Brian Lacey wasn’t born into a fishing family; it is just some he always wanted to do. Lacey on the dock of Mar Vista Restaurant on Anna Maria Island. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
Growing up in Sarasota near the historic fishing village of Cortez, Brian Lacey wasn’t born into a fishing family; it is just some he always wanted to do. He is one of the few, the proud and the brave. No, not a Marine; the next generation of Gulf fishermen.
Hunter Lacey helps unload a sheepshead from his dad’s boat. Photo: Photo: Lacey’s Dream Fisheries Facebook
“Cortez, like the rest of the Gulf, is having a hard time attracting young people into the fishing profession,” said the 36-year-old Lacey while sitting on the sunny Gulf shoreline. “I think there are two other fulltime fishermen in the area that are my age or younger. Just two.”
Lacey started fishing at the age of 29. He returned to Cortez after a brief stint in Virginia to attend college and worked. “I went to Virginia to play football and got college; that’s what the joke was anyway,” he explained.
Moving back to Florida to be with family, he purchased his first fishing boat.
“I wanted to fish for crabs so I went to Key West to buy a 34-foof Crusader,” said Lacey. “I moved it up to Cortez and that winter I started fishing for stone crabs. I was lucky; I just had a banner year. I hit it right on time.”
Currently operating four boats, the young fisherman believes in sustainable fisheries. He prepares a weekly schedule to hook abundant species that provide a good profit. Four employees, not including him, staff his operation.
“Typically we take out a couple of boats each day,” said the Tampa Bay fisherman. “My life is on the water. I fish every day except Sunday, we try to take Sunday off.”
Partnering With The Chiles Group
Lacey’s operation has expanded beyond crabbing to a wide variety of finfish including; sheephead, Spanish mackerel and a Florida favorite: mullet.
Sandbar manager and Executive Chef Richard Demarse said, “We started working with Brian Lacey because like us, he is committed to sustainable seafood.” Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography
“Mullet is a Florida thing, the fish built the Cortez fishery,” he told Gulf Seafood News. “The area was first settled by fishermen from North Carolina, but even before they arrived mullet was caught by local inhabitants.”
Simply put, the Gulf Coast mullet is beautiful fish. In the warm Gulf waters they grow bigger than their northern brethren, with an average catch weighing in between a pound to a pound and a half. “I have caught them up to five pounds,” Lacey said. “I even had one that was 5.7 lbs that I was proud to weigh in. It was just a huge beautiful fish.”
According to Lacey mullet has two important markets. “Battaga is made from the roe of the female fish. It is the highly sought after in a wide variety of markets, including Europe and Asia. Fish houses here cut out the roe out and then sell the fish. The meat is great. It is a very light fish without a strong fishy taste.”
It is mullet that brought Lacy together with The Chiles Group of restaurants.
Chef Richard Demarse prepares to serve some of Lacey’s blue crab to customers. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography
“Mullet is one of the best sellers on our menu,” said Sandbar manager and executive chef Richard Demarse. “We started working with Brian Lacey because like us, he is committed to sustainable seafood. Sustainability is the driving force of our restaurants. We have formed close partnership with a number of local fishermen who care about what they do, and take pride in bringing prized products to our tables.”
Chef Demarse says Cortez has a long history of fishing, the new breed of fishermen like Lacey is working hard to continue to tradition, but truthfully it is difficult for them to make good money.
The young fishermen delivers for the chef, often literally dropping off his catches directly at the restaurant from his boat. “How much fresher can the catch of the day get, from boat to plate,” said Chef Demarse.
Mostly Lacey deliveries are made by truck. After a long day of fishing he packs day’s catch on ice to personally deliver it to the different restaurants. “That’s my wholesale side of my business,” he said. “I’m a fisherman, wholesaler and delivery boy. It makes for a long day. I know I am still young, I just don’t feel it most days.”
Next Generation of Gulf Fishermen
Fishing is not an easy life. Gulf fishermen are aging, and there is not only a continued loss of boat-count, but also knowledge.
Lacey’s young son Bryson holds a stone crab caught by Brian on the first day of the season. Photo: Photo: Lacey’s Dream Fisheries Facebook
“Getting the younger generation interested is a challenge,” said the young Gulf fisherman. “The cost of getting into the business is not cheap, and the legislation passed by Florida lawmaker has not helped. With the nets we are allowed to use it is really tough to make a paycheck everyday. You have to be very patient, as well as very efficient, with the tools you are allowed to use.”
Because an outbreak of Red Tide in Tampa Bay killed the stone crab population in the Cortez area, Lacey had to make an 80-mile journey each way to Houmasasa to harvest for his clients.
“I left my dock each morning at two in the morning and would get back around ten that night,” he said. “I then had to start my deliveries be ready to leave again at two the next morning. My crew and I would go three to four days without sleep. It is a tough schedule. When you choose fishing as a living you don’t get to choose your schedule. If you want to make a living you either choose to go get the fish, or choose to go broke.”
Lacey prefers to spend most of his time crabbing and do finfishing more on demand. “A lot of times when the weather bad I will go out fin fishing in the bay so I don’t have get beat up by the waves in the Gulf. I know, I know, it is taking the easy way out.”
“Being a commercial fisherman in the Gulf of Mexico is a tough life,” says Lacey. A deckhand watches as he brings in a basket of stone crabs. Photo: Lacey’s Dream Fisheries Facebook
“Being a commercial fisherman in the Gulf of Mexico is a tough life,” says Lacey. “You have to love what you do, and you have to love to do it every day. You have to go at times when you really don’t want to go, you have to be prepared for things to go wrong.”
It is financially hard to enter the almost any fishery at this point. The young Gulf fisherman would like to see new legislation passed to make it easier to enter the profession.
“We have to re-imagine the next generation of fishermen,” said Father Sinclair Oubre, a board member of the Gulf Seafood Foundation and Treasurer of the Port Arthur (TX) Shrimpers Association. “Many of the children of our current Gulf fishing families have gone on to graduate from universities, or apprentice programs, and are no longer interested in fishing.”
“We have to re-imagine the next generation of fishermen,” said Father Sinclair Oubre, a board member of the Gulf Seafood Foundation and Treasurer of the Port Arthur (TX) Shrimpers Association. “Many of the children are no longer interested in fishing.” Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography
According to Father Oubre, the traditional path of passing on the fishing profession to one’s children is no longer sustainable. “Just this past weekend one of my altar servers was fishing in a high school varsity tournament. I am convinced that among these emerging high school fishing teams there might be a future commercial fisherman,” he said. “We have to develop a Gulf-wide program of communicating the opportunity to turn the sport of fishing into a profession, develop apprentice programs on commercial vessels, and most importantly develop financial programs to assist the young fishermen to purchase licenses and equipment from retiring fishermen.
“Our fishermen are bringing us some of the most sustainable species in the Gulf of Mexico. We are committed to helping sustain their livelihood and at the same time make our restaurants a model for others, both locally and around the world,” said Chef Demarse. “We all need to take care of our Gulf fishermen, pay them the money they deserve for putting the world’s best seafood on our table.
For Lacey he wouldn’t have it any other way. “This is what I was made to do,” he said. “I am very comfortable with what I do. I am happy on the water, I am happy to go to work doing what I love to do, catching fish. I love it. In the end it is really an industry of passion.”
Go Brian go