3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2017
Strong market, agri-tourism help elk rancher succeed
Elk herd the
main attraction
By JOHN O’CONNELL
EO Media Group
DRIGGS,
Idaho
—
Rancher Kent Bagley and his
sons Greg and Stephen derive
almost a third of their income
from agricultural tourism, and
their farm-raised elk are the
main attraction.
The Bagleys bought their
first 15 elk in the late 1990s,
seeking to diversify their beef
and dairy business. They’ve
since given up the dairy, focus-
ing on elk and beef cows.
As with the dairy mar-
ket, elk prices have ebbed
and flowed — and while val-
ues of most farm commodi-
ties have declined lately, Ste-
phen said elk meat, antlers and
bulls raised for penned hunting
operations have all risen.
But even when the econ-
omy crashed in 2008 and elk
ranches were closing in Idaho,
domestic Cervidae contin-
ued to earn their keep for the
Bagleys, thanks to tourism.
Through www.elkadventures.
com, their ranch offers over-
Greg Bagley
The Bagleys vaccinate an elk at their facility in Driggs, Idaho. They say the market for elk
is up, and elk have also provided an attraction for agricultural tourism.
night trips and day rides, which
make stops by the elk pas-
tures, and they take the pub-
lic on paid bus tours of their
elk operation. They also have a
gift shop and rent cabins.
“People love to see those
baby elk, and we can get them
right up close,” Stephen said,
adding his proximity to Jack-
son Hole, Wyo., and Yellow-
stone National Park ensures a
steady supply of visitors.
Stephen explained rais-
ing elk requires investing in
separate handling facilities.
The animals are skittish and
slower to develop than cattle,
requiring more than four years
before they’re ready to sell.
The industry is also heav-
ily regulated. The Idaho State
Department of Agriculture
charges a $10 per head fee on
domestic elk to fund its Cervi-
dae program, including inspec-
tions and investigations into
escapes. Furthermore owners
must test 10 percent of their
elk post-slaughter, and all of
the elk that die unexpectedly.
According to the depart-
ment’s most recent estimates,
the state has about 50 commer-
cial elk ranches that produce
about 6,000 calves per year.
“(The elk industry) has
crept up a little bit in the last
couple of years,” said deputy
state veterinarian Scott Leib-
sle, noting the easing of regu-
lations on elk importation has
contributed to the increase.
The Bagleys have about
240 elk. They sell dropped
antlers for craft-making, dog
chews and use as anti-inflam-
matory supplement in Asian
countries. Antlers cut while
still in velvet are the most
valuable. They’ve paused their
meat sales in recent years to
build their herd but plan to
resume supplying meat to cus-
tomers, such as Jackson Hole
restaurants, this fall.
Bull elk sold to Idaho’s
many penned hunting opera-
tions — controversial private
operations where hunters are
guaranteed success — fetch
the best prices, upwards of
$6,000 per animal, depending
on antler size.
“Definitely the shooter-bull
market right now is where
the elk market is,” Greg said.
“Now I can supply 15 bulls per
year, and I have demand for
100 bulls per year.”
Jeff Lerwill, who serves on
the Idaho Elk Breeder’s Asso-
ciation, and his wife Alana,
operate a fenced hunting pre-
serve in Sugar City, compris-
ing 5 miles of rugged, private
terrain where trophies include
elk, buffalo and Texas dall
sheep. They raise some of their
own elk and host about 50 elk
hunts during a busy year.
“We’ve been hunting for 10
years,” Alana Lerwill said. “In
the beginning, we could buy
shooter bulls for $2,000. We’re
lucky if we can buy them now
for $5,000.”
Dungeness crabbers on strike
from California to Canada
By JANIE HAR
Associated Press
AP Photo/Caleb Jones
An ahi tuna sits packed in ice waiting to be auctioned at the United Fishing Agency in
Honolulu in 2015. The Obama administration is issuing new rules it says will crack down
on illegal fishing and seafood fraud by preventing unverifiable fish products from enter-
ing the U.S. market.
US issuing new rules to curb
illegal fishing, seafood fraud
Program
will focus on
‘priority species’
By PATRICK WHITTLE
Associated Press
PORTLAND, Maine —
The Obama administration is
issuing new rules it says will
crack down on illegal fishing
and seafood fraud by prevent-
ing unverifiable fish products
from entering the U.S. market.
