INTERVIEW: Dave Marciano fishes his way to success on ‘Wicked Tuna’
Dave Marciano, captain of the F/V Hard Merchandise vessel on Nat Geo’s Wicked Tuna, lives a life on the open sea, pulling in a variety of fish to make a decent living. The star of the reality series, and its offshoot Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks, is a native of Massachusetts, but his immediate family members were actually not part of the fishing industry. He found this trade himself, and now he’s someone who lives and breathes the salty air of Gloucester, Mass.
He’s also had to welcome the scrutiny of cameras on his vessel and the scrutiny of the blogosphere. As a newfound reality celebrity, the days of being a private fisher who takes to the ocean with the hopes of bringing back a good catch are gone. He’s now under the microscope with stories and social media updates coming fast and furious. One look at his Twitter page can confirm how engaged he is with the many questions, comments and postings.
His time on Wicked Tuna, which airs new episodes Mondays at 9 p.m. on Nat Geo, began with a simple phone call from the production company. “They said, ‘Hey, we got an idea for a show,'” he said recently in a phone interview. “‘We’ve been on several boats. We’ve been talking to other captains, and one thing we noticed is your name came up a lot on all of these other boats.’”
After hearing about the financial prospects of being on the reality series, Marciano agreed to join the show. “When this all started, I did it for a little bit of money at times,” he said. “I never in a million years thought it would get to the level where … [there’s] now season five airing, and I’m talking to you on the phone. I just got done filming season three of a spinoff show.”
To this day, Marciano finds it “funny” watching himself on television. He asks himself questions many TV stars probably ask themselves: Is that what I sound like? Is that what I look like? “I never planned on none of it, but it has been an amazing ride for me and my family,” he said. “It’s been very good for all of us.”
There are a lot of misconceptions about tuna fishing and the reality series in general. First off, Marciano said that some viewers might think that he’s operating a factory-sized boat with huge nets and that his team scoops up every last fish in the ocean. “That’s just not the case,” he said.
He added: “As a fisherman, I would do what I believed was going to be the most profitable fishery as the seasons and the times changed, so I would only go tuna fishing for really a much smaller amount of time before the show just when it was as good as it gets. And as soon as the tuna fishing slowed down, I’d go on to something else. Whereas other guys … they’ll fish day one of tuna season until the very bitter end, and it’s over at the end of the year. … For me, it’s always been during this tuna season, if they show up or can I make some money real quick doing it, and as soon as tuna fishing got slow, I’d go on to something else. … For me, it’s never been about being the biggest and the baddest.”
The cameras are the new development in Marciano’s fishing life. One he shoves off shore, they are recording all the time. What makes the documenting so interesting for everyone involved is that these tuna are not “trained dolphins.”
“It’s not like we can set up the cameras and go, ‘OK fish bite,'” he said. “It doesn’t work like that. There’s a lot of downtime when we’re waiting. … You guys don’t see all the downtime.”
On the open sea there are no do-overs, and Marciano insisted that the Wicked Tuna captains are not actors. There are no reenactments, so if the captains miss a good catch, the tuna is likely gone forever.
“If we try to reenact or do [some] acting, people are going to see right through us,” he said. “Again we’re not actors. It has to be real, so they have to capture it that very first time. And that’s what the real challenge is.”
The life of a reality star has its ups and downs. Marciano knows this quite well after several seasons on Wicked Tuna and its spinoff, and not all the press or social media updates have been positive. He called this newfound fame “a double-edged sword.”
“Now I have a publicist and a manager, and all of those things that we talked about work into your formula for the next opportunity that you might have coming down the road — next show deal, appearance deal,” he said. “I’ll never be just Dave the fisherman again, and part of me was content with that. … Fishing always provided everything we needed. … Everybody was well fed. There’s a certain amount of pride that goes with that. I was content. I loved my job as a fisherman. … My philosophy was, look, in this day and age, if you love your job, and enjoy your job and you make a lot of living doing it, life ain’t all bad. It ain’t all about the money. There’s a part of me that will miss that guy.”
Marciano is staying positive for the future and focusing on the fish. He added in a later email response: “The future looks great for the stock. It’s improving every year. We recently got a 20 [percent] yearly increase in our fishing quota for 2015 and 2016, due to the increases in the Atlantic giant bluefin stock. So with or without the show, the future for me and my son looks great; the measures in place to protect the resources are working quite well. But, of course, we hope to shoot many more season[s] of Wicked Tuna, as [it has] been a great opportunity for myself and my family and a whole lot of fun to be a part of.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Spent a lot of time at fish council meetings with Dave years ago fighting the good fight. He’s a good guy, the real deal. Couldn’t be happier for him and his family.
Don’t know Dave personally, but what the show seems to portray is a hard working individual, not only for his family, but for the fishing industry as a whole and we need more fighters like him for the fish and the fisherman. Just the fact that other fisherman kept bringing up his name for the show, shows the respect he has gained among his peers thru the years.