Randy Randazzo

SALVATORE “RANDY” RANDAZZO was born and raised right here in Monterey. Born in 1923 to Italian immigrants who met in Monterey and started a family. Randy has been on the ocean his whole life. He started helping his dad on fishing boats when he was a young boy. He worked as a commercial fisherman, a party boat captain and even fought in the US Navy in World War 2. He only attended one day of high school before he enlisted and headed out to sea to fight for the United States.

 When he got home he worked as a commercial fisherman during the sardine heyday. He paid $500 as a share of the boat and went to work on a purse seiner here in Monterey. In two years he had made his money back. In 1948 he bought a part of the Fisherman’s Wharf and piece-by-piece he built it in to Randy’s Fishing Trips.

The original pier he built was made of recycled materials from the scrap piles of the canneries being dismantled on Cannery Row. He owned a small mooring field, skiffs for rent and a little bait and tackle shop.

In 1957 he built his first boat, The Randy I, for his charter business. By 1961 he had enough income and enough demand to build a second vessel, The Randy 2. At the peak of his operation Randy had five party boats leaving from his shop on Fisherman’s Wharf.

In 1981 Randy decided to retire from owning his business on the wharf, and he sold the business to Peter Bruno and John Lupo. They continued Randy’s legacy until 2017 when Peter Bruno sold the business to John Mayer and Mat Arcoleo, who rebranded the business into J&M Sport Fishing and Discovery Whale Watch.

After his retirement, Randy still filled in as a party boat captain for the other fishing companies on the wharf for many years and commercially fished in his own small fishing vessel. Now Randy is in his 90’s and most days you can still find him down on the wharf looking at the day’s catches and chatting with all the owners and workers on the piers. Randy really is a piece of living history and has many amazing stories.