Page 7 - Priorities #20 2002-October

Alumni Profile
This Fisherman's Line Is National Oceanic Policy
As a boy, Pietro Parravano turned down invitations to fish in Michigan's many lakes and rivers. "The idea," Parravano remembered, "was too boring." One day, that all changed.
Today Parravano is a commercial fisherman, selling his catch of king salmon, Dungeness crab and rockfish at farmers markets in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. And he has become an advocate for the family fisherman, serving on a number of commissions and panels including the Pew Oceans Commission, which is developing a blueprint for national oceanic policy; the Bay-Delta Advisory Panel, overseeing the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary and its watershed; and the San Mateo County Harbor District, managing a commercial fishing harbor and a recreational harbor.
Parravano knows exactly when he had his change of heart. He was teaching chemistry, physics and earth science at the Priory in 1980 when a fellow teacher, John Hofferd, asked him if he wanted to go sport salmon fishing. "It was my first experience of fishing in the ocean," Parravano said. "The fog and gentle movements of the ocean accentuated all the smell, excitement and anticipation." He was hooked. He bought a 19-foot Boston whaler and spent the summer fishing. He enjoyed it so much that, though he taught for one more year, Parravano decided to try fishing full time at the end of the term.
That trial run has lasted more than two decades, although many people tried to dissuade Parravano from fishing.
"I traveled up the coast looking for a vessel that was more accommodating than the small boat that I had. Just about every fisherman that I talked with said, 'Don't get into fishing-it is too hard; the regulations will put everybody out of business.'"
Instead, with the help of a patient wife, Joan, a registered nurse he met while working at a hospital during graduate school, Parravano made oceanic life his career. He bought a 35-foot wooden salmon troller named Anne B. and learned that "fishing is the last thing a fisherman gets to do." You have to maintain the boat and equipment, know how to navigate and read charts, have a business sense and be disciplined. "Then, after all that—one gets to go fishing."
Within a few years, Parravano began involving himself in issues affecting local fishermen: namely,
how do you protect the waters so they continue to provide a habitat for the very fish you catch? To that end, Parravano is engaged in a campaign to ensure that coastal development is limited, pollutants are eliminated, and the fish are able to thrive.
Parravano was born in Princeton, N.J. and moved to South Bend, Ind., for a few years before his family settled in Ann Arbor, Mich. His father was a professor in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan. After graduating from the Priory in 1967, Parravano studied at Santa Clara University for two years before returning to the Midwest to finish his undergraduate studies in chemistry at Eastern Michigan University. As he was completing a master's degree in biology there, Fr. Christopher called and offered Parravano a teaching position.
Parravano believes he owes his career to the Priory, both because of the colleague who introduced him to ocean fishing and for the discipline the school, and Fr. Christopher, instilled in him.
"We studied very hard in the classroom and we played soccer very hard after school," Parravano said. Fr. Christopher "brought out the strength and depth of the mind" through writing assignments and discussions. "On the soccer field, he exercised the strength of the body by yelling out, 'Shoot the ball!' "
And there was a simplicity to Priory life in the 1960s that Parravano found appealing. "That simplicity showed me that one does not need a lot of material things in life. You, with your mind and body, are the most important elements that one needs to have a happy and successful life."
-G. Young
Pietro Parravano, Class of 1967 Lives in Half Moon Bay.
Wife: Joan
Favorite activities: cooking, bicycling and educating people on marine-related issues Professional field: commercial fisherman and advocate for sustainable fishing
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