Sponsored story courtesy of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission.
Poggy Lapham experienced a winding path towards a fishing career. His father had a 28-foot troller when Poggy was young; however, his dad sold the boat when he turned 13 years old, right about the time he was becoming interested in the industry. After studying at Cal Maritime in Vallejo, California, he realized how much he liked being on the ocean.
When he was a junior, he received an opportunity to work with Bob Eder, fishing out of Newport. This became a life-altering opportunity, as Poggy decided not to go back to Maritime in the winter but to work for Bob full-time instead. “This was never something I knew I wanted to do,” he explained, “I just kind of fell into it.”
The F/V Michele Ann, once owned by Bob, is now owned and operated by Poggy and his wife, Raysha.
“What keeps me going are the guys I work with,” explained Poggy. “I never want to be in charge from an ego standpoint. But when I see a need for a leadership role, I take it. I never look for it, but it seems to find me.”
Poggy does like being the one in charge of making safety calls, a critical role on vessels. His 15-year-old son works mostly full time for him now, and he feels great responsibility to take his crew out to sea safely, and to “hopefully earn some money in the process.”
It’s universal knowledge in the fishing industry that it’s a family business through and through, and Raysha is an integral part of their business.
“I’ve been around fishermen and the fishing industry most of my life,” she said, laughing, “having been born and raised in Waldport. After a happenstance meeting, we started dating and have a great working relationship.”
She tells one story of a day when it was their anniversary, and they were out to sea. They pulled into Neah Bay just in time for Makah Days, an annual August celebration of the Makah Tribe, who gather and reunite with members, commemorating thousands of years of the Makah ancient culture. There they witnessed the “biggest fireworks display I’d ever seen,” said Raysha. “We spent the night there, and it was special.”
Poggy ended up seasick the next day, and Raysha steered the boat from Neah Bay to Tillamook, waking Poggy up 12 hours later.
“This business is a lot easier if it’s an all-family affair,” Poggy continued, “in my experience, it’s a lot harder to fight it being all consuming than just accepting it. If you fight it, it does become all consuming.”
The volatility and uncertainty of the industry can be stressful and draining. Poggy said, “There are so many different levels of challenges. It’s boom or bust, feast or famine. Regulatory issues play a big part too.” He said having an understanding crew and family, and just a “little bit of faith,” can help overcome the challenges.
“For me, the biggest challenge and thing I take most seriously is that I’m responsible for the families under my watch. There’ve been a couple instances where safety was in question. Those times have shaped the way I run the boat. I take a step back now and make sure to get back to land with all fingers, toes and minds intact, so families can welcome them home.”
There are two things Poggy would rather not leave home without when going out on the boat – his son Gangion and his dog Vlad.
A joyful memory for Poggy is remembering a time with his son, whose “first trip on the boat was at five months old and still breastfeeding”, ran the crab block. “Most of my crew has seen him grow up,” said Poggy. “The crew taught him to move gear around and run the block. He pulls up his first pot ever, stocked full of crab, and he goes to holler to the crew and his voice cracks. We were all laughing so hard we couldn’t help him land the pot,” he said, laughing.
“One thing I try to instill in my son and my crew is that we’re here to make money, but we absolutely do not own the resource. It’s a public resource. We need to sustain the need for seafood. We send some overseas – we need that market – but I’d rather keep people close to me eating it. Whatever we can do to make sure this industry exists for my son’s generation and those after him, that’s what we need to do.”
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