DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 143
CRAWLING WITH CRAB
TEMPORARY
GLUT SLOWS
PROCESSORS
ONE DOLLAR
Greater
oversight
of ODOT
sought
Tension between
commission,
department staff
By PARIS ACHEN
and NICK BUDNICK
Capital Bureau
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Darren Carlson, an employee at Fishhawk Fisheries for 20 years, sorts Dungeness crab on Monday in Astoria. A glut of Dunge-
ness crab has regional processors playing catch-up.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
See ODOT, Page 4A
A
perfect storm of weather, strong catches and domoic
acid worries has led to a glut of crab on the market,
overwhelming processors and making it harder for
fi shermen to fi nd buyers for the high-value crustacean .
Dave Hubbard, captain of the fi shing vessel Katrina,
said he waited 58 hours to unload 25,000 pounds of crab
his crew had caught between Garibaldi and Klipsan Beach,
Washington. On Monday, the Katrina docked at the Port of
Astoria’s Pier 2, its catch unloaded by workers from Born-
stein Seafoods.
Hubbard said processors were hit by icy weather on land
preventing delivery trucks and workers from coming and
going. The processors have boats on catch limits, he said,
based on the amount of crab pots they drop.
“Everyone’s jammed up,” said Steve Fick, owner of
Fishhawk Fisheries in Astoria .
On Monday morning, Fick said, he bought several thou-
sand pounds or crab off a fi shing boat that usually goes to
Bornstein Seafoods, part of the way processors in friendly
competition try to help each other and fi shermen. With the
amount of crab on the market, he said, processors might not
do too well, either.
The head of the Oregon Transportation
Commission has asked Gov. Kate Brown to
personally engage in beefed-up oversight of
the Department of Transportation.
In a strongly worded letter on formal let-
terhead sent Jan. 10, Tammy Baney, the com-
mission’s chairwoman, requested quarterly
meetings with Brown as well as an indepen-
dent staff person to carry out commissioners’
requests for information and research. Baney
also wants an “active” role in ODOT Direc-
tor Matt Garrett’s performance review, now
under jurisdiction of the governor.
“This is essential to ensure that the d irector
is fulfi lling our expectations as well as yours,”
Baney wrote, adding, “To effectively carry
out the commission’s statutory responsibili-
ties and your policy direction, it is imperative
that we more closely coordinate our efforts
directly with you.”
Baney, in an interview, said she intended
no criticism of Garrett or ODOT staff. The
all-volunteer, fi ve-member commission she
heads is appointed by the governor. On paper,
ABOVE: Dungeness crab are sorted by employees on Monday at Fish-
hawk Fisheries in Astoria. BELOW: Bornstein Seafoods employees un-
load a fresh catch of Dungeness crab from the Katrina crabbing boat on
Monday docked at Pier 2 in Astoria.
South Wind
could offer
shelter in
disaster
Cannon Beach plans to
transform 55-acre site
By LYRA FONTAINE
The Daily Astorian
Too good at fi shing
“The main problem is we have too many crab pots in
the ocean,” Hubbard said . “It’s nothing but a fi shing derby
anymore.”
He estimates that three-quarters of the Dungeness crab
fi shery for the year has already been caught . In the 1990s,
Oregon and Washington state introduced a permit system for
Dungeness crab fi shing to limit the number of boats taking
part. Later came pot limits for each permit holder to further
limit the catch.
But Hubbard said the majority of commercial crab fi sh-
ermen support even further lowering the number of pots in
the water, with fi shermen often catching the majority of the
year’s fi shery in the opening weeks.
See CRAB, Page 4A
‘The main problem is we have too many crab pots in the ocean.
It’s nothing but a fi shing derby anymore.’
CANNON BEACH — With tsunami
safety in mind, Cannon Beach hopes to
transform 55 acres of forest into a place for
shelter and long-term services in a disaster.
The South Wind site, located east of U.S.
Highway 101 almost entirely outside the tsu-
nami inundation zone, was purchased by the
city in 2013. The goal was to relocate an
emergency shelter, police station, fi re sta-
tion, school, child care and a food bank .
In 2014, the rough estimate of infrastruc-
ture development costs — highway, street
and storm drainage improvements, among
others — was about $3.4 million.
Preliminary engineering work would cost
an additional $400,000, staff members said
at a work session last week. The City Coun-
cil will decide in coming months whether to
include this amount in the budget next fi s-
cal year.
Dave Hubbard
See SOUTH WIND, Page 4A
captain of the fishing vessel Katrina
First GMO apple slices to go on sale in Midwest
Enzyme reduced to
prevent browning
By DAN WHEAT
EO Media Group
SUMMERLAND, B.C. — The
fi rst genetically modifi ed apples to be
sold in the U.S. will debut in select
Midwestern stores next month.
A small amount of Arctic brand
sliced and packaged Golden Deli-
cious, produced by Okanagan Spe-
cialty Fruits of Summerland, B.C.,
will be in 10 stores this February and
March, said Neal Carter, the compa-
ny’s founder and president. He would
not identify the retailers, saying that’s
up to them.
“We’re very optimistic with respect
to this product because people love
it at trade shows,” Carter said. “It’s a
great product and the eating quality is
excellent.”
Carter reduced the enzyme poly-
phenol oxidase to prevent brown-
ing when apples are sliced, bitten or
bruised. The apples match the indus-
try norm of not browning for three
weeks after slicing but without using
fl avor-altering, chemical additives that
the rest of the fresh-sliced apple indus-
try uses.
Golden Delicious, Granny Smith
and Fuji varieties have been approved
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
and Canada. An Arctic Gala could be
approved in 2018. Only Goldens and
Granny Smiths have been planted long
enough to produce fruit in commercial
quantities by next fall.
Midwestern retailers were chosen
for the fi rst sales this winter because
they seemed like a good fi t demo-
graphically and in presence and size,
Carter said.
Asked if Midwest consum-
ers may be more accepting of
genetically modifi ed apples
than those on the East or
West coasts, Carter said
consumer research didn’t
indicate that and that it
wasn’t a consideration.
“We don’t want to
skew our test marketing
results by choosing stores
that may be more friendly
to genetic engineering,” he
said.
See GMO APPLES, Page 4A
An Arctic brand Golden Delicious
apple genetically modified to not
brown when sliced. Packaged slices
will be sold for the first time in the
U.S. in February and March.
Okanagan Specialty Fruits