Featured Profile: Don Simpson, CNF Haida Board Member

Throughout Don Simpson’s 30-year commercial fishing career, he has focused on human values—work ethic, moral integrity and honesty—just as much, if not more, than catching fish.

“If you're a fisher, your name is your brand,” says Don. “Your hard work is recognized—the way you carry yourself, the way you act as a team member and how you back folks up. You're building your brand through trust and credibility. You give your word and you seal it with a handshake.”

Born in Prince Rupert, Don is from Old Masset through heritage—his Nani and Chinni are both from Haida Gwaii, the Tsa’aa.ahl 7laanaas Eagle Clan from Naden Harbor. More than 56 years ago, when Don was still in school, his family moved to Chilliwack in search of new job opportunities.

Before the move and also afterward, since he traveled back to Prince Rupert in the summers, Don found himself down at the docks almost daily. “I watched the fishermen come and go, and I remember holding up the net for fishers when they needed to mend it,” he recalls. “I would get a gesture of appreciation, maybe five or ten dollars, which back then was a big paycheck for a young lad.”

Don’s first fishing memory goes back much further, when he was just over three years old, fishing with his dad and using a little yellow fibreglass rod and clanky reel. “We put a piece of bacon on a hook and dropped it in the water,” he remembers. “I caught my first brown bass at a dock in Prince Rupert with that tiny mail-order fishing rod. From that day forward, I never looked back. Fishing is something I've always done.”

He got his true start as a commercial fisher when he was still in high school, on one of his visits back to Prince Rupert. “I went up on a Greyhound bus with my sea bag and some personal items. I had no plan and no place to stay,” he says. “I was kicking around the dock one day, looking for an opportunity to make a couple of bucks.” Don found one guy who gave him a chance to clean his boat and get it ready for the next day fishing. When he came back several hours later, he didn’t just give him a few bucks, but asked whether he’d want to help run the boat for the summer. “I was 15 years old and had my first full size commercial gill netter, fishing for the entire summer,” says Don.

Once he got more established as a commercial fisher, Don’s primary harvest was salmon, but he also fished herring in the winter, in March and April, and halibut.

Processing halibut after a successful catch (sometime in 1995 or 1996).

Asked what advice he’d give young people interested in commercial fishing, Don says it’s most important that you truly want to be out on the water, and that you’re willing to work hard and sacrifice. “The high points of sunny days and full boats, those are the peaks,” he says, but he’s quick to add that they don’t happen consistently and there will always be challenges. “To be a harvester, you have to really want it.”

For Don, a fishing life was never really a question: “I have something in my belly that tells me I have to go fishing.” Don was always looking to push himself and see what the outcome might be. “Quite often failure was the order of the day,” he says, but you have to stay flexible and tolerant. The physical labour of fishing is intense, he says, but the psychological aspects even more so. “It's like living in a tiny home with three or four other people,” he says. “Sometimes it works, as long as there's understanding and forgiveness. When that happens, the camaraderie is very rewarding.”

Don’s advice also extends to what you need to overcome to stay focused and be successful. He says it’s not enough to just manage the challenges that make fishing a tough job—such as variable fish abundance, fickle weather and other limits on your capacity to harvest—you have to stay at the leading edge of it. “You have to harvest enough to meet expenses, but you also have families to raise and bills to pay,” he says. “You can just never give up. When the gear is in the water, you're fishing, nothing else matters.”

While Don was a fisher for a long time—31 years to be exact—he has also made his mark in the business world, and brings that extensive experience to his role on the CNF Board. Currently the Economic Development Manager for Lower Fraser Fisheries Enterprises, which serves 30 First Nations focused on fisheries and related issues in BC’s Fraser Valley, Don was also a Community Development Officer for Stó:lō Community Futures and served the Chilliwack Agricultural Commission for two years as Economic Development Coordinator.

Cutting bait for a day of fishing (1996).

Don’s transition to community and economic development was hastened by the downturn in commercial fishing opportunities that negatively affected so many coastal residents in the 90s. In his late 40s, after three decades of commercial fishing, Don had to build a resume for the first time. “I wrote down all the stuff I did for the past 30 years, but listed it generically without reference to fishing,” he says. “Resource management, situational analysis, ability to multitask—these are all things a fisher does and it was my skills and experience.”

Don knew he needed academic credentials to back up that experience, so he strove for a general education under business management and administration. The first step was re-doing his Grade 12 so he could get into college, which he completed while still working full time. (Don jokes that he had socks older than some of his classmates.) That 10-year academic journey led to a degree in business management, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 2012, and a new career path.

Don says the transition to economic development actually made perfect sense after commercial fishing, because a healthy and thriving fishing sector contributes to the economy in so many different ways. “There’s the fuel, gear, tools and shipyards, then all those mechanics and technicians who benefit from a viable fishing industry,” he says. “Economic development was just an extension of that.”

Don believes the same skills and tools for success apply for any business, just as they do for commercial fishing. “First, you must build your brand, and show that you're trustworthy and honest,” he says, adding that good character, integrity and trustworthiness will bode you well through your entire career, whatever it might be.

When the opening came up for a Haida representative on the CNF Board, Don’s first thought was that it was a great opportunity to create positive change for the Haida people and for all coastal communities. He says the learning curve was steep, but with that learning came a huge appreciation for what had already been accomplished and genuine excitement for what’s to come. “My experience was one of deep respect for the responsibility of the Board,” he says. “It's incredibly important work because the youth are watching. If they see the success it brings, even if it's slow, it will be a very solid foundation for the future.”

Don’s vision for CNF is that it will help restore a healthy fisheries sector across the North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii, but also that it’s durable enough to stand the test of time.

“This entity is still growing, but it’s not just a continuation of a colonial program—it’s an enterprise where we’re the drivers and we command the narrative,” he says. “We’re going to convey that to our youth and make our Elders proud. We're also going to honour our ancestors.”

Fishing off Haida Gwaii in Freedom, a vessel Don had for five consecutive seasons, 1988 to 1992.