10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2016
Gillnetters: ‘Unless something
changes, there’s no future in this’
Continued from Page 1A
Walters estimates that 30
percent of his income comes
from gillnetting, while the
remainder is made hauling in
crab pots during Dungeness
season. He said the smaller
share of income from gill-
netting is a direct result of
increasing regulations, some
of which are meant to protect
Chinook (also called kings)
and chum salmon (also called
dogs) in the bay.
“We basically don’t even
get to fish for Chinook any-
more. That’s a big part of
our season gone. Now we’re
losing part of our silver fish-
ing because of the kings, and
dogs, too. We’ve got nothing
left,” Walters said. A gillnet-
ter for past 35 years, Walters
feels that the future is dim for
the industry. Frequent rule-
driven closures, increasing
costs for fuel, gear and repairs
have further distanced a new
generation from getting into
the gillnetter occupation.
“Unless
something
changes, there’s no future in
this,” he said.
Finding a new profession
isn’t a consideration for Cow-
ell, who feels he has found his
true calling.
“We’ve been here our
whole lives. This is more
than just a job. This is our
culture, a way of life. It’s a
calling for very small share
of people who are indepen-
dent and are willing to take
chances. Commercial fishing
has always been risky busi-
ness financially and physi-
cally. We’re ambitious and
hardworking men, it’s not
like we can’t make a living
another way, but we would
like to make a living the way
we always have and want to.
This is a renewable, sustain-
able resource and always has
been until recently,” he said.
Economic impacts
The dwindling number of
gillnetters has been alarm-
ing to others dependent on
the industry. The impact of
new 2015 regulation com-
bined with fewer gillnetters
has had a domino effect on
other Pacific County indus-
tries from processors to
wholesalers.
“On a good year on the
Willapa, there was easily
60 boats fishing,” said Dean
Antich, general manager at
South Bend Products, a sea-
food wholesaler in South
Bend.
“But this year it might
have been 40. With the new
policy in place along with
the gear and date restric-
tions, I’ve seen guys sell their
boats. There’s less guys fish-
ing now,” he said.
“Last year was devastat-
ing,” Antich said.
“It was a disaster. We had
no fishing in November at all.
It was the first year of the pol-
icy. The fishery was closed
because of a very poor return
of coho, there just wasn’t a
big return.”
“Not only is there an eco-
nomic impact on the fisher-
men, there’s also an impact
on my employees. I have
fewer employees now than
I would normally have and
they’re getting a lot less
hours. It impacts the industry,
the wholesalers and proces-
sors, not just the gillnetters.”
Antich has about 25
employees on call for when
the fish come in, but while
fishing is closed, their phones
won’t ring with available
work. “Right now I’ve got 55
employees. We’re not a Mon-
day through Friday 9 to 5. We
work when we have fish. On
the days they don’t fish, they
don’t work.”
Tough two years
In April 2015, the Wash-
ington Fish and Wild-
life Commission released a
revised Willapa Bay salmon
management plan centered
largely around conserving and
restoring naturally spawning
Chinook — the descendants
of hatchery fish that now are
laying eggs without human
intervention. Recent genetic
testing found these “natural”
salmon are identical to Wil-
lapa hatchery stock.
For fall Chinook, the
plan called for stricter lim-
its on mortality rates for nat-
ural-origin Chinook salmon
by adding new restrictions to
the fishing schedule, location
and gear for gillnetters, the
only commercial fishermen
permitted on the bay. This
included a 14 percent limit
on mortality rates for Naselle
and Willapa River natural-or-
igin Chinook salmon and a 10
percent rate for chum.
“The policy is written pri-
marily to support Chinook
salmon. We don’t get a lot of
fishing time — we don’t get
any in August. We don’t get
fishing time until mid-Sep-
tember. Then we get our
coho-directed fishery, which
can be impacted by the chum
run. We’re allowed 10 percent
impact on the chum run, we
exceed that and they close the
fishery down,” Walters said.
The past two years have
been particularly bad, accord-
ing to Cowell.
“That’s when they ini-
tiated their new manage-
ment plan. Right off the bat,
30,000 Chinook salmon died
in the streams and hatcheries
because of the new plan. It’s
not that we could have caught
them all, but we could have
maybe caught half. But we
didn’t get a chance to even
go. The fishermen can deal
when there’s years with not
good returns, that’s part of
fishing,” Cowell said. “But
when there’s a lot of fish and
you can’t fish, that’s a hard
pill to swallow.”
Gillnetting
nearly gutted
Over the past three years,
the commercial gillnetting
industry on Willapa Bay
has gone through a gaunt-
let of highs and lows. Record
catches were celebrated
during 2014 only to be fol-
lowed by the devastating
2015 season that was largely
stifled under new regulation.
“We had 50,000 pounds
of mostly silvers in one day,”
Cowell said referring to one
unforgettable afternoon 2014.
“Compare that to 80,000
pounds of silvers and Chi-
nook combined this year.”
The drastic drop wasn’t the
direct result of poor runs, but
more to blame on flawed reg-
ulations, according to Cowell.
“In 2014, our gross
income on this dock was over
$70,000. In 2015, the first
year of the new management
plan, I made about $6,000
— about 8 percent of what I
made the year before. I went
in the hole severely. I lost 92
percent of my income, as did
the fishermen,” Cowell said.
“Last year, I didn’t break
even,” Walters said.
So far, the 2016 season has
been better, but closures con-
tinue to limit the momentum
and curb optimism.
“This year, because of the
silvers, it’s been better,” Cow-
ell said. “On this late season,
it’s wide open for silvers, but
if they catch 110 dog salmon
we’ll get shut off.”
