Dave Hiltz: Fisherman

From the time that he was a ten-year old, mad about fishing in his birth state of New Hampshire, Dave knew he wanted to make a living on the water. That dream led him to the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine; during his final semester there, he read the ad in National Fisherman that would bring him to Isle au Haut. It was the Isle au Haut Community Development Corporation’s first ever call for housing applicants and within months Dave was settling in. During his college years, he worked for Bar Harbor’s highliner, fisherman Gary Parsons. When Dave made the move to Isle au Haut, and had to find room in what is a notoriously territorial profession, it was IAH resident Jack MacDonald who took Dave under his wing.

For twenty years now, Dave has worked as a commercial fisherman aboard his much-loved boat the Sure Thing, making a living from the lobster, halibut, and scallop fisheries. Like many fisherman in the area, he currently focuses primarily on lobstering. Isle au Haut is in the thick of some of the best lobster fishing grounds, and the status of the lobster stock is healthy- a product of regulations Maine fisherman imposed on themselves. Isle au Haut is also unique in that it is one of the few fishing harbors in the state where new boats coming into the fleet would be welcomed; also it is in the only lobstering zone in the state that is still “open entry”- which is to say, lobstering licences are still readily available for qualified applicants.

Dave’s daughter, Abigail, went to the Island School from K-8, and now attends The White Mountain School in New Hampshire.

Whether at sea or on land, Dave keeps busy with trap maintenance, plowing snow, carpentry and woodworking, and handcrafting knives as a sideline business. He currently sits on the town planning board and school board. For him, the bottom line of being self-employed on the island is this: “I like the lifestyle. I like being my own boss- you get out of it what you put into it, and you’ve got nobody to blame but yourself.” When pressed, he’ll also add with a smile, “or your sternman!”