Skylar Campbell
SKYLAR CAMPBELL is a commercial fisherman in Monterey Bay by day and a professional musician by night. As he says, he has two part time jobs that amount to two full–time jobs. Skylar’s day job is operating his own commercial vessel for open access fishing. He currently fishes for hagfish, also known as slime eel, which is not an eel, but a jawless, boneless fish without vertebrae. Skylar says they are more like a pre-historic type of sea worm. He also fishes for rock crab, open access, and has a limited-entry salmon license.
At night he plays music in local bars and clubs. As a musician he plays drum set and saxophone. He came up through the Monterey Jazz Festival, taught music and now plays gigs locally.
Previous to owning and operating his own commercial fishing vessel, he worked on a spot prawn boat for four years. It was a nine-month season, but he worked during the extended California drought (‘three years of summer’). Ocean conditions were insane all the time. No wind, no swell. Fuel prices were down and the price of prawns was up. They made hay while the sun was shining. He averaged being out on the water every other day. Now he figures he’s on the water six months out of the year. The other six months he’s on the boat doing other things like unloading his catch, boat maintenance and various odds and ends in the harbor.
Skylar sells his catch to wholesalers that sell to restaurants. The hagfish are shipped straight to Korea, as there is no local market for these odd, eel-like, slime-producing creatures. The crabs and salmon go to Robbie’s or Monterey Fish or Fisherman’s Choice. Skylar notes that a fisherman’s work is constrained by a series of permits from the city, county and state. In frustration, he voices his opinion that fishermen are considered criminals before they commit a crime.
Skylar was born at home in Pacific Grove, CA in 1987. He grew up in Pacific Grove and lives in the house where he was born. His mother is also a Pacific Grove native, but his dad came to the United States from Bavaria when he was fourteen. He joined the US military, moved around a lot, and ultimately came to Monterey where he met Skylar’s mom.
Skylar has no formal marine education, but has spent most of his life in, on or around the water. His parents’ attitude was basically do whatever you want, check in after school, then be home for dinner. So Skylar and his brother went down to Lover’s Point where they spent time figuring out how to poke pole [1]in the rocks at the end of the pier, They’d also practice jumping off the rock over on the west part of the beach, or what they call Beach II. As kids they used to call it The Cliff, because it was the biggest thing you could jump off of and not kill yourself. That’s how Skylar spent his weekends and after school. The boys were always in the water, always free diving, fishing with a Hawaiian sling[2], shooting perch, stuff like that, and surfing. Skylar’s brother followed the surfing gig, while Skylar preferred skateboarding, but they were always going out on the pier and fishing for stuff.
When he was seventeen, Skylar got his first boat, a little boat with a little outboard on it, which enabled him to continue to spend time in, on and around the water. And the rest is history.
[1] Poke pole fishing, aka poke poling, is a method of procuring rockfish and eels from the intertidal zone that is as effective as it is peculiar – a method of fishing that sees a tool, referred to as a poke pole, continually thrust into cracks and crevices, this fishing style is actually one of great antiquity.
[2] Hawaiian slings and pole spears are somewhat similar in that they both make use of a sling or band to fire the spear shaft, but there are some key differences in their appearance and how they are operated. The Hawaiian sling makes use of a shooter, which is traditionally made of wood that uses a high-powered rubber strap to fling a spear shaft forward—similar to a bow and arrow.
