Our Story
ABOUT
barnes seafood
The coastline of Spencer Gulf, unwavering dedication and sustainable fishing are the three ingredients that combine to form the passion of Barnes Seafood – a passion that has spanned over five generations.
Barnes Seafood is a family-owned and operated commercial fishing business with a vision to supply premium quality Blue Swimmer Crabs sustainably harvested from the pristine waters of the Spencer Gulf, South Australia.
The Barnes family have been fishing in the Spencer Gulf for over 75 years spanning five generations. Garry Barnes, current Director, began his fishing career in the Marine Scale Fishery in 1976. Although retired from the boats, Garry still plays an active role in multiple other areas of the business.
Garry’s son Jarrad, Skipper of Niobe Queen, has been skippering the boats since 2003. He moved to his current Skipper position in 2018 as well as serving as General Manager of the business. Jarrad is actively involved in industry associations, both Marine Scale and Blue Swimmer Crab.
Paul Sims, Skipper of San Andrea has been with Barnes Seafood since 2008. Jarrad and Paul have grown up together in Port Broughton, great mates with a passion for fishing!
Jarrad’s wife Angela manages the communication and marketing of Barnes Seafood through different platforms, including social media, thus allowing an inside look at the process of crab fishing. Angela’s passion is to provide the public with an inside look into this family business and provide information on the processes within the industry
OUR HISTORY
HISTORY
barnes seafood
Dean Barnes, father to Garry, began his fishing career back in 1951 alongside his own father Albert (Dick) Barnes. Dean was a true gentleman with a fervent love of fishing that he carried deep within his core.
For the next 33 years, Dean remained in the Marine Scale Fishery. In 1984 when fishing grounds were closed, Dean along with other Marine Scale net fishers in the Spencer Gulf took up an offer of an experimental crab fishery. This is what started our origins in the crab fishery.
Mona Barnes, the matriarch of the Barnes fishing dynasty and wife to the late Dean Barnes, is an integral piece of the success of Barnes Seafood. Mona’s role in the seafood industry began in 1959 with her involvement alongside Dean in a Marine Scale Fishery licence. Mona has always been heavily involved in the seafood industry and in 2018 was inducted into the Woman in Seafood Australasia (WISA) Honour Roll.
At the ages of 52 and 50, it was a huge risk for them to leave everything they knew and to start in an experimental and underdeveloped fishery. Mona and Dean continued to learn and pursue the Blue Crab Pot Fishery thoroughly.
The couple had three sons and one daughter. The boys Jeff, Garry and Trevor were all keen fishermen. It was Mona and Dean along with youngest son Trevor that pushed on with a desire to bring their love of fishing to the Blue Crab Pot Fishery.
Whilst Trevor joined them on this new venture, Jeff continued to run his own crabbing business Grandax Crab. Garry too continued to operate his Marine Scale license after crabbing for the first two years.
By the time Mona and Dean had purchased a boat and handmade 100 pots themselves, their life savings were gone. Yet, they persisted…
Over the years that followed, there was a lot of trial and error revolving around the design of the pots. There were so many types! Wire netting as used in America, weld mesh, round, hexagon, oblong, rectangle and pyramid. Finally, they decided to settle on stainless steel rings covered in nylon mesh with entrances.
Another obstacle presented itself to the Barnes’s with prices not allowing the business to be profitable, it was time to research value-adding and broaden the search for potential buyers. This, Mona and Dean thought, would create more of a demand for Blue Swimmer Crabs.
The story of the origins of Barnes Seafood in the Blue Swimmer Crab Fishery is one of family, persistence, risk and determination – the rest is history.
