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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 2016)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2016 Crab: ‘There’s no new toxin in the water, we know that’ Afrika: Several dispensaries are using his startup software Continued from Page 1A Continued from Page 1A and the total value of Oregon’s catch came to just $33.7 mil- lion. The price per pound in Washington, particularly at the start of a season, is identi- cal to that set in Oregon. Pric- es can change rapidly, often rising or falling within days of the opener. it to launch a startup that of- fers a point-of-sales software system Afrika built for Ore- gon medical marijuana dis- pensaries. ‘Life-saving break’ ‘I’m a Goonie’ Tri-state planning 7KH 'XQJHQHVV FUDE ¿VK- ery remains closed in Cali- fornia. If and when it does open, Washington and Ore- JRQ¿VKHUPHQZKRDOVRKROG California crabbing licenses will operate under a delay and will have to wait a certain number of days after the Cal- LIRUQLDFUDEEHUVEHJLQ¿VKLQJ EHIRUHWKH\FDQ¿VKWKRVHZD- ters, too. The three states, which run WKH 'XQJHQHVV FUDE ¿VKHU\ under a tri-state agreement, plan to meet later this year to develop a more streamlined set of protocols for dealing with future domoic acid relat- ed closures. “All the states agree that’s needed,” Ayres said. “We just need to let the smoke settle for the current season open- er.” Natalie St. John/EO Media Group A crab-laden boat arrived in the Port of Ilwaco around 10 p.m. Monday. ‘It could end up being a little bumpy at the start.’ Dan Ayres coastal shellfish manager with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife digs, popular in both Oregon and Washington, were shut down last spring after levels of domoic acid in the clams skyrocketed well above health department thresholds of 20 parts per million. Lev- els remained high during the fall and early December. But currently, only one clam test- ed by the state has come back with levels at 19 parts per million, according to Ayres. Toxin details Clams are a key dietary OnMonday, Fish and Wildlife also announced a item for Dungeness crab. “There’s no new toxin in tentative schedule for rec- reational razor clam digs. the water, we know that,” 7KH¿UVWGLJLVVFKHGXOHGIRU Ayres said, later adding, Thursday in Long Beach. The ³:H¶UH SUHWW\ FRQ¿GHQW LW¶V not going to jet up to 110 parts per million like it did last spring.” But Fish and Wildlife will still continue regular testing as required by the state. Ayres said that though it is unlikely that domoic levels will jump XSDJDLQLW¶VSRVVLEOH¿VKHU\ managers could still run into a batch of clams that are hold- ing onto the toxin at unsafe levels. If that happens, the de- partment will have to cancel any digs and hope for another round of clean tests. “It could end up being a little bumpy at the start,” Ayres said. Sea lions: Estimates have the California sea lion population at more than 300,000 Continued from Page 1A increasing numbers of most- ly California sea lion males migrating into the Columbia WR IHHG RQ ¿VK UXQV ZKLOH their traditional food network along the California coastline collapses under warm El Niño conditions. Encapsulating the migration into the Columbia River was a single-day count in March by the Oregon De- partment of Fish and Wildlife of more than 2,300 sea lions Daily Astorian/File Photo lounging in the Port’s East Seals and California sea lions are seen on the docks of End Mooring Basin. the East End Mooring Basin in Astoria in June. /HW¶VEH¿UVW Hunsinger started the sea lion discussion in front of an expansive whiteboard where he wrote notes and drew graphs detailing sea lion pop- ulation growth, predation and the animals’ effects on com- PHUFLDO¿VKHULHVDQGWKH3RUW Oregon and Washington state biologists have no clue what to do about sea lions or how many more will come this year, he said. “They don’t know what’s coming next. They know it’s going to be bigger.” Port staff claim more than $100,000 in maintenance costs because of sea lion dam- age at the east basin, which re- mains largely empty of boats, except for two piers running along a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers breakwater lined with larger vessels. Mean- while, the Port’s West End Mooring Basin has a waiting list of more than 100 boaters trying to get a slip. Hunsinger said Astoria has lost many of its commercial ¿VKHUPHQ WR QHDUE\ SRUWV LQ Warrenton and Ilwaco, Wash- ington. “Are we going to let pred- ators destroy our commercial ¿VKHU\"´KHDVNHGUHQHZLQJ his calls for the Port to take some sort of action against the National Oceanic and At- mospheric Administration. NOAA, through