DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2016
143RD YEAR, NO. 203
ONE DOLLAR
Oregon LNG withdraws Warrenton project
Opponents react
with shock, relief
By ERICK BENGEL and
DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
WA55E1TO1 — After a decade
of ¿ghting Oregon L1G’s push to
build a $6 billion terminal and pipe-
line proMect on the Skipanon Penin-
sula, &heryl -ohnson had no idea if an
end was in sight.
“I hoped that I would see it in
my lifetime, but I didn’t know,” said
-ohnson, the 6-year-old co-chair-
woman of &olumbia Paci¿c &om-
mon Sense.
The ¿ght came to an abrupt end
Friday, when Oregon L1G informed
city and state of¿cials that the com-
pany will withdraw the proposed liq-
ue¿ed natural gas development.
MORE INSIDE
A timeline tracking
Oregon LNG is on Page 5A
The move ended a dozen years of
acrimony over a controversial proMect
that galvanized residents to protect
the &olumbia 5iver and caused polit-
ical upheaval in &latsop &ounty.
Warrenton Mayor Mark KuMala
said he was told by a company rep-
resentative that Leucadia 1ational
&orp., the 1ew York-based holding
company behind the proMect, was no
longer willing to bankroll the effort.
Skip Urling, the city’s community
development director, said he was
told Oregon L1G would not proceed
with an appeal of a city hearings of¿-
cer’s decision to deny the terminal.
The hearings of¿cer had approved the
pipeline portion of the proMect.
Records
abound
at Daily A
meet
Possible ripple
in ecosystem for
predator species
By KELLY HOUSE
The Oregonian
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
1early a year into a West &oast sardine ¿sh-
ing ban enacted to protect the collapsing pop-
ulation, the ¿sh formerly worth more than $8
million to Oregon’s economy have shown no
signs of a comeback.
1ew federal research indicates numbers of
the small, silvery, schooling ¿sh have plum-
meted further than before the ¿shing morato-
rium, dashing any hope of lifting it in 2016.
With the current sardine population hov-
ering at percent of its 200 peak, ¿shermen
now say they expect to wait a decade or more
to revive the ¿shery.
“I don’t want to take a pessimistic view, but I
would think we’ll be shut down until 200,” said
Ryan Kapp, a Bellingham, Washington, ¿sher-
man who advises the Paci¿c Fishery Manage-
ment &ouncil on sardines and other ¿sh.
Sardines aren’t struggling in isolation.
Other ¿sh near the bottom of the marine food
web, such as anchovies and herring, are also
down. The shortage of sustenance is rippling
upward to create crises for predator species
from seals to seabirds.
Researchers can’t tell exactly what’s driv-
ing the die-off, nor how long it will last. Some
say the crash can be attributed to cyclical
boom-and-bust population dynamics sardines
have always exhibited.
Others argue over¿shing played a role,
driving sardine populations down too far and
too fast to blame it on a natural population Àux.
Then there’s the unavoidable presence of the
“warm blob,” a lingering mass of overheated
water that for more than two years has wreaked
havoc on sea life off the Paci¿c coast.
“Those ocean life patterns are Must not
working the way they have in the past,”
said Michael Milstein, a spokesman for the
1ational Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration, the federal agency that tracks sardine
numbers. “There’s a feeling that a lot of this is
environmentally driven.”
S
See MEET, Page 10A
See LNG, Page 5A
Scientists
worry as
sardines
collapse
Astoria rewrites
the books with
six top wins
EASIDE
—
Star-stud-
ded, record-setting, perfect
weather … what more could
you ask for in a track meet?
The 2016 Daily Astorian Invi-
tational was all of the above and
a little bit more Saturday at Sea-
side High School, where the
Gulls played the perfect host for
this year’s annual event, now in
its 28th year.
You want stars?
Athletes from the state track
champion Astoria girls and the
state cross country champion
Seaside boys made the meet a
virtual “Who’s Who” of Oregon
track and ¿eld at the A level.