The new protections are
called the Seafood Import
Monitoring Program, and they
are designed to stop illegally
fished and intentionally mis-
identified seafood from getting
into stores and restaurants by
way of imported fish.
The rules will require sea-
food importers to report infor-
mation and maintain records
about the harvest and chain
of custody of fish, officials
with the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
said.
The program will start by
focusing on “priority species”
that are especially vulnerable
to illegal fishing, such as pop-
ular food fish like tuna, sword-
fish, Atlantic cod and grouper.
The government hopes even-
tually to broaden the program
out to include all fish species,
NOAA officials said.
“It sends an important mes-
sage to the international sea-
food community that if you
are open and transparent about
the seafood you catch and sell
across the supply chain, then
the U.S. markets are open for
your business,” said Catherine
Novelli, a State Department
undersecretary.
Estimates of the economic
damage of illegal fishing
vary, but conservation group
Oceana reported in a 2013
study that illegal fishing causes
more than $10 billion in global
losses every year. Some other
estimates are higher.
The rules will help make
sure that importers are able to
supply “the who, what, why,
when, how of fishing,” said
Beth Lowell, a senior cam-
paign director with Oceana.
“For the first time ever,
some imported species will be
held to the same standard that
domestic wild caught species
are,” Lowell said.
The new rules are an out-
growth of a presidential task
force established in June 2014
to crack down on illegal, unre-
ported and unregulated fish-
ing and seafood fraud. NOAA
officials said the new require-
ments will allow regulators to
trace seafood from its point of
entry into the U.S. to the point
when it was harvested from the
sea.
The information submitted
by importers to comply with
the rules will be kept confi-
dential, and there is not a con-
sumer labeling component.
The National Marine Fish-
eries Service, an arm of the
National Oceanic and Atmo-
spheric Administration, will
administer the program,
NOAA officials said. The rules
go on the books Jan. 9 and
compliance from importers is
expected by Jan. 1, 2018.
Shrimp and abalone are
included in the plan, but
implementation for those spe-
cies will come later because of
gaps in availability of informa-
tion, NOAA officials said.
SAN
FRANCISCO
— Some consumers may
have to settle for not-as-
fresh Dungeness crab and
others could wait a little
longer for their first taste
of the season as fisher-
men from Northern Cal-
ifornia to the Canadian
border strike after whole-
sale buyers sought to
lower the purchase price.
The strike was extended
Friday to include markets
in San Francisco and Half
Moon Bay, where custom-
ers have been able to buy
the holiday dinner sta-
ple since November due
to a season that opened in
phases.
In
northern
Ore-
gon, crabbers who were
set to start fishing Sun-
day will not do so until a
deal is reached, said John
Corbin, chairman of the
Oregon Dungeness Crab
Commission. In south-
ern Oregon, crabbers who
had been fishing have tied
up their boats, he said.
The
strike
started
Wednesday after Pacific
Choice Seafood in Hum-
boldt County, California,
offered to pay $2.75 a pound
for Dungeness crab, said
Ken Bates, vice president of
Humboldt Fishermen’s Mar-
keting Association. Crabbers
whose seasons had already
opened had negotiated a
price of $3 a pound.
Prices were not set in all
fisheries because the West
Coast commercial Dunge-
ness crab season opened in
waves this year, due to ele-
vated domoic acid levels that
made the crustacean unsafe
to eat.
Crab fishermen who are
receiving $3 a pound say
they won’t let others receive
any less for the wildly popu-
lar seasonal food.
The market price at Fish-
erman’s Wharf at the start
of the season ranged from
$5.50 to $6.50 a pound, and
prices generally increase as
the season wears on and vol-
ume shrinks.
“The fishermen love that
consumers love it. It is a
beautiful product this year,
but the fishermen need to be
able to harvest it,” said Lisa
Damrosch, vice president of
the Half Moon Bay Ground-
fish Marketing Association.
Lorne Edwards, president
of the Bodega Bay Fisher-
man’s Marketing Associ-
ation, said he expects the
strike to continue through
New Year’s Day.
“The whole coast is all
tied up,” he said.
A spokesman for Pacific
Choice did not return
requests
for
comment.
A spokesman for Ore-
gon-based Pacific Seafood,
which owns Pacific Choice,
also did not return requests
for comment.
W A NTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
COAST
COMMUNITY
RADIO
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all of us. We could not have gotten
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and every one of you.
We are truly blessed.
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The family of Art Clark, Sr.
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