Born into a family of teachers, Ibach always knew he'd wind up on the water instead of in front of a classroom. And in his role with the Humboldt Fisherman's Marketing Association, he advocates for the fishing industry as well as the fisheries.
In Part I of this conversation, Ibach explained the gear, tasks and techniques for fishing in the Pacific Northwest. Today, he draws a bigger picture that highlights some of the complexity that fishermen face.
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IBACH: Those are the mornings where I'm like, what in the heck am I doing here today? I should have slept in! [Laughter]
ANNCR: When you're at the grocery store and you see that seafood under the cellophane, you might wonder how it got there. And that journey usually starts on a fishing boat, which is where Michael Spagna and Keith Flamer met up with Captain Harrison Ibach. He's a commercial fisherman based out of Humboldt Bay, and the first part of that conversation explored the boat, the gear, and the technique required for fishing at scale.
If you missed that episode, you can hear it at KHSU.org. Today, they wrap up by looking at the bigger picture. From Woodley Island, inside a boat wheelhouse not much bigger than a minivan, this is Talk Humboldt.
FLAMER: Good afternoon. We are in the cabin of—now what was the name of the boat again?
IBACH: Fishing vessel Haida Queen.
FLAMER: Fishing vessel Haida Queen. My name is Keith Flamer, president of CR, and I am here with my friend and colleague, Dr. Michael Spagna from Cal Poly Humboldt.
SPAGNA: Thank you. And we have the pleasure of being here today with Harrison Ibach.
IBACH: I'm a local commercial fisherman, and I'm also the president of Humboldt Fishermen's Marketing Association.
SPAGNA: Tell us a little bit about the journey that you took.
IBACH: Well, I'm kind of unique. I'm not a generational fisherman. I'm a first-generation fisherman. I come from a family of teachers… my mother, grandmother, father, and brother are all teachers. But I knew deep down that something in my life was going to be in fishing.
I came up to Humboldt State University studying Native American Studies. I initially went to school for fisheries, but it was actually taking up too much of my fishing time, so I shifted to the studies themselves.
During that time, I was actually part owner of a tackle shop in Arcata. Now I'm here to stay in Humboldt, and I’m a local commercial fisherman. Things are always changing, which is why I’ve devoted more time, effort, and energy into the council process.
Because as things change, more opportunities can also arise. In the early 2000s, there was a groundfish collapse. Many of the groundfish stocks were deemed overfished. During that collapse, there were strict regulations and very limited opportunity.
But as more science was done, the groundfish stocks were shown to be rebuilding. Now, the vast majority of those stocks have been deemed rebuilt, and we’re actually allowed to catch more fish in some cases.
That’s all part of proper fisheries management. And that’s where the council process becomes really important: state and federal agencies, NGOs, and the fishing industry all come together to figure out the best management strategies.
The U.S. probably has the most highly regulated and sustainable fisheries in the world. I have a tracking device on my boat that shows where I’m fishing at all times. There are closed-off areas in the ocean - rockfish conservation areas, marine protected areas.
SPAGNA: The sustainability and replenishment… if you don’t have that, you wind up overfishing.
IBACH: Exactly. One of the great success stories in fisheries management is the West Coast groundfish fishery.
Right before we met, I was just in a Harbor District meeting, on a fishing committee, discussing what future offshore wind impacts might be on the fishing fleet.
FLAMER: What kind of challenges and impacts are you seeing, and your colleagues are seeing?
IBACH: In regard to offshore wind, I think the first and most important thing to say is that fishermen are not against renewable energy. But this particular project will occupy and take away a lot of valuable fishing grounds.
SPAGNA: Which affects the community, affects livelihoods—it affects all kinds of things.
IBACH: Absolutely. We’re also worried about traffic. Humboldt Bay is a very challenging bay to get in and out of. We have large tide swings and big weather here in the Pacific Northwest—large seas, big swells.
Sometimes we have very narrow weather windows when we can get to and from our fishing grounds. We’ll be competing with offshore wind projects for those weather windows. That’s why we’re trying to get detailed information about the project so we can assess the impact on the fishing fleet here in Humboldt Bay.
FLAMER: When you say fleet, I picture a whole line of big ships. How big is the Humboldt Bay fleet?
IBACH: I believe there are about 60 fishing vessels here in Humboldt Bay.
FLAMER: Of various sizes, right?
IBACH: Yes, various sizes. Our smallest boats are about 16 to 18 feet, and the largest vessels are about 70 to 75 feet.
SPAGNA: Give us a fish story.
IBACH: A fish story? I don’t even know where to start.
More than anything, it’s what we witness out there on the water. You can go through an area with close to 100 humpback whales, slapping their fins and tails. It’s an incredible sight.
You see deep-sea creatures that light up, jellyfish at the surface—really amazing things.
SPAGNA: Has anything ever really surprised you? Like, “Where did that come from?”
IBACH: Great question. One time, 20 miles offshore, we were suddenly in the middle of a dragonfly infestation. Huge ones, with giant pincers, buzzing around and hitting the cabin windows.
Almost every fall, there’s a dragonfly migration or hatch, and somehow they end up 25–30 miles offshore. It happens every year now, so we expect it. But the first time—yeah, I was like, “What is going on?”
Another time, we were coming back in from 20–30 miles offshore, and my crewman said, “What is that above your head?” I looked up and there was a bat, just hanging upside down inside the cabin.
FLAMER: If that happened to me, it would be the last time I ever went fishing!
IBACH: We’re very lucky to see probably the most epic and unbelievable sunrises and sunsets anyone could ever witness. That’s definitely one of the perks of the job.
SPAGNA: Well, it’s been a great visit with you. Thank you.
IBACH: Yeah, thank you very much.
ANNCR: From Woodley Island, you’ve been listening to commercial fisherman Harrison Ibach on Talk Humboldt.