Meet records?
Once again, the Astoria girls
stole the show. Actually, the Lady
Fish are the show.
Astoria athletes set SIX new
meet records (and narrowly
missed a seventh), as the Lady
Fishermen continue to rewrite
the books on their way to a spe-
cial season.
The local schools all had a
chance to strut their best stuff.
Ilwaco sprinters, Warrenton hur-
dlers, Seaside boys distance run-
ners, the Astoria girls in every-
thing …
All in all, a fun day of track
and ¿eld on the 1orth &oast.
The records, meanwhile, were
coming fast and furious.
On the track, Astoria soph-
omore Kaylee Mitchell ran the
meet’s ¿rst sub- minute 1,00
meters, running 8.1 to break
the mark of 0., held by
Astoria’s Katie &hoate.
Astoria’s 00-meter relay
Tuartet of Gracie &ummings, 9ic-
toria Kee, Mitchell and 1atalie
&ummings had the best time of
0.6, Must missing the 0.1
meet record.
A hearing on Oregon L1G’s
appeal was scheduled before the &ity
&ommission for early May. But Url-
ing said he was informed that “they’re
done. They’re not going to ¿ght the
hearings of¿cer’s position.”
Richard Glick, a Portland attorney
representing the company, advised the
state Department of Environmental
Quality in an email Friday afternoon
Ripples in the food chain
Photos by Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
TOP: Astoria’s Darian Hageman reacts after breaking the Astoria school record during the high
jump event at the Daily Astorian Invitational Track Meet at Seaside High School on Saturday.
ABOVE: Astoria’s Kaylee Mitchell wins the girls 1500-meter race during the Daily Astorian Invita-
tional Track Meet at Seaside High School on Saturday. More photos at DailyAstorian.com
The Paci¿c ¿shery council’s rules call for
a ¿shery shutdown if the total weight of adult
sardines falls below 10,000 metric tons.
When the population fell below that thresh-
old last spring, council members scrambled to
enact a midseason shutdown.
See SARDINES, Page 10A
Astoria’s well-traveled second baseman
And from Day 1, sports have
amboy Tuimato isn’t the
always been a big part of his life.
¿rst baseball player to travel
S a different
Tuimato is currently Asto-
road to play for the
Astoria Fishermen.
Players past and present have
come from Ilwaco, Knappa,
1aselle, etc. — but it’s safe to
say that Tuimato did (of¿cially)
take the longest road to get here.
And since arriving two years
ago from Tillamook, by way of
Hawaii and Portland, he’s lovin’
life as a Fisherman.
“I like it,” Tuimato said. “It’s
de¿nitely a lot different from
Tillamook. When it comes to
expectations and what we are
supposed to be producing, it’s
way higher here. Especially
with coach (Dave) Gasser. He
doesn’t settle for anything but
your best.”
A Munior at Astoria, Tuimato
is in his second year at the high
school, after transferring from
Tillamook following his fresh-
man year.
He was born in Portland, but
spent the ¿rst few years of his
life in Hawaii before returning
to the mainland. He has family
from Samoa and Hawaii, to &al-
ifornia and Utah.
“My dad is from American
Samoa, a small village called
Alao, and my mom grew up in
Oahu,” Tuimato said.
ria’s starting second baseman in
baseball, batting sixth on your
scorecard.
While he has seven hits in
2 at bats so far (.22), Tuimato
has an on-base/plus slugging per-
centage of .8, one of the high-
est on the team. But his one spe-
cial trait or area of expertise
seems to be getting hit by pitches.
“Mr. HBP,” a.k.a. “Booskee”
and “Lil Sammie” on his Face-
book page — Tuimato has been
hit by pitch a team-high four
times so far this season (seems
like more), after he was plunked
11 times last year to lead the team.
Daily Astorian/File Photo
See TUIMATO, Page 10A
Samboy Tuimato was a volunteer coach in last summer’s
Jordan Poyer Football Camp.