The Pennisi family has a long tradition of fishing and has been trawling in the waters off of California for sustainably caught seafood since the early 1900s.
Giuseppe “Joe” Pennisi started fishing in California when he was seven years old. Beginning his career working on his father’s boats, he has made a career fishing everywhere from Monterey to the Bering Sea. In 2000 he purchased his boat the Pioneer and launched Pioneer Seafoods.

Find Out When We Are Going Fishing!
And More Importantly – When We Are Coming Back in Loaded With Fish!
We Have Moved to the Port of Redwood City!
We have moved our docking location to a beautiful facility at the Port of Redwood City, 459 Seaport Court, F Dock! There is plenty of parking, and we have the yellow food truck where we sell fish and also fish tacos and more. Check the Calendar page to see when we will be open.
Trawl Innovations
Pioneer Seafoods has partnered with the Environmental Defense Fund to modify and enhance our trawling gear. This is has culminated in the development of Pioneer’s “light touch” trawl gear. By modifying the weight and size of our nets, this trawl gear barely touches the seafloor. We estimate that these modifications reduce bottom contact by about 95 percent. Sustainably Caught Seafood is essential to preserving Earth’s ocean ecosystems.
Nothing Beats the Taste of a TRULY FRESH fish! Click Here To See Our Calendar.
Get all the Latest News & Events Right Here
See the story on Channel 7 News about Pioneer Selling Fish off the Boat
FEATURED ARTICLES
“Big Blue Live, Episode 2“
Aired on PBS, September 1, 2015. (Fast forward to 45:54 for the segment on Monterey’s commercial fisheries and Giuseppe’s innovative trawl gear).
“Gear Workshop Highlights Innovators in West Coast Fishery”
By Shems Jud. EDFish Blog.
“The West Coast Groundfish Recovery: The Best Fish News You Haven’t Heard Yet”
By Maria Finn. Civil Eats.
“Monterey Bay Fisherman Experiments with Nets”
By Erin E. Ross. The Californian.
Check Out the Latest Posts from Our Blog
Sea Lion Swims in the Fishing Net
This video was shot during while trawling a highly modified net. GoPro Hero3 and 4's were used along with extreme depth camera housings/lights manufactured by GroupBinc.com. This net was made specifically to sort juvenile fish from mature fish. This selection process reduces by-catch to virtually nothing. Of all the fish that you see coming into [...]
Diseased, Deformed Salmon found in Fish Farms in Canada
Salmon farms in British Columbia have recently been revealed to have substantial numbers of diseased and deformed fish. CLICK HERE FOR THE ARTICLE
Salty Girl Seafood has a great story
Salty Girl Seafood is an all women seafood company and some of the fish they buy comes from an all women fishing vessel the F/V Princess. CLICK HERE to read their story.
Assessing the potential to reduce fuel costs, Benthic Impacts and Discards through trawl gear modification
Innovations developed by Guiseppi Pennisi are shown to reduce fuel costs 30%, reduce discards (bycatch) by 90% and improve quality of the catch.
Ray Hilborn: World fish stocks stable
By Brian Hagenbuch Published on June 12, 2017 Speaking at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit on Wednesday, 7 June in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., University of Washington fisheries researcher Ray Hilborn said the perception that the world’s fish stocks are declining is incorrect, and that fishing could sustainably be stepped up in areas with good management. Hilborn [...]
RESULTS of Public Meeting regarding retail fish sales off boats at Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco
Pioneer Seafoods has been diligently working to bring back direct sales of fish off it's boat at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Participants at this meeting included fishing boat operators, fish processors, fishing harbors, State of California regulators, and City & County of San Francisco regulators, Port of San Francisco staff, and other interested [...]