4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
Charter: Recreational fishermen are allowed to catch one halibut each
Continued from Page 1A
management issues. The com-
pany offers guided trips for
salmon, halibut, tuna, stur-
geon and bottomfish, as well
as burials at sea.
Investigators seized passen-
ger manifests and other docu-
ments during the visit, Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife Capt.
Dan Chadwick said in a phone
interview. Chadwick declined
to name the suspects, saying the
case is still under investigation,
and no one has been arrested or
charged yet.
A staff member hung up
when a Chinook Observer
reporter called the Pacific
Salmon office.
Regulated fishery
The International Pacific
Halibut Commission manages
Pacific halibut stocks in the
U.S. and Canada. The commis-
sioners, who are appointed by
the U.S. president and Cana-
dian prime minister, gather
once a year to review the health
of fish populations, make catch
recommendations and discuss
regulatory proposals. State and
provincial governments then
use their recommendations to
set local limits. In Washington
state, the Department of Fish
and Wildlife manages the rec-
reational halibut fishery.
Halibut is a quota-based
fishery, meaning that the sea-
son ends when the total catch
reaches a predetermined limit.
The quotas are based on fish
Natalie St. John/EO Media Group
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Lt. Greg
Bush and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Sgt.
Tony Leonetti reviewed records at Pacific Salmon Charters
in the Port of Ilwaco on Thursday. The business is under
investigation for alleged violations of the strict rules that
govern the halibut fishery, according to a search warrant.
population estimates and other
data, and are intended to pre-
vent overfishing. For 2017,
the commission recommended
setting the Washington state
sportfishing limit for halibut at
237,762 pounds, according to
the website. The regular recre-
ational season opened in early
May, and lasted for eight days
this year. After assessing fish
stocks, managers allowed one
extra day of fishing on June 17.
Under Washington state
law, recreational fishermen
are allowed to catch one hali-
but each. “If you’re not happy
with the size of the fish, you can
release it right away and try for
a bigger one,” Chadwick said.
“But the minute you retain a
fish, it’s yours.”
Honest customers
The quota system can only
keep fish populations stable
if fishermen are honest about
what they catch, Chadwick
said, so Fish and Wildlife took
note when a Pacific Salmon
customer alleged in May that
the crew on his fishing trip had
blatantly violated the rules.
According to a Fish and
Wildlife report filed with the
warrant in South District Court,
a group of four men from Idaho
took a trip on the Westwind in
mid-May. In a written state-
ment, one of the men said he
and his friends started to put
away their gear after catching
their fish, and were surprised
when the captain and deckhand
urged them to “keep fishing”
and “get bigger fish.” Another
man said crew members told
him they would store all of the
fish in a “live well” until the
end, and then decide which
ones to keep. At the end of the
trip, he said, one of the crew
lined the fish up on the deck
and sorted them by size.
“None of them appeared to
be alive,” he wrote. “Then I saw
the crew start throwing some
of the fish over the side, sev-
eral of which had their throats
cut.” A third man said the deck-
hand told him to remember his
tag number, and urged him to
“Keep fishing for a bigger one,”
even though he already had a
fish in the live well.
“I don’t recall anybody being
told to stop fishing through-
out the rest of the day, no mat-
ter how many they caught,” he
wrote. He said he didn’t realize
they were high-grading until he
watched the crew transfer tags
from small fish to large fish.
He alleged that seven halibut
“floated away, belly up,” after
the crew tossed them over the
side.
After the trip, the men dis-
cussed what they had seen, and
decided to contact the Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife.
Undercover angler
When fisheries manag-
ers decided to open the season
for one more day on June 17,
Fish and Wildlife police saw an
opportunity and took it. They
booked a halibut fishing trip
for a plainclothes officer on the
Pacific Dream.
During a briefing at the start
of the trip, the officer and other
passengers listened as a skipper
allegedly explained that if they
caught “little chickens,” they
would store them, rather than
“gaffing,” or killing them, so
that the customers could “size
up” at the end of the day.
In all, they caught 18 fish
that day — four more than the
legal limit, according to the
officer’s report. The officer said
he watched as a crew member
held pairs of fish by the tails to
compare their sizes, and then
threw four small ones over-
board. At least one was already
dead, he said.
