INTERVIEW: Captain Paul Hebert is ready to hook ’em on ‘Wicked Tuna’ finale

National Geographic’s Wicked Tuna, with its season-three finale airing Sunday, June 8 at 9 p.m., follows a group of Gloucster, Mass.-based captains as they head out to sea looking for bluefin tuna. The potentially lucrative business means hardship and heartache on the swelling ocean. No one knows about these difficulties more than Paul Hebert, captain of Miss Sambvca. He’s an affable New Englander who serves as the boss of his older brother Bruce. The two Heberts compete on the show for the largest takes, often butting heads with famed captain Dave Carraro (read our interview with him here).

Preparing for the season finale, Paul told Hollywood Soapbox he was happy with the results of last year’s fishing season. “We ended up giving it a big push at the end,” he said in a phone interview. “The boat had a lot of problems, you know. We got everything fixed and got it together.”

One of the interesting dynamics of the season was having Bruce as his first mate. Work and family don’t always mix well.

“It’s different with family members. Bruce and I have been fishing together for almost 30 years off and on, and I’m actually the only one out of my family that can fish with Bruce. (laughs) You know how it is if you work with family in any job like carpentry or whatever. You feel more free to speak your mind than you do with a stranger. So we don’t hold back. When we get our stuff straightened out, boy, we are pretty dangerous. We catch a lot of tuna, and that’s the bottom line. We’re here to feed our families, and that’s what we do best.”

Paul is the youngest of six boys, and every last one of them has been involved in fishing. He said from his grandfather to his father to his siblings, theirs is a life on the open water. “That’s all we were taught to do, and we just took up the trait of our family,” he said. “Fishing is what we do best. And, obviously, you learn other things on the way of being on a boat, like being a mechanic and all that kind of stuff.”

Working with Bruce has been rewarding, even if it has been contentious at times. But what about the king of Wicked Tuna? Carraro’s name, perhaps feared by fish and fishermen alike, is often cited as the best of the bunch, at least on the reality series. Paul has been lifelong friends with the bluefin tuna expert, but that didn’t stop his unceremonious firing from Carraro’s boat a couple seasons back.

“We will always be talking because we’ll always be competitive. Even I’m competitive with my family. It’s just the way that fishery is. There’s so much involved, and here we are going after trophy fish. I mean giant bluefin are the strongest, most beautiful fish in the ocean. Plus, they are a delicacy over in Japan, so that makes them worth a lot of money. So there’s always a lot of tension when you’re going out for the fish. So David and I are on speaking terms, but it’s the same with every captain. We all have a beer at the end of the day at the bar, but we will be competitors on the ocean all the time.”

That spirit of competition has been with Paul since he was a child. He remembers as a young man pulling in 900-pounders when the price was quite low, hovering around 50 cents a pound. “When you come in with a 900-pounder, and your older brother doesn’t, that’s very competitive there,” he said. “Of course, there’s going to be sour moods. It’s not like other fisheries. This fishery is separated from other fishing because we’re talking about 1,000-pound tunas. You know? And plus, they could be $20 a pound. That’s a big pay day on top of catching a big fish.”

No matter friend or foe, Paul seems most interested in taking care of his family. He said he fishes to make it through the winter, feed his daughter and have a shot at the next season of fishing, which historically runs from June 1 to December, or until the government-sanctioned quota has been reached.

Want a taste of the bluefin industry? Head to the shores of Gloucester, Mass., an historic seaport with a “beautiful fishing community,” Paul said.

“Gloucester is between Maine and Cape Cod. It’s right in the middle, so it’s kind of a nice place to fish out of. You can either fish off Gloucester or go left or right. You’re right in the middle of all the fishing grounds. It’s a good place to fish. All the fishermen from there are really hard workers, really hard workers. The natives from Gloucester, very good fishermen.”

When Paul has a monster on his hook, the “adrenaline rush” still gets to him. It’s almost like he’s transported back to the old days when he competed against his brothers.

“If you love to fish, and you go on a boat to go chartering for a tuna, and if you hook up, you guaranteed will go buy a boat and try to go tuna fishing. You will be hooked for life. It’s the most addicting fishery ever. That’s why we keep doing it. I mean some people lose their shirt. I mean look at us. This year was a very tough year for a lot of us. … But they are still doing it because of that payday, that one day you took a fish and made $15,000. It pulls you right out of the hole. That’s why Bruce and I will never give up. We put up with all of the arguing and the fighting, but we always never give up. We always push because we know we can make it happen.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Wicked Tuna airs its season-three finale on National Geographic Sunday, June 8 at 9 p.m. Click here for more information.