the Na- tional Marine Fisheries Ser- vice, oversees the protection of sea lions under the Marine Mammals Protection Act of 1972, passed when the sea lion population dwindled to fewer than 10,000. Current estimates have the California sea lion population at more than 300,000, with no estab- lished limit on their protected status. “Somebody has to be ¿UVW´+XQVLQJHUVDLGDGGLQJ the federal government is pro- tecting animals to the detri- made around $100,000 knock- ing out corporate reports, he said. Given their situation, how- HYHUZRUNLQJZLWK¿VKEHJDQ to seem pretty compelling. ment of the local community. “Why can’t it be us?” Knight, silent through Hunsinger’s presentation and public comment about sea li- ons, said there seems to be Love ’em or hate ’em A full range of emotions two separate issues: protect- regarding sea lions was on ing the Port’s property against display during the public damage by sea lions, and what comment period of Tuesday’s the Port’s role should be in meeting. Fishermen lamented forming a permanent solution over the revenue they have regarding sea lions in the Co- lost from sea lions in the river lumbia River. “Give me a little bit of time ripping through their nets at to check with our attorney on taking their catch. “We have a species over- what we can do,” Knight said, SRSXODWLQJ´ JXLGH ¿VKHUPDQ adding staff can look at how Jody Mather said. “All you to get grant money to install have to do is manage the barriers for sea lions on the population. Get the numbers Port’s property. Port Commissioner James down. Kill them.” After Mather’s comment Campbell said the Port will came Veronica Montoya of need the help of its top po- the Sea Lion Defense Bri- litical representation. Com- gade, who said she wants to missioner John Raichl added make sure the group has rep- that the Port should have only resentation on any sea lion a support role regarding sea OLRQSUHGDWLRQRQ¿VK committee. Last year, the Port staged “Hunsinger has a personal vendetta against the animals,” creative — if sometimes com- she said, adding he is behold- ical — potential deterrents en as an elected public servant to sea lions at the East End QRW MXVW WR ¿VKHUPHQ EXW WR Mooring Basin, including the tourists who come to see beach balls and a fake orca that capsized. the animals. Butch Smith, a Port of Il- Tensions rose while Mon- toya spoke about keeping waco commissioner invited watch over the east basin by Hunsinger to Astoria to from her house. Mather made talk about sea lions, said his a vague threat from the back port has been heralded by of the room, telling Montoya NOAA for its control of sea to get a life and adding that lions. Smith said Ilwaco joined a he had taken down her ad- dress and those of other sea hazing program sponsored by lion supporter as they intro- NOAA, in which certain peo- duced themselves for public ple are licensed to shoot sea comment. Mather was then lions with rubber bullets, hit quieted by Port Commission them with a pole or use oth- er nonlethal, nonpenetrative Chairman Robert Mushen. “Suing the federal gov- measures to keep them off ernment is a huge, costly docks. He said much of the ef- endeavor,” said Jim Wells, fort around preventing sea li- SUHVLGHQWRIFRPPHUFLDO¿VK- ons is in not allowing anglers, ing advocacy group Salmon FRPPHUFLDO ¿VKHUPHQ DQG for All, cautioning the Port. SURFHVVRUV WR GURS ¿VK SDUWV “We sued the state (of Ore- in the marina. “If the same thing that hap- gon) and didn’t get much out pened to the east end basin (in of it.” Astoria) happened in Ilwaco, we would go broke,” Smith Take a breath Executive Director Jim said. Then Kevin McAdams, the Newly married and de- owner of Hi, hired Afrika to scending into poverty, they be a budtender, one who could shared a doob and discussed also help boost the business’ online presence. their future. “I looked at my wife and “It was a lifesaving break. I asked her: I was like, ‘So, don’t know how else to put it. babe, we’ve been married for a It was literally a lifesaving op- month and a half. We’re about portunity,” Afrika said. “I don’t to be homeless. Let’s talk about know where we would be.” it. What kind of life would you Relieved though he was, like to lead?’” Afrika found an irony in this Rather than remain in the unplanned career move. big city, they came to the North “You want to know what’s Coast, and Afrika freely admits really funny about all of this?” WKDW ³7KH *RRQLHV´ ² D ¿OP said Afrika, a black man raised he saw 12 times in the theater LQ WKH ZKLWH DIÀXHQW WRZQ RI and put Astoria on the map for Brookline in Greater Boston, him — had a lot to do with that Massachusetts: “My whole decision. life, people