The Path Toward Lobstering: Kellen O’Maley

Growing up in Gloucester, one of Massachusetts’ biggest fishing towns, Kellen O’Maley was surrounded by fishing. 

His father, a school guidance counselor, and part-time fisherman, took Kellen fishing in the summers. 

In early adulthood, O’Maley went on to college for a business marketing degree in Utah. After college, he came back to Boston to work.

“I realized that with the cost of living (in Boston) I’d just be working to pay rent and my student loans,” said O’Maley.

“I chose to go fishing because I had the opportunity to,” said O’Maley, taking over his father’s boat and fishing permit- a hard-to-get commodity in the area due to limits on permits that makes procuring a new permit impossible. In order to obtain a fishing permit you must buy a boat from someone who already has one.

His current boat is the third one he has had since starting his business, mostly fishing, lobstering and running charters. 

O’Maley describes the job as relaxing, “I take pride in fishing, I just enjoy doing it. I like being out on the water.” That is most of the time, besides the unique demands and challenges present in fishing as well as owning and running one’s own business. 

“The biggest sacrifice is the schedule. The ocean owns you, when the weather’s good you have to go,” explained O’Maley. Being at the whim of the ocean and having the weather decide when you can work and earn money can conflict with spending time with friends or family.

“The list of challenges of being a fisherman doesn’t really stop,” he explains. It’s a lot more than just the fishing or the demanding schedule. Taking care of a boat that is in constant use and worn by the ocean is a big task. 

On a typical day, O’Maley says he’ll get up around two in the morning, grab a coffee and get on the boat by three. After spending a day out on the water, the work still isn’t done. He has to get the fish to the wholesaler and deal with the sales of the lobster he has caught. 

Besides being a demanding job, it can also be dangerous, “There’s significant risk being a fisherman, especially when the water is cold. It is a pretty dangerous job, it’s always on the back of your mind. That’s why we take safety really seriously.” Though the open waters can present danger O’Maley explained that most accidents happen when getting on and off of the boats at the docks.

With all of these challenges in mind, O’Maley still finds great joy in the job. “There’s a feeling you can’t describe; it’s unreal.”

“With most modern gigs- I think society is kind of broken,” said O’Maley. “Fishing has been around forever it’s certainly not a flawed system. You go out, get what you put in and enjoy it.”

“Part of the beauty in it is it’s very simple put a trap put bait in it, catch the lobsters, sell the lobsters. Have a career. At the same time you can go way down the rabbit hole within any fishery with trying to improve it. You know spend more time out there haul more traps catch more lobsters build a better trap try something different you know the possibilities are really endless. You really can pick your poison and figure out what you want to do.”

What he wants people to know about the fishing industry is how much effort is put into conservation by fishermen. He explained that there’s a scale for what lobster they can take in order to keep the fishery going, only taking lobsters that aren’t too big, small or reproducing. 

“In a way people don’t understand that, when we haul up a lobster trap often there’s 20 lobsters in it, we’re just taking one,” said O’Maley. “That’s the way that the fishery has been able to continue itself.”

“Quite often fishermen are looked at as these cruel people who are out raping the ocean and not abiding by the rules. It couldn’t be farther from that.”

“Most guys who partake in this industry are experts at what they do, the last thing any of us want to do is harm what feeds us or pays us.”