BUSINESS COMMENT
2
COAST RIVER BUSINESS JOURNAL
Publisher’s Notebook
Matt Winters • August 2022
Tuna stand for abundance on the North Coast
‘T
he towns that salmon built” would be a good motto for the com-
munities of the Columbia River estuary.
Salmon’s central importance extends back into the distant
reaches of time, to when hardy people fi rst arrived here thousands of years
ago while glaciers still ruled the north.
Much more recently in the mid-1800s, white settlers were astounded
by the abundance they found, with diff erent salmon runs arriving in waves
— more species in far greater numbers than we can imagine. For these
immigrants newly arrived from the East Coast and abroad, salmon were
one of the primary pillars of Pacifi c Northwest life, the others being log-
ging and farming.
August, when the coho run begins, is especially exciting this year.
Albacore tuna are particularly abundant and close to shore. Although
salmon still have totemic signifi cance, albacore started becoming the more
important commercial fi shery 85 years ago.
“The fall 1937 salmon season began with a price of 3 1/2 cents per
pound for salmon. Local fi shermen noticed that albacore was bringing
twice the price of salmon. … The attractive price encouraged fi shermen
to gear up for tuna, and they searched for the feathered hooks, long poles
and heavier lines needed for the new fi shery. Reports even began coming
in about bantam roosters suddenly disappearing from local poultry pens as
desperate fi shermen searched for the colorful feathers needed to hook the
tuna,” author Irene Martin reported in “The Flight of the Bumble Bee,” a
history of the formerly Astoria-based Columbia River Packers Associa-
tion, which later became Bumble Bee Seafoods Co.
Tuna quickly grew into a big factor in the local economy, fi lling a gap in
the schedule for the packing houses that then lined the Astoria waterfront.
“In 1937 CRPA was able to employ more than 100 women to pack
tuna for a long period after the salmon packing was over for the year,”
Martin wrote. Tuna processing became incredibly empowering for local
women. “The hours were regular and the pay was good when compared
to other women’s working wages then prevailing. CRPA/Bumble Bee pro-
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vided benefi ts, including two coff ee breaks featuring fresh baked pastries,
each day. CRPA President John McGowan recalled:
“They were just great women and you know, they just did a heck of a
job and they had a social time doing it as well as a work time... Coff ee time
was really a social hour where those gals gathered around and ... talked
about their kids and what they were doing at home ... as the labor force
was made up principally of Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish women
... they were just the highest quality labor force you could fi nd anywhere.
They were wonderful, wonderful people.”
Time and the fi shery changed, and Bumble Bee packed its last Astoria
tuna in 1980, signalling the end an era many still fondly remember. But as
we report in this month’s edition, the 2022 albacore season is shaping up
to be a great one, perhaps making up for a lousy 2021. Once again, steamy
local kitchens will be the scene of cottage canning operations as local fam-
ilies put up delicious tuna for the months ahead.
It remains good to live in a place of such abundance.
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