John Colgate
Alternate
John Colgate grew up in the San Fernando Valley, and arrived in Santa Barbara in 1965 to attend UCSB. He soon owned several boats and was introduced to diving and the Channel Islands. After graduating, he attended SBCC’s 2-year Marine Tech program, then worked briefly in the commercial oilfield industry. In 1972 he started diving abalone commercially, then many years later, sea urchins. He served ~5 years as President of the California Abalone Association. When the abalone fishery closed, he switched to the Nearshore hook & line fishery until 2011 when he began fishing black cod with longline gear and continues to do so today.
In 1978 John opened up the Santa Barbara Shellfish Co. on Stearns Wharf. and his son, Brian (pictured right), owns the Santa Barbara Fish Market. John has been a member of CFSB for nearly 15 years and has spent 3 years on the board. Participating in several data collection and fisheries management initiatives has opened his eyes to the need for shifting the paradigm of fisheries management from the current use of Fish and Wildlife collected data to manage the fishery, to the use of data collected by fishermen while they fish.
John has been serving as an alternate for Garrett Rose since June of 2023.