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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2016)
KIDS CELEBRATE RETURN OF TUFTED PUFFINS • PAGE 2A 143RD YEAR, NO. 209 DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2016 ONE DOLLAR Solving a clearcut image problem Oregonians favorable to forestry but not logging practice By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Laurie Weitkamp, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, checks a juvenile steelhead caught in the Columbia River near Cathlamet for a tag. Plucked from the river Biologists study young salmon for wetlands restoration consequences By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian ATHLAMET, Wash . — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to know how wetland restoration efforts are benefi ting juvenile salmon as they feed in the mouth of the Columbia River on their way to the Pacifi c Ocean. Trying to answer that question are multiple fi eld teams working under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacifi c Northwest National Laboratory. “I think, in part, we’re spending a lot of money on restoring wetlands, and there’s some controversy in that, because it’s not cheap,” said Kurt Fresh, the principal inves- tigator in the migration study and head of the estuarine and ocean ecology program in the National Marine Fisheries Science Cen- ter, part of NOAA. “And there’s a question of how effective all this work is. Are we get- ting the benefi ts people think we are?” C Fishing for yearlings Fisheries biologist Laurie Weitkamp leads one of Fresh’s fi eld teams that catch , dissect and preserve migrating juvenile salmon on the main channel of the Colum- Oregon’s timber industry has a blemish on its otherwise positive public image: Peo- ple consider clearcutting unsightly. Most Oregonians know that state law requires trees to be replanted after harvest, but clearcutting is nonetheless associated with negative words, including “ugly,” “sad” and “greed,” according to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, which educates the pub- lic about forestry. According to an OFRI survey, 68 per- cent of Oregon residents had a favorable view of the forest products industry — more than for tourism, construction and high-tech manufacturing — and 62 percent agreed that current forest protection laws are strong enough. See TIMBER, Page 8A ‘Cadillac’ health drives Gearhart’s budget rise Short-term rental fees to offset increases By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian NOAA biologist Laurie Weitkamp extracts the liver from a juvenile steelhead. The liver was then frozen and packed to be sent to a lab for testing. bia . The samples they collect tell research- ers how the fi sh indirectly benefi t from wet- lands they pass by. On a misty morning Friday, Weitkamp and her contracted research and boat crew from Ocean Associates Inc., headed out of Elochoman Slough Marina in Cathlamet in the research vessel Tyee, followed by a smaller skiff. Together, the vessels trawled for several minutes in the main channel of the Columbia next to the Julia Butler Han- sen National Wildlife Refuge, and near a recently restored wetland at Steamboat Slough. See SALMON, Page 12A GEARHART — Planning costs, legal fees and health insurance are driving the Gearhart budget to almost $1.7 million, up about $200,000 from last year. Some of these costs will be addressed by proposed short- term rental fees, which could bring in about $140,000 in revenue, City Administrator Chad Sweet said. In a public meeting on the budget with members of the City Council and the Budget Committee last week, Councilor Dan Jesse questioned health care costs. “The fi gures seem quite high for 10 employees,” Jesse said. See GEARHART, Page 8A Ghost fi shing land mines: Cleaning up lost fi shing gear By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press WARETOWN, N.J. — They are the land mines of the sea, killing long after being forgotten. Abandoned or lost fi shing gear, including traps, crab pots and nets, litter the ocean fl oor in coastal areas around the world. Many con- tinue to attract, entrap and kill fi sh and other marine life in what’s called “ghost fi shing.” Groups, governments and companies around the world are engaged in efforts to retrieve and recycle as much of the abandoned gear as they can get their hands on. The goal is to protect the environment, prevent marine life from being killed, remove threats to navi- gation, and in some cases, generate energy. Pascal van Erp, a Dutch diver who was horrifi ed by the amount of abandoned fi shing equipment he encountered, founded the Ghost Fishing Foundation to tackle the issue. 90 Days No Payments! $30 VISA Gift Card for All Buyers “The problem with lost gear is enormous,” he said. “It is found in all seas, oceans and inland waters at all depths, along the beach and under the sand. I think the problem never can be resolved completely, but we can keep it from getting worse by showing the problem to the public and the authorities.” Lost traps For as long as mankind has been fi shing, it has been losing some of that gear, but the prob- lem has become particularly acute in recent decades with rapid advances in technology and the expansion of global fi shing fl eets. Industry experts and scientists estimate that commercial fi shermen lose about 10 per- cent of their traps per year to bad weather, currents that drag them to far-fl ung places or boats that sever tie lines intended to keep them in place. See GHOST FISHING, Page 12A April 28 to May 1 AP Photo/Wayne Parry Robert Cericola, a commercial crabber, shows some of the 103 discarded crab traps he and others retrieved from Bar- negat Bay in and around Waretown, N.J. in just one week. See Page 4 for more details! Four Coast a Auto Deale l rs & One A mazin g Credit Union !
