann is a big advocate for Gloucester's Working Waterfront.   

Scope and Content Note

Captain Novello was born in 1943 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he has lived all his life. Son of Captain Joseph Novello and Lena (Parisi) Novello, Sam is the last descendant of the Novello and Parisi fishing families who still earns his living as a fisherman.  As a child, Sam went to sea with his father, uncles, and cousins – over one hundred family members - on their fleet of eight wooden fishing vessels.

Sebastian Parisi was born in 1940 in Gloucester, Massachusetts.  Both sides of Parisi's family emigrated from Italy, and many of his ancestors and relatives worked in the fishing industry.  He graduated from Gloucester High School, worked as a mechanic for cars and diesel boats.   Parisi served as an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force from 1960 to 1964. Later, he earned a teacher's certificate and taught at vocational schools for over twenty years.   

Scope and Content Note

Mr. Stephen Gill was born in Lake Placid, New York in 1948.  He earned his BS and MS in Oceanography from New York University School of Engineering and Science.  Gill came to work for NOAA in 1975 as an Oceanographer for the National Ocean Service.  From 1997 to his retirement in 2016, Mr. Gill served as Chief Scientist for NOAA/NOS Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services.  

Scope and Content Note

Mr. Robert Hansen was born in on Earth Day, April 22, 1949, in Bayshore, New York.  He was the first in his family to attend college, and earned his Bachelor’s and then a Master's Degree in Geography from the University at Albany.  Mr. Hansen came to work for NOAA as a cartographer in Aeronautical Charting.  He then worked as a technical information specialist for the National Ocean Service, chief of the NOAA Map Library, constituent affairs specialist, NOAA Historian, and retired as the national outreach coordinator for Education.   

Darlene Czeskleba talks about her and her husband, Don Czeskleba, in an interview with Kathleen Schmitt Kline. Her husband was a state fish hatchery manager, and she discusses his job responsibilities, awards, achievements, and involvement in sturgeon management.

Haze Diemel Jr. is interviewed by Ronald M. Bruch and Kathleen Schmitt Kline about his experiences sturgeon fishing and shares the history of the area. He tells stories about fooling the babysitters and past deputies and wardens, and explains Shadows on the Wolf. 

Serge Doroshov is interviewed by Kathleen Schmitt Kline about the founding of the World Sturgeon Conservation Society. Serge discusses sturgeon population and spawning and his work in the United States at UC-Davis.

Ron Epprecht is interviewed by Eugene Herubin about his skill at decoy carving. He discusses color, shape, and style variations for decoys, how he got involved with carving, and why he has a continued interest in carving and spearing sturgeon.

Elizabeth Pearson Jones talks about her family history and a 1921 hurricane.

Oral history interview with Ron Rogers.

Oral history interview with Haruye Sakamoto.

Oral history interview with Lewis Loveridge. 

Oral history interview with Anthony Nizetich.

Oral history interview with Jim Trani, Sr.

Oral history interview with Gretchen Tostrup. 

Oral history interview with Joe Gatlin.

In this interview, Sue Turner Maddox talks about family history, not in the fishing industry.  Her husband had a drive-in in Mulberry.  They divorced and she moved to Cortez in 1965.  Maddox had visited with cousins here before.  She worked at Moore Stone crab and Bell fish Company in order to support her kids.  She got involved in fighting drug problems in Cortez and Bradenton in the 70's with some harrowing results.  She still working at Bell's Fish Company.

John Ogren was born in 1966 in Blue Island, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He was fascinated by the weather from an early age. He grew up listening to his grandfather's stories about the deadly 1967 oak lawn tornado outbreak. In high school, John became really interested in earth science and was "hooked" after a six-week weather unit in science class. Mr. Ogren attended Western Illinois University, where he graduated in 1988 with a degree in geography and a minor in broadcasting and communications.

Dr. Ed Rappaport was born in 1957 in Southern California. He earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington.  Ed then received his Ph.D. with an emphasis in Atmospheric Science from Texas Tech University.  Dr. Rappaport began at NHC as a post-doctoral fellow for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

Oral history interview with father and son, Raymond Stargill Pringle, Jr. and Sr.