Fishin’ mission
Two other Fish and Wildlife
officers met the boat in port. At
first, crew members allegedly
denied exceeding limits or
throwing small fish back. The
officers claimed they repeat-
edly gave the suspects opportu-
nities to come clean, but no one
did, until they revealed that an
undercover officer had posed as
an angler as part of an ongoing
investigation.
At that point, two employ-
ees allegedly acknowledged
they had been high-grading,
and one claimed he had been
below-decks for most of the trip
and hadn’t seen anything.
The investigating offi-
cer concluded that high-grad-
ing appeared to be “standard
practice for Pacific Salmon
Charters.”
Other customers
During the search last week,
officers seized customer man-
ifests, receipts, fishing license
books and other documents.
Investigators are using that
information to find and con-
tact other customers, Chadwick
said.
Pacific Salmon staff could
potentially be charged with two
misdemeanors, second-degree
unlawful recreational fishing,
and wasting food fish or shell-
fish. They could also be cited
for violating state rules for fish-
ing seasons and limits. In the
report, the investigator said, if
they are charged with lying to,
or misleading officers, it might
put their U.S. Coast Guard
licenses at risk.
Chadwick said high-grading
and other forms of poaching
have harmful consequences for
people, as well as fish. When a
charter company uses illegal or
unethical practices to help their
customers catch more and big-
ger fish, it puts honest com-
petitors at a disadvantage. Left
unchecked, one company’s
unethical practices can cre-
ate an atmosphere where other
companies also feel that they
have to break the rules to stay
in the game, Chadwick said.
“We’re furthering our inves-
tigation … to understand the
extent of this practice over
the last year,” Chadwick said.
“Two boats from the same
company doing the same thing
— it’s an indication to us that
we need to dig further.”
Seaside: ‘This could have a major impact’
Continued from Page 1A
Commissioners also pro-
posed plans which would
include “residential over com-
mercial” units that could open
up some downtown commer-
cial buildings to condomini-
ums and apartments.
“That could have a major
impact on workforce hous-
ing,” Mayor Jay Barber said.
“I’m open to looking at how
we can help landlords bring
buildings up to code.”
Removing hurdles
In a list intended to remove
hurdles to providing addi-
tional rental opportunities in
residential zones, commis-
sioners presented proposals
to encourage long-term rental
housing development, includ-
ing plans to modify parking
requirements and rules for
accessory dwelling units.
“Right now we’re required
to provide two spots per
dwelling unit,” Carpenter
said. “But two spots is pro-
hibitive if you want to have
workforce housing with
smaller units. If developers
are able to reduce the num-
ber of parking spots, they can
build more.”
Recent state legislation
provides new rules for multi-
family accessory units in sin-
gle-family zones, Planning
Director Kevin Cupples said,
which could add to the city’s
rental stock.
Staff has not had time to
do an extensive review of the
bill, Cupples said, although it
may be necessary for the city
to begin working on amend-
ments relating to accessory
dwelling units.
A reduction in system
development charges — the
costs charged to builders for
city services like roads and
sewers — was also considered
as a way to invite developers
to provide more affordable
or workforce units. The fees
could be reduced in exchange
for more rental units.
— as a response to the long-
term rental shortage.
“I see these as two sep-
arate issues: vacation rent-
als and workforce hous-
ing,” Planning Commissioner
Chris Hoth said. “I don’t
think we’re going to accom-
plish anything if we put them
together.”
Cupples said the city has
398 vacation rentals, about
8.5 percent of the city’s 4,665
housing units. The number is
up from 368 units in 2016,
and 348 in 2010.
Barber said he had not
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City Councilors and com-
missioners eliminated fur-
ther short-term rental regula-
tion — including a cap on the
number of short-term rentals
received complaints about the
number of vacation rentals.
“I haven’t personally gotten
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“Who’s going to enforce
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“If there are problems
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Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Nathan Pacheco drops a wheelbarrow full of mulch onto
a new section of playground at Tapiola Park on Tuesday.
Pacheco was volunteering along with about 20 others.
Volunteers: 20 people
turned out for the event
Continued from Page 1A
“It was overwhelmingly
passed with full support from
the council and the mayor,”
he said. “So, the commu-
nity wanted to do something
to give back to the city and
to show their thanks for the
support.”
Jonah Dart-McLean, the
city’s park maintenance super-
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“This worked out really
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