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FACEBOOK POST. From Ernie Koepf on August 14th, 2021.
Ernie Koepf. You know you’re from Half Moon Bay when…
Mike D. McHenry
As the story was told, Victor McHenry, an airline pilot at Pan Am Airlines, had a boat that had sunk on its mooring in Pillar Point harbor. He told his son Mike one day.
“You can have that boat if you want to re-float it.”
That was enough for Mike to hear. He there began his fishing career at the age of 15, fishing in the summers until he graduated from Half Moon Bay High School in 1961. After that, he went full-time on the water. Prior to all this, he was a daily fixture on Romeo’s pier+ with a fishing pole.
“Mike was a great kid, always fishing from the pier and helping us unload or whatever. Then later, he had the little GG. He’d go down to Three Rocks every day and come in with that boat loaded with ling cod.” Said John Koepf, several years senior and a retired abalone diver.
In 1965 Mike bought the F/V Pescadero and continued his career, now as a salmon fisherman. When his abilities outgrew that boat, he built the Merva W and launched her in 1971, the legendary “blue boat”. She was a steel 63 foot salmon/crab/albacore fishing boat. He made a name for himself throughout coastal California and Oregon as a fun-loving Irishman and a salmon fisherman extraordinaire. Fisherman were drawn to him as a natural leader and he developed a following of these fishermen he led, nicknamed “the Z Squad”.
In the early eighties he pioneered the squid fishery in Half Moon Bay, and he was the first fisherman to send truckloads of squid to market from the waters of Half Moon Bay. The iconic blue boat was by then synonymous with the harbor at Pillar Point and even those that never met Mike felt his presence in the community.
Mike was called upon to refloat a boat once again in 1985 when he sunk the Merva W with too many squid.
“Squid ink you, then sometimes, squid sink you.” Said McHenry at the time.
However, this was not to be the end of the boat that Mike had built and named after his mother. He re-floated her and towed her back to the harbor, where Mike began to tirelessly rebuild the Merva W over the next nine months. Then, the iconic blue boat was born again and continued to deliver millions of pounds of seafood until Mike decided to retire in 2015. Mike was ready to handoff the boat to his son Porter, but not before he made the Merva W unsinkable by sponsoning the boat with air chambers. He was not about to chance another sinking of the blue boat at the hand of his son. The Merva W left the shipyard in Richmond born yet again by Mike’s hands, and better than ever. He retired with his wife and partner, Kim, to their Old Crow Farms in Maxwell, California.
Throughout Mike’s long career, he recognized that it was not enough to just catch fish, it was necessary to lobby for fishermen and to steward the resource. He spoke in front of the California Fish and Game Commission on numerous occasions, and you could hardly find one game warden or official who did not know his name. For his activism and dedication to a lifetime of fishery issues, he was awarded the “Highliner of the Year” Award in 2012 by the Pacific States Marine Commission.
But perhaps his greatest achievement was his contribution to the salmon resource. Mike brought the idea of creating the “Salmon Stamp” to the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, to their directors meeting in Sausalito in 1979. Charlie Fullerton, Director of the CDFG, was present at that meeting and he liked the idea of commercial fisherman taxing themselves to help propagate the resource. Soon thereafter, the salmon stamp was born into existence along with a stamp committee to oversee it’s one objective; to raise more salmon. Raising salmon to smolt-size and trucking them past the Delta was wildly successful. Four years after its inception, California had the record year for landings in 1988 and fishermen enjoyed 25 years of salmon abundance thereafter. The 300% increase of the ocean abundance of salmon was all due to the raising and trucking of smolt size salmon. When the trucking of smolts bogged down in bureaucratic and ideological missteps decades later, Mike stepped in and took the Merva W up the Sacramento River and loaded it with salmon smolts for the next consecutive 6 years, barged them down to the Golden Gate in the Merva W and released them. He personally showed the Department of Fish and Wildlife how to save the salmon from extinction. This year, 1.3 million salmon smolts were released by Fish and Wildlife at the Golden Gate-the total number of all hatchery production in California went to sea from trucks at this location.
Mike requested that no Celebration of Life nor any other type of public Memorial be held in his honor and his partner and wife, Kim, will honor that request. He only wished that people might privately raise a glass and toast him when he was gone. An era has passed and Mike, know we toast you and the memories you gave us.
Mike McHenry lost a long battle with prostate cancer. Mike is survived by sisters Jett Havens of Grants Pass, Ore., and Vicki Small of Kneeland, Ca. Also, his son, Porter McHenry of San Gregorio, Ca., daughter Lindsay Sinclair of New York, New York, wife Kim McHenry of Maxwell, Ca., step-daughters Chelsea Burr of El Granada, Ca and Amanda Burr of Fairfield, Ca. Mike leaves three grandchildren, Eloise and Katherine Sinclair and Kade Michael McHenry.
“Opening Day”
by Ernie Koepf
Overview
“Opening Day” follows the life and times of Alex Skarsen through the eras of commercial fishing along the West Coast. When Alex got into the industry it was a different beast. Over the years it’s changed, but the sea is still the place he goes for solace, affirmation, and a living. This novel captures the flavor of the fishing life and the deep changes in the values of the industry. From Central America to Bristol Bay Alaska, folks carry on their endeavors. But the always looming, dominant factor of money casts its heavy shadow. This wistful, funny novel is a portrait of a culture in upheaval.
Description
Follow the arc of Alex Skarsen’s life. Born into a fishing family, fate offers him the choice to follow in the family tradition. The era of his father’s time has passed, things are different now and the arc now resembles a long learning curve. The things that matter the most remain the same.
About The Author
Ernie Koepf lives in the East Bay with his wife, Jan Moestue. He fished for salmon, crab and herring on the West Coast for over 35 years and is now retired. He has written articles published in Pacific Fishing magazine, run a marine haul-out, was a deputy harbormaster at Half Moon Bay, a member of numerous co-ops and fishermen’s associations and acted as a class representative in the HanJin Shipping Co. lawsuit.
BOOK DETAILS
- Genre:FICTION
- SubGenre:Biographical
- Language:English
- Pages:364
- Format:Paperback
- eBook ISBN:9781098336929
- Paperback ISBN:9781098336912
Author: Coastside Buzz
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