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Continued from Page 1A
In addition, a K-9 officer
could serve as a department
mascot, educational tool and
public-relations asset.
So far, the department has
raised about $1,100 of the
$15,000 target, according to
Warrenton Police Officer Rob-
ert Wirt, who will be the K-9’s
handler.
Donations will pay for
the animal, training fees, K-9
equipment and other accoutre-
ments. The department plans
to outfit an old Tahoe with K-9
travel gear, but next year’s bud-
get may include a new K-9-
ready vehicle once the older
vehicle is taken out of service.
Bayshore Animal Hospital
in Warrenton will provide vet-
erinary care and has offered to
give the dog free annual check-
ups and shots; nonroutine ser-
vices, like surgeries, will be 50
percent off.
The K-9 will live at Wirt’s
residence in Warrenton, and the
officer will receive a contrac-
tual 5-percent pay increase for
taking care of the animal on and
off duty.
The right K-9 hasn’t been
found yet, but the trainer, John
Eckhart, who retired from
the Portland Police Bureau,
is actively looking for one.
Wirt said the department
wants a Dutch shepherd or a
“good old-fashioned German
shepherd.”
Eckhart, who also trained
K-9 officers for the Clatsop
County Sheriff’s Office and the
Cannon Beach Police Depart-
ment, will work with the cho-
sen dog independently, then do
a multiweek course with Wirt.
The K-9 would become certi-
fied at a conference in another
city.
“We’re hoping to be certi-
fied by the end of May,” Wirt
said.
At a recent City Commis-
sion meeting, Wirt said that
Eckhart may do “bite work”
with the dog — that is, not to
train the animal how to bite but
when to bite. The dog would
learn to bite only on command;
to avoid biting, the handler sim-
ply doesn’t give the command.
This gives the officer more con-
trol over the K-9 and makes the
dog less likely to bite, Wirt said.
Once the dog is trained on
narcotics, the department may
explore whether to train the dog
in search and rescue. This skill
would be valuable, Wirt said,
for when autistic children or
people with dementia get lost,
and could dramatically reduce
the time it takes to find them.
The Warrenton Police
Department has had drug-sniff-
ing dogs before but not a search-
and-rescue dog, Wirt said.
Commissioner Tom Dyer,
a retired trooper with Oregon
State Police, said “a good drug
dog is a good deterrent.”
When students are tempted
to store drugs in their lock-
ers, for example, “the chance
of getting caught makes them
think twice,” Dyer said.
Port: Lee replaces Lansing
Continued from Page 1A
Reached by phone after-
ward, Lansing confirmed he
has left the budget committee.
“I have a lot of emotional
equity in the Port,” he said, add-
ing that while there is a lot of
opportunity at the agency, there
also needs to be a change in
how commissioners are chosen.
Lansing echoed the calls
of the former Committee to
Restore, Revitalize and Reor-
ganize the Port of Astoria,
which wanted Port commis-
sioners to be state-appointed
instead of elected, like in Coos
Bay and Portland.
The quality of people serv-
ing on the Port Commission
and their conflicts of inter-
est are disheartening, Lansing
said, and impeding the Port’s
opportunities.
Fulton has been accused of
conflicts of interest in the past
by Clatsop County Board of
Commissioners Chairman Scott
Lee, who questioned whether
Fulton serves the Port or his
employer, Warrenton Fiber.
members, including Lansing,
Mary Iverson, Richard Lee,
Frank Spence and Chris Con-
naway. After Lansing’s depar-
ture, the community mem-
bers voted 3-1 to have Lee fill
Lansing’s remaining term as
chairman, which runs through
February.
Lee said he had never seen a
chairman of a committee walk
out of a meeting like Lansing.
“He said, ‘I’m out of here.’ I
think that is a resignation,” Lee
said.
Spence, the lone “no” vote,
said the budget committee
should have the Port’s admin-
istration make sure Lansing
had resigned. Port commission-
ers Robert Mushen and James
Campbell agreed.
“I think we have to move to
replace him at this time … so
we can continue on with our
budget,” Hunsinger said.
Hunsinger called for a vote
among fellow Port commis-
sioners to announce an opening
on the budget committee. The
motion was voted down 2-3,
with John Raichl, Mushen and
Campbell in opposition.
Lee replaces Lansing
The budget committee is
composed of the five Port com-
missioners and five community
Pensions and pollution
After voting to replace Lan-
sing as chairman, the budget
LISTINGS
THE DAILY
ASTORIAN
A
Deputy dog: ‘A good drug
dog is a good deterrent’
committee heard a review of the
Port’s first-quarter financials.
The Port had budgeted a
net loss of $775,403 for July
through September, but only
lost $252,915. The Port also
suffered a loss in net position
of $1.2 million last fiscal year,
which ended in June.
Todd Kimball, an accoun-
tant for the Port through finan-
cial consultants CFO Selec-
tions, said the losses are driven
by new requirements to account
for the cost of potential pollu-
tion cleanup and future pension
obligations. Pollution remedia-
tion costs took $920,000 in rev-
enue out of the budget this year,
he said, while obligations for
the Public Employees Retire-
ment System cost just under
$500,000 starting last year.
In the first three months of
the new fiscal year, the Port
earned $124,000 less than bud-
geted on pier operations, one of
the agency’s main sources of
revenue, while it earned nearly
$69,000 more than expected
from marina operations.
On expenses, the Port spent
$3.1 million less on capital
projects than budgeted, nearly
$63,000 less on salary and
wages and more than $72,000
less on fuel and related costs.
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