Portfolio History
NOVA Fisheries
1986 – 2021
NOVA Fisheries, Inc. was founded in Seattle in 1986 and operated for 35 years as one of the Pacific Northwest's most quietly influential seafood companies. At its peak, NOVA was a primary producer, vessel operator, and processor across king crab, snow crab, Dungeness crab, salmon, halibut, cod, and more — with finished products reaching retail and restaurant markets in all fifty states and more than twenty countries.
Founding & Early Vision
Before there was a NOVA Fisheries, there was a young marine biology student at UC Berkeley with a fascination for where food comes from and how it gets to your plate. That student was Bob Simon, and over the next four decades he would build one of the Pacific Northwest's most quietly influential seafood companies — one that helped pioneer entire fisheries, financed operations in numerous countries, and brought some of the ocean's most prized catches to dinner tables in more than twenty countries.
After finishing his marine biology degree, Simon pursued graduate work in public health and bioengineering, then spent time in the early days of shrimp farming in Ecuador before transitioning to wild-caught fisheries in Alaska with SeaWest Industries, a company later acquired by Trident Seafoods. By the time he launched NOVA, he had seen nearly every corner of the seafood industry — and identified a gap nobody else was filling.
That gap was financing. The fishing and processing industry had long struggled to access traditional capital. Banks were often uncomfortable with uncertain catch, unpredictable weather, and the other unknowns of nature. Simon built NOVA in part to solve that problem, providing financing alongside production and processing in a vertically integrated model that was unusual for its time.
Expansion & Operational Scale
The Alaska weathervane scallop is one of the largest scallop species in North American waters and is considered a delicacy by those who know it. For years, it was also largely underdeveloped commercially. Scientific understanding of the species was limited, and industry participation was small. NOVA changed that, spending 25 years investing in the weathervane scallop fishery in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea and helping establish it as a viable commercial operation.
Then in 2005, NOVA did something even more ambitious. The company helped pioneer the southern king crab fishery in the South Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Argentina — a significant geographic expansion into waters that had not yet been commercially established at that scale. It was the kind of move that defined how Simon approached the industry: patient, research-driven, and willing to take the long view.
Over the decades, NOVA operated as a primary producer, vessel operator, and processor across a wide range of species. The company's finished seafood products reached retail and restaurant markets in all fifty states and more than twenty countries. But what set NOVA apart wasn't just its scale — it was its willingness to invest in fisheries that others hadn't yet figured out.
Legacy & Sale
By 2015, Simon began stepping back. NOVA divested its fishery holdings, though it continued manufacturing in cooperation with other vessel owners. In December 2021, the company completed the sale of its manufacturing and customer business, formally closing out 35 years of operations.
Looking back, Simon has said his proudest memories aren't about the catch or the revenue — they're about the people. NOVA team members, of which there were dozens and so many worthy of mention, included at the outset Blair Culter, Luci Nigro, Jana Kurtz, Michael Lucarelli, Alexander Merebashvili, and Igor Yartsev — pioneers, each of them. Also deeply appreciated and worthy of recognition were vessel owners, processors, and long-standing customers who became partners over decades. "Truly one thing I'm proud of is the privilege we've had to collaborate with a lot of really good people," he told Undercurrent News in 2016. "It was almost unfair that my name was identified with the company when so many people made it successful."
NOVA Fisheries may no longer be in operation, but its fingerprints are on two commercial fisheries that continue to thrive today — the Alaska weathervane scallop and the southern king crab fishery off Argentina. For a company that spent 35 years doing important work quietly, that's a legacy worth knowing about.