Oral history interview with Matty Domancich.

Oral history interview with John DiBernardo.

Oral history interview with Bill Stein.

Calvin Edison Bell was born on November 14, 1929. He is the son of Aaron Park Bell, a commercial fisherman from North Carolina, and Jessie Blanche Fulford. Calvin grew up in a family of seven children, with five brothers and one sister. He lived in the same house in Cortez, Florida, for his entire life. Calvin followed in his father's footsteps and became a commercial fisherman, participating in various types of fishing including mackerel fishing, mullet fishing, and seine fishing.

Joe Orlando was born in Sicily in 1964.  When he was nine, Joe and his family immigrated to the United States and settled in Gloucester.  After high school, he started fishing with his father.  Six months later, he became a skipper, and has been fishing out of Gloucester ever since.  

Scope and Content Note

Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken's grandparents immigrated to Gloucester in the 1940's.  Many of her relatives worked in the fishing industry in Gloucester.  Mayor Romeo Theken was married to a commercial fisherman and worked as a fish packer at Gorton's and later for the Addison Gilbert Hospital.  After her husband died, she began to get more involved in the Gloucester community and advocating for fishers.  She became vice president of the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association.  Mayor Romeo Theken also earned a B.A.

Rosalie Parco was born in 1926 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Both sides of her family immigrated from Sicily, and included many fishermen. She graduated from Gloucester High School in 1944, and attended Kathleen Dell Secretarial School in Boston.  Then she met her husband, Anthony Parco, founder of Ocean Crest Seafoods and Neptune's Harvest Fertilizer in Gloucester, a family business that is still in operation today.  

Scope and Content Note

Mark Ring was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1957. He graduated from Manchester High School in 1975. Growing up, Mark's father ran a marina, and he had uncles who were commercial fishermen. He spent his teenage years fishing on a skiff and lobstering with his uncles. After high school, Mark moved to Gloucester and fished - gillnetting and swordfishing - during the 1970s and 1980s. He fished in Mexico, and from the Caribbean to Newfoundland. Since the early 1990s, Mark has been lobstering out of Gloucester. 

Scope and Content Note

In an interview conducted by Ronald M. Bruch and Kathleen Schmitt Kline, Dan Groeschel explains his family history and how he got started spearing. He describes the first time he speared a sturgeon, and how he accidentally pushed his brother into a hole. He also talks about how Sturgeon for Tomorrow got started, and where he sees the club going in the future. 

Irene Halfmann and her husband Greg Halfmann of Malone, Wisconsin discuss their experiences sturgeon fishing. Bill Casper interviews them about Irene’s big catches of 1952 and 1979, methods of cooking sturgeon, how to prevent shanties from blowing around the lake, and the painting of their manual ice saw as art for their 50th wedding anniversary.

Eugene Herubin interviews Reuben Hoelzel about his history with sturgeon spearing. Having been born in 1916, Hoelzel remembers when sturgeon spearing was an economic necessity and meals with sturgeon were like feasts. He discusses passing on the tradition to his children, how to clean and cook sturgeon, and decoy painting.

This interview with Walter Bell, the son of A P Bell, covers his family and growing up in Cortez.  Some info about the Manatee River Fish Co. a precurser to A P Bell Fish Company and relations with other fishermen.

Dick Koerner interviews Wayne Hoelzel about his experiences sturgeon spearing. He tells tales of winter storms during spearing season and his favorite memories spearing.

Bob and Darlene Homan are interviewed by Dick Koerner about Darlene's record sturgeon and other spearing stories.

Richard Braasch interviews Clarence Hopp about near misses while sturgeon spearing, tactics for attracting sturgeon with decoys, and cooking sturgeon when he is lucky enough to spear one.

Willard Jenkins is interviewed by Bill Casper about his experiences fishing sturgeon. They discuss Willard'ss first time fishing in the late 1940s, some of the more memorable people he's known, and methods of rescuing people from mishaps on the ice.