were convinced “I feel like a super-Port- that I was a drug dealer.” land hipster nerd right now, but He and his family may there is it,” he said. “I was like, have landed on their feet — ‘F--- it, I’m a Goonie.’” DQG$IULND PD\ KDYH IXO¿OOHG a long-held dream of living on the coast — but he knows ‘In survival’ But the Afrikas were home- it could have easily turned out less. They stayed in local mo- otherwise. “What I learned through tels and lived out of their car this experience is that there one night. ³:H ¿JXUHG RXW SUHWW\ are a lot of homeless people. rapidly that we weren’t going This town has a huge transient to survive that way,” he said. population of people passing through who are not half as “Scary characters abound.” They visited the employ- fortunate as we were,” he said. ment department and turned “We were almost one of them, to Clatsop Community Action, and it was a really near miss.” which gave them resources and information. ‘Third eye’ “I had never been destitute Afrika’s forehead bears with a wife and child before. a blue, intricately patterned I’d been a backpacking bum “third eye” (or “inner eye”) before; that’s different ... When — the center of creativity and you’re abroad on a walkabout, intuition in Eastern spirituality you’re not a bum; then you’re that he wanted to “open up.” a traveler,” he said. “It was a The tattoo — which also really stressful time. Because symbolizes his respect for all when you’re homeless, you’re life — is a memento from his not vacationing — you’re in 2001 trip to Montreal, Que- survival. We didn’t know how bec. During that summer, he it was going to turn out.” hung out with a Reggae band, Afrika was preparing to smoked a lot of high-quali- ZRUNDWD¿VKSDFNLQJSODQWIRU W\ SRW IRU WKH ¿UVW WLPH DQG $10 an hour. The job, which he took a “marvelous journey of saw advertised on a laundro- self-awakening.” mat wall, would’ve been quite A man averse to rigid struc- a comedown from the years he tures, Afrika had dropped out of Morehouse College, a his- toric black college in Georgia, DQGJRWDQRI¿FHMREGRLQJWHFK support as a temporary assis- tant. “I could, like, breeze in, save the day, step out,” which he called doing his “Batman impression.” On his ample off-time, Afrika read self-help books at Barnes & Noble. “It was a good time, my college dropout years.” ‘Buffet spiritualist’ Professionally, he was very successful, but the traditional path of the “genius computer kid” meant less and less to him. “At the end of the day, I was desperately afraid that I was going to wind up in an IBM dungeon somewhere banging out code, code-monkey-style, for the next 20 to 30 years,” he said. “That’s my personal ver- sion of hell.” Eventually, Afrika became DFHUWL¿HG\RJDDQGPHGLWDWLRQ instructor. Though a practic- ing Buddhist, Afrika considers himself a “buffet spiritualist,” VRPHRQH ZKR ¿QGV JXLGDQFH across the faith and wisdom traditions. “I kind of take what works for me and leave what doesn’t, and I’m very happy that way,” he said. ‘Pot sells itself’ At Hi, Afrika does for mon- ey what he once did for free: Tell folks how much he enjoys marijuana. “Pot sells itself. I’m mostly just here to chat the people up who come in and help them pick pot,” he said. “But, if I wasn’t here, if we had a vend- ing machine, people would still come in and buy pot.” Meanwhile, his startup soft- ware — designed to keep pace with the rapid changes in Or- egon’s marijuana regulations — is making money and in use at a Cottage Grove dispensary. Several other dispensaries are testing it out, including Hi. “I feel like we’re sitting on something really big,” the yo- gi-vegan-entrepreneur said. “I don’t think I’ve grasped myself what we’ve done.” The Liberty Theater Presents... e T R a la c A kind! ne of a .o .. e ic r ....one p one size THE $99 ART “a la cARTe” SALE A FABULOUS FUNDRAISER FOR THE LIBERTY THEATER . SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 2016: 2 to 3:30pm at the historic Columbia Maritime Barbey Center. Each original piece is created by local NW artists and from across the country. Participants include well- known artists like N OEL T HOMAS , E RIC W IEGARDT , D ARREN O RANGE , C AROL R ILEY , G IN L AUGHERY , D ON N ISBETT and some yet to be discovered newcomers to the art scene. Astoria Visual Arts, Artist-in-Residence Program , will be participating this year at Art ala cARTe. TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW FOR $15 AT THE LIBERTY BOX OFFICE , WHICH IS OPEN WEDNESDAY TO SATURDAY FROM 2 TO 5 PM . LAST DAY TO PURCHASE TICKETS IS JANUARY 15, 2016. S PONSORED BY : US B ANK , T HE D AILY A STORIAN , T HE B ANK OF THE P ACIFIC , AND C OLUMBIA B ANK
