Coastal Life
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Story by DWIGHT CASWELL
Former game warden Gene
Witham has many stories to tell
It was two hours past sunset on
Nov.15, 1977, when the HH-3F he-
licopter lifted off into the darkness
from Air Station Astoria bound for
Willapa Bay. The setting quarter
moon was obscured by overcast
clouds, and rain pelted the aircraft.
Strong, gusting winds tore the tops
off the steep waves below.
Not long before the helicopter
took off, the 41-foot U.S. Coast
Guard vessel UTB 41332 had de-
parted Ilwaco for Astoria. She was
running almost broadside to the
heavy seas when the boatswain
heard the hissing of a huge wave.
He leaped for the wheel to steer
into the approaching giant, but he
toward the lightship.
agent, rode with the Coast Guard
crew of the helicopter, and the
mission, to search for commercial
mand. The operation had almost
been scrubbed due to weather, but
Witham
had argued
success-
fully that,
“it was on
nights like
this, when
the weath-
er was in-
clement,
that people
poach.”
‘It was on nights
like this, when
the weather was
inclement, that
people poach.’
another 20 minutes while the “mid-
night sun” searchlight was installed
on the helicopter, at Witham’s insis-
tence.
As the helicopter crossed the
4 | January 8, 2015 | coastweekend.com
of light” out of the corner of his
eye. No one else had seen it, and
the pilot didn’t want to turn back.
There wouldn’t be anybody out
there, anyway, on a night like this.
But Witham had a feeling, and he
was adamant. He recalls that it was
like, “God sitting on
my shoulder, and I
felt, strangely, until
the end of the mis-
sion, that I was al-
most afraid to look at
my left shoulder.”
They turned 270
degrees, and within
minutes were hovering
over the 41332; Witham
of the 10-man crew re-
mained aboard, most
of them clinging to the
overturned hull; big seas
swept the boat, threaten-
ing to tear the hypother-
mic sailors away from their
precarious refuge. What
followed was, according to
the Commendation given
Witham by the Coast Guard,
“an extremely hazardous and
arduous 30-minute operation”
in which, “Mr. Witham’s ini-
tiative, perseverance, and sound
to the successful accomplishment
of this lifesaving mission.”
Witham’s introduction to his fu-
ture occupation came at the age of
6, when he accompanied his game
warden father who was going after a
poacher. The poacher drove his car
directly at Witham’s father, injuring
his leg. Young Gene was instruct-
ed to pull the emergency brake if
Submitted photo
Above: Gene Witham scratches the ear of his dog, Bimbo, in this photo shot in 1962, when Witham
worked as a game warden in eastern Washington.
Left: Gene Witham stands in his home in Cathlamet, Washington.
to McNary Dam, near Kennewick,
Washington. During this time he
participated in what wardens called
the “Indian Wars,” as tribes sought
Columbia. In 1974 the Boldt deci-
Photo by Dw
ight Caswel
his fa-
ther passed out on
the way to the hospital. Almost 60
years later, another poacher pulled
the same stunt on Witham, who was
able to get out of the way and even-
tually see the man jailed for assault-
Witham began his career as a
game warden in the Yakima Val-
ley, and seven years later was pro-
moted to a supervisory position in
the Longview, Washington, area.
There he was responsible for en-
forcing game laws from the ocean
l
giving half the harvest to the tribes.
Both before and after the decision,
enforcement of game laws was,
Witham says, “challenging.” There
was poaching, and game wardens
never knew when shots would be
strations that attracted activists
from around the country; comedian
Dick Gregory called Witham, “the
ed me.”
Witham shifted to federal en-
forcement with the National Marine
Fisheries Service in Astoria, where
he was responsible for enforcing
laws and over a score of treaties re-
eries, marine mammals, and endan-
gered species. In 1981 he moved
to the NMFS in Hawaii, where he
enforced the same laws over most
In Hawaii he spent more time
protecting whales, dolphins and
Hawaiian monk seals. At the time
wind surfers would surf onto or
off of whales, and tourists boats
pursued females and their calves.
Witham helped to regulate whale
watching and to educate the public.
When he retired Witham, was
offered a position with Greenpeace,
an organization with which he was
not in complete agreement, and he
chose instead to spend two years
doing Christian missionary work in
the wilds of New Jersey.
Today Gene Witham lives in
quiet retirement in his Cathlamet
home. After almost 40 years in
game law enforcement he is work-
ing on a memoir, telling a tape re-
corder the same stories he tells his
children and grandchildren.