Oliver Steven Bosarge was born August 31, 1958, into a family that can trace its heritage to the first French settlers of the Gulf Coast region. Having long participated in the harvesting of oyster, crab, fish and shrimp, the Bosarge name is synonymous with the seafood industry along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
As a young boy, Steve grew up working on the “Pride of St. Tammany” with his father Clyde as did his mother and three siblings. His task as a youngster was to steer the boat back around to the north side of the barrier islands to be anchored up after a night of shrimping. This experience led to his ability to take the boat out on his own with his brothers for weekends and summers of shrimping at the mere age of thirteen. By age seventeen, Steve purchased his first shrimp boat- a fifty-two-foot wooden hull named “Double Trouble”. The day following his high school graduation in May of 1976, he took his new vessel on her maiden voyage in search of shrimp.
Steve married his high school sweetheart, Sandra, in 1979 and not long after decided it was time for a bigger boat. He purchased the “Capt Wick”, a new sixty-five-foot steel hulled boat. Steve would shrimp on the “Capt Wick” and, during the off season, would fish for pompano and sheepshead on his T-craft, thus growing his business. With the birth of their first child in 1981 and the expanding family business, Sandra became the land-based head of operations for “Bosarge Boats, Inc.” Carrying on the tradition of a family crew, Steve and Sandra brought their three young daughters out on the “Capt Wick” for their first Mississippi shrimp season opening.
“Bosarge Boat, Inc.” expanded its fleet with the addition of the “Reva Rose”, a 76-foot steel hull built in the 1970’s by A.W. Covacevich Shipyard. Since this purchase, “Bosarge Boats” has continued to expand and now boasts a fleet of trawl vessels and modern deck boats. Not only has the company expanded its fleet, it has also developed its dockside facilities, which now span more than fifteen acres along the Port of Pascagoula, providing efficiency and superior vessel support.
Oliver Steven Bosarge’s efforts have been recognized have been recognized in his appointment to serve as representative and liaison to several fishing industry related organizations. These include the Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Advisory Panel, the Blue Crab Task Force, the Southern Shrimp alliance and the Commissioner for the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. In 2004, the national Marine Fisheries Service, observing his contributions to the Gulf Coast, asked Steve to travel to Australia with them, as a commercial fishing liaison to implement specific trawling gear into the Australian industry.
Through all the growth of “Bosarge Boats, Inc.” Steve Bosarge has never forgotten what’s important above all else: the utmost safety of staff and crew, superior operational performance, and the health of our marine ecosystem.
For all these efforts, Oliver Steven Bosarge has been inducted into the Maritime & Seafood Industry’s Heritage Hall of Fame.
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