Carl Jersild, interviewed by Dick Koerner, tells of his first and only sturgeon he speared in 19 years. He also praises the DNR for the work in managing the sturgeon population. In addition, Carl also relates a story about being on shifting ice, and another about a friend who videotaped his day sturgeon fishing only to find out, while watching the videotape, that he missed a golden opportunity. 

 Dick Koerner interviews John Jurgenson about changes in ice fishing equipment changes since the old days of spearing and the group of people he typically spear with.

John Jurgenson discusses creation of sturgeon spears. Interviewer identity for August 2, 2007 interview is unknown.

Mr. Rutkowski retired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1985 with 33 years of federal service. He served as Deputy Diving Coordinator. He was founder and director of the NOAA Diving/Hyperbaric Training and Diver Treatment Facility from 1973 to 1985 where hundreds of divers have been treated. He also served as co-director for the NOAA/UHMS three week physicians diving and hyperbaric medical training program for the past 21 years.

Bill McAloon interviews Harry Kachur about his experiences as a sturgeon fisher. Kachur considers himself largely unlucky, and most stories are mishaps he has had on the ice. He also mentions that he and his son Mike make decoys and tells a story about a poacher. Harry discusses his favorite cooking method of sturgeon and importance of the Sturgeon Advisory Committee.

Ronald M. Bruch interviews Dick Koerner, avid sturgeon spearer since 1955. Dick relates numerous stories of memorable fishing incidents, as well as discussing his construction of his shanties and creation of spears and decoys.

This interview with Marvin Carver covers family, fishing, fish camps and net spreads. He also had a bridge tender's job in Cortez.

Dick Koerner interviews Elmer Kuchenbecker about his sturgeon spearing stories, including the largest fish he ever speared.

This is an oral history interview with Captain Paul Nelson, who talks about the history of fishing on the East Coast of Florida.

Kathleen Schmitt Kline interviews Dan Folz about his involvement with sturgeon through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. He discusses studying and managing sturgeon and spawning site monitoring programs.

Mike Primising along with Dan Folz, retired DNR fish manager in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, tell stories of the early days of sturgeon scouting and tagging along the Wolf River. The men mention spawning sites and the advent of a technique known as riprapping, which greatly benefited the sturgeon population. Interviewed by Bob Marin, the two men also discuss other people who have worked at the DNR.

Dick Koerner interviews Bob Frank about his experiences with sturgeon fishing. Frank discusses his techniques and superstitions, as well as his thoughts on regulation changes over the years. Frank mentions his favorite fishing stories from his own past and how he prefers to cook sturgeon.

Dr. Jeanette Davis is a Marine Microbiologist who currently serves at NOAA Fisheries in the Office of Policy  where she conducts research and provides support on programs and policies regarding resources in the ocean. Dr. Davis was first exposed to the marine environment as a student at Hampton University during an internship where she lived on a 53-foot sailboat for a month, exploring the Chesapeake Bay. She earned a B.S. in Marine and Environmental Science from Hampton University and a PhD. in Marine Microbiology from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Mrs. Linda Lawhorn-Brown was born in Winnsboro, South Carolina in 1958.  She moved to Washington, D.C. while she was in high school, and after graduation, attended the University of Maryland- College Park, where she majored in special education.  In 1987, Linda came to work for NOAA.  Her first position was with Bill Stanley, who served eventually as NOAA's historian.  Since 1990, Linda has worked in the Office of the Under Secretary, working closely with various administrators, dignitaries, and NOAA staff.  

Scope and Content Note

Vern Gebhart and his wife, Karla, talk about their history with sturgeon spearing. He tells stories about close calls on thin ice, the amount of sturgeon fishermen increasing, and the changes in the equipment used. Vern also discusses decoy carving with the interviewers, Ronald M. Bruch and Kathleen Schmitt Kline.

Dan Gerhardt, interviewed by Dick Koerner, talks about some of his experiences with sturgeon spearing on Lake Winnebago.  He recalls learning to spear and important moments from the last fifty years.  He discusses how things have changed, what he enjoys about the sport, and recipes.

