The appearance of a little longline vessel, the Ricky B, in National Fisherman last month brought back some bittersweet memories for former owner Lisa Schmidt of Crystal River, Florida.
When her husband John died of a heart attack in 2015, Schmidt found herself owning the boat, along with two others—the Midnight Sun and the NoBULL—and the fishing company Bohica Fishing Inc. “I was a surgical charge nurse for 38 years, so it was a huge learning curve,” says Schmidt. “I went down to see the boats and the manager of the fish house, and they were all afraid I was just going to sell everything and put them out of work. But I said, 'no. I’m not going to put anyone out of a job.'”
But to keep the ball rolling, Schmidt had to learn the fish business overnight. “It’s a hard business to get into!” she says. “Luckily for me, the National Marine Fisheries quota and permit people reached out to me and helped me learn how to use the computer program and move quota around. If your boat comes in with more fish than it has quota for you have to be able to move quota on to it.”
While one of her captains tried to convince her to make a trip on one of the boats so that she could understand, Schmidt, then 61 years old, opted to stay ashore. “I had to trust people,” she says. “The manager of the fish house took me aside and told me I didn’t need to go out there. He explained to me what I was responsible for as the owner and what the crew was responsible for. And then, the Shareholders Alliance, the political voice for the commercial fishermen of the Gulf of Mexico, reached out to me. My husband was very involved with them, and they invited me to the Gulf Council meeting in Austin. The board of directors and executive director, Eric Brazer, held my hand through the process. I learned that we had to protect our commercial fisheries. The Gulf Council isn’t balanced. The next meeting was here in Florida, and I had to go and stand up and speak.”
Schmidt continued learning about quota management, regulations, and vessel operations. “I went to the Marine Resource Education Program (MREP) in St. Petersburg, which was put on by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. They taught us about the stock assessments and how the quota is determined, and then how the regulations are made. I’m a science person. I liked that part- the politics and management process not so much.”
After six years, Schmidt realized that maintaining the boats and dealing with three crews was causing her more stress than she wanted to deal with. Schmidt's owner financed the sale of two of her three boats to a young fisherman, Sean Heverin, but has held onto her quota and her role in the Shareholders Alliance. She also participates in the National Future Fishermen’s Coalition and the Young Fishermen’s Apprenticeship Program. “I want my legacy to be keeping the commercial fishing industry alive,” Schmidt says. “You’re not going to have fresh fish without commercial fishermen.”
