Dennis is a second generation fishermen with nearly 50 years of experience in the fishing industry. His family has deep ties to the industry with his father having launched the Washington Crab Producers group in the late 1950s which became the largest dynamic force for Dungeness crab on the West Coast. With that legacy fueling him, Dennis spent the better part of 40 years fishing, owning and operating boats, and providing employment to others in the industry. It’s easier to list the places where Dennis hasn’t fished than it is to give an exhaustive list of where his fishing career has taken him. Up and down the West Coast of the US, into Alaska, down to the Gulf of Mexico and as far away as Russia. These are just a few spots where Dennis has fished in his career.

He’s owned and operated 20 different vessels that have ranged from 30 to 200 feet and been manned by crews as large as 36. He’s had as many as 150 people employed on the ocean fishing for him at any given time, and more than 600 employed on land.

With an education from St. Martin’s College in Business Administration, Dennis has always had an innovative approach to fishing with Ocean Gold being a prime example of that innovation as one of the most significant Pacific whiting shoreside facilities on the coast. A Grays Harbor native, Dennis has lived in Westport for 45 years where he has raised all three of his children, each of whom are currently active in the fishing industry.