Meet Your Fisherman - Ficus Chan

If you've visited Bellingham Dockside Market, you’ve likely seen Ficus Chan on market days under the Crab Bellingham sign.

Ficus studied fisheries and resource management and worked in that world, as well as environmental education, for many years. He married into a Bellingham/Alaska fishing family and started helping out his father-in-law who eventually asked Ficus to join him full time. Ficus is from British Columbia and has worked--and continues to work--in fisheries all around the Salish Sea and the West Coast. He commercial fishes for Puget Sound Dungeness crab, and soon Washington crayfish and smelt, as well.

In the summer, he works for the Pacific Salmon Commission conducting biological sampling out of Bellingham. This multi-talented fisherman is also a designated Canadian fisheries observer; he trains all new fisheries observers for the spot prawn fishery, herring, and salmon fisheries in B.C. Seasonally, he coordinates commercial fisheries as the lead at-sea fisheries observer for the B.C. spot prawn fishery where he conducts spawner index surveys and monitors the compliance of the conditions of license.

Ficus believes in the wild food products of our geographic region. He has studied, taught, eaten, and experimented with the countless bounty of our land. "I want to share this with our region--our people. I have a vision for our regional wild foods. What is West Coast food? Let me show you. Let me share it with you!"

Photos: Bellingham SeaFeast, Mia Steben, Grace Freeman Washington Sea Grant Communications Fellow