H&M Landing gets new managing partner

SAN DIEGO — H&M Landing has announced Frank Ursitti as the new managing partner of United Sportfishers/H&M Landing in Point Loma.

As managing partner, Ursitti will be handling the day-to-day operations of the West Coast’s largest sportfishing fleet.

When Phil Lobred decided to retire his position of managing partner, which he had held for 36 years, he chose Ursitti as his successor.

“I knew he had the experience, insight, temperament and entrepreneurial spirit to take the business forward,” said Lobred.

Ursitti, 53, has been working in the sportfishing industry since he was a teenager. In the summer of 1977 he began working on sportfishing boats from Channel Islands Harbor and continued to work as a crewman on boats from the CISCO fleet until earning his Masters License in 1981.

He then began operating boats for Channel Islands Sportfishing until February of 1990 when he purchased his first charter boat, Coral Sea, and began spending five months each summer season fishing out of H&M Landing with the balance of the year from Channel Islands Sportfishing in Oxnard.

In 1999 he purchased the first boat he ever worked on, a Ranger 85 to expand and diversify his charter business to include whale watching and eco-tourism adventures in the waters throughout Channel Islands National Park and Marine Sanctuary. He formed
Channel Islands Whale Watching in 2000 and founded Channel Islands Marine Floating Lab, a tactile marine-science field-trip opportunity for students in 1997.

In San Diego Ursitti is excited to be able to offer a school field-trip opportunity with H&M’s whale-watching program that offers a pre- and post-trip curriculum that meets common core state standards.

Founded in 1935, H&M Landing is the West Coast’s oldest sportfishing company, with the largest commercial passenger fleet. H&M offers fishing year-round, for surface game fish in spring, summer, and fall and rock cod through the winter months.