Bill Goeser is interviewed about his experiences sturgeon spearing over the years. He tells of his family learning to spear, early decoys and coaxer styles, and cooking sturgeon. Interviewer identity unknown.

Ed Gorchals is interviewed by Dick Koerner about his experiences sturgeon fishing on Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin and the surrounding area. He discusses rule and sport changes, set line and hook and line fishing in the past, and recipes for sturgeon and their caviar.

Dave Grignon, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Menominee Tribe, is interviewed by Kathleen Kline Schmitt about tribal history with sturgeon. From creation stories to modern day, Dave explains the cultural significance of sturgeon to the Menominee people through time, as well as the care given to cooking sturgeon in ritually appropriate ways.

Mr. Steven Wilson was born at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines in 1959.  He studied Food Science and Technology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  Wilson worked as a USDA poultry and then NOAA fishery products inspector.  In 1988, he became Deputy Branch Chief for the National Marine Fisheries Service.  He also worked as Deputy Director of Field Operations, Chief Quality Officer, and Assistant Director of Quality and Technology.

Al Cottone was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1965.  His parents immigrated from Sicily, and his father was a life-long fishermen.  Cottone graduated from Gloucester High School in 1983, and has been fishing out of Gloucester ever since.  

Scope and Content Note

Vito Giacalone was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1959.  Vito is a third-generation fisherman in Gloucester, and started in the fishing industry as a youth.  In the late 1980's, Giacalone took a break from fishing to work in construction, until he came back to commercial fishing in 2000.  He serves as the Policy Director for the Northeast Seafood Coalition and President of the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund.  He and his wife Jenny own the fishing vessel Jenny G. and Fishermen's Wharf Gloucester.  

Oral  history interview with Tom Warren.

Oral history interview with Steven Cole. 

Oral history interview with Ray Cootes.

Oral history interview with Tony DiBernardo.

Oral history interview with Brian Harrison.

Oral history interview with John Maramoto. 

Oral history interview with Laura Warren.

Oral history interview with Dennis McCarbery.   

This interview discusses mostly family history.  She did a lot of Cortez history work.  Green wrote a book, Fog's Comin In, a history of Cortez with many pictures.

Oral history interview with Vito Giacalone. 

Oral history interview with Mary Giacalone.

Oral history interview with Rod Reddick. 

Oral history interview with Angie Papadakis.

Oral history interview with Adam Birkenbach.

Dr. James McFadden was born in Winchester, Virginia, in 1934.  He graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and graduated with a degree in geology.  In 1960, James was offered a research assistantship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's meteorology program.  He spent five years in Madison and earned his PhD in meteorology.  In 1965, McFadden came to work for the Environmental Science Services Administration's Sea-Air Laboratory, part of the Office of Meteorological Research in Washington, D.C. as a research scientist.

Oral history interview with Tony Salcido.

Oral history interview with Ray Falk.

In this interview, Raymond Guthrie discusses his family history and fishing experiences.  He did seine fishing and stop netting. Guthrie talks about animosity from other fishermen.  He fished and did mowing work, and some boat building.
 

Oral history interview with Charles Hamasaki.

Oral history interview with John Royal.

Oral history interview with Carlos Rico.

Oral history interview with Min Tonai.

Oral history interview with Al Green.

Oral history interview with Frank Herrara.

Oral history interview with Nancy Utovac.

Oral history interview with Yukio Tatsumi.

Oral history interview with George Love, Jr.

Oral history interview with Joe Itson.  

Vernon Mora discusses family history, fishing in Sarasota Bay.  He fished for A.P. Bell and Fulfords, worked on a dredge for a while, had a shrimp boat for a while.

Albert Alcala describes growing up in San Pedro from his birth in 1949 to the 1960s when the city was primarily a small immigrant community, and through the time the Port of Los Angeles was built and displaced many families. He describes his father as one of the original thriving businessmen who immigrated from Granada, Spain, and his connections to other town folklore and notable people.

Oral history interview with Lee Mardesich.

Oral history interview with George Pasha.

Oral history interview with Seymour Waterman.