7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 2018 Gillnetter: ‘It’s been a keeper of memories’ Continued from Page 1A For a young fisherman just getting started, a gillnet boat and gear were an invest- ment but usually a safe one. You could step your way up into something bigger and if money was tight or fishing was bad elsewhere, seasons on the river remained an option. “The Columbia River salmon fishery was not the first non-native fishery on the West Coast, but it has been the fore- most,” said Hobe Kytr, direc- tor of Salmon For All, a com- mercial gillnetting advocacy organization based in Astoria. “The Columbia is the mother of all salmon streams.” In 2012, then-Gov. John Kitzhaber, along with Wash- ington state fishery managers, put into motion a plan to phase gillnet gear off the main stem of the Columbia River by 2017 and replace it with other types of gear that would, in theory, be more selective in the fish it caught. Oregon’s fish and wildlife commission has since tried to walk back from the plan, unsuccessfully pushing to give gillnetters back time on the river last year. Washington state has con- tinued to move forward, test- ing gear such as purse and beach seine nets. The gillnet fishermen said the plan would kill their way of life. In the last five years it has certainly taken its toll, said Jim Wells, presi- dent of Salmon For All. In 2017, there was no spring season on the main stem, and no summer sea- son for the first time in many years. There were only seven main stem openings in the fall. To contrast, the gillnetters had 53 openings on the river main stem in the summer and fall in 2014, according to Wells. An extended spring season in off-channel areas brought in salmon during the spring, but not enough to build a life around. Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian The office of the Columbia River Fishermen’s Protective Union was full of photographs, paintings, old newspaper articles and many other items doc- umenting the history of the fishery. The Gillnetter Sally the Salmon was always on the cover of The Gillnetter. A simple illustra- tion, she posed seductively, one fin on her fishy hip, the other back against the side of her head like a World War II pinup. She had big, long- lashed eyes and — to put it politely — anatomy. And she had opinions. “Too many sea lions in the Columbia River could be the death of me!” she noted in the 2006 winter edition. She told jokes (“Why do some salmon develop hooked noses? They bumped into dams when they were young”); she honored the memory of deceased fishermen; she made an argument for global warm- ing; she said salmon are here “for equal use and consump- tion among all people.” “Such a great river, the Columbia,” she said in 2006. “What would it be without me?” She reminded readers often: “I have been here to see it all.” Closing the Columbia River Fishermen’s Protec- tive Union office right before the new year was like clos- ing a book, one Westerholm does not expect to open again. Though it may not be the end Jon Westerholm looks through old paintings and pho- tographs while closing the office of the Columbia River Fishermen’s Protective Union. Boxes of index cards with information on union members and fishermen were also re- moved from the old office by Jon Westerholm and his son, Erik. of the union, it does mark the end of the Gillnetter maga- zine, as far as he can tell. Erik Westerholm hopes they can put out an official farewell edi- tion, but he isn’t sure if that will be possible. When Don Riswick started the magazine in 1969, the Gill- netter was a hub for stories, information about policies and regulations and news. Ris- wick passed the editorship to Westerholm in 2003 when he was 86 years old. He died two years later, leaving, as Wester- holm wrote in a tribute to the founding editor, “a void in the senior leadership of our fishing industry.” Under Westerholm’s editor- ship, the focus of the magazine shifted slightly, tending more towards histories and stories than news. Westerholm and his contributors published opinion pieces decrying plans to push gillnets off the river, calling for robust conservation efforts and questioning the states’ plans. “The Gillnetter was import- ant in defining and defend- ing the legacy of commercial gillnetting on the Columbia River,” Kytr said. “It’s been the keeper of memories.” “It’s something else,” Jon Westerholm said, looking around the office, a narrow room with a door at one end and a window at the other. He used to be in and out just about every other day. “We’ve been practically living in here for pretty close to 10 years now I guess.” “What it stood for,” he mused. “How we worked into it. Maybe it’s not quite as important to people now as it was to me and to people of my age group.” A way of life Jack Marincovich glanced at the front page of the day’s newspaper, paused to look at a photo of an Astoria high school senior kicking a foot- ball, flipped back and settled down to read the obituaries. “All our old friends are dying,” he said. For years Marincovich has been the executive secretary for the Columbia River Fish- ermen’s Protective Union, though these duties have taken a back seat over the years. He and his wife, Geor- gia, have been vocal oppo- nents of what became known as the Kitzhaber Plan to phase gillnets off the main stem of the Columbia River. Georgia Marincovich still bristles at the memory of a fish and wildlife official calling the gillnet fleet the “mop up fishery.” Like Westerholm, they are part of a generation that can remember the river’s heyday. Jack Marincovich, 85, comes from a long line of Croatian Cazee: Sentencing hearing set for February Continued from Page 1A One of the victims, due to repeated suspicions of some- one prowling outside her home, placed a surveillance camera outside her residence in early 2017. That camera footage, on two occasions, displayed a man whose face was not visible because his hood was up. The man was wearing a camouflage jacket in one of the videos. Cazee was wear- ing a camouflage jacket at the time of his arrest, though attorneys debated whether the jacket was the same one that appeared in the video. Lawyers also argued about whether the various states of nudity in the videos war- ranted certain charges and if Cazee made sufficient contact with the victim to justify the ‘You’ve got a trail of circumstances that leads you to believe that a certain thing happened.’ Chief Deputy District Attorney Ron Brown stalking charges. Ryan Colvin Connell, Cazee’s Hillsboro-based attorney, pointed out that a number of victims recalled the peeper as being “tall and skinny,” arguing that his cli- ent’s appearance could not be described as thin. He also highlighted the fact that there was no witness testimony or physical evidence conclu- sively proving that Cazee recorded the videos. “This case is a pretty clas- sic example of a time when the state is trying to make evidence fit a specific person as opposed to just following the evidence,” Connell said during closing arguments. “When their witnesses say there’s nothing here to say, ‘This person made this video.’ If you say he does, you’re speculating, you’re guessing, you’re filling in blanks that they’re saying is not full.” But Brown likened his case to that of a child caught at the end of a trail of crumbs that begin at an open cookie jar. “You’ve got a trail of cir- cumstances that leads you to believe that a certain thing happened,” Brown said. At minimum, Cazee will be sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison for using a child in a sexually explicit display. He may face more prison time depending on whether the sentences are imposed concurrently or con- secutively. A sentencing hear- ing has been scheduled for February. fishermen. He started fish- ing when he was teenager. He fished in Alaska as well as the Columbia River. His last trip was in 2007 when he was 75. He can remember when the union included numerous fish- ermen up and down the river. Now he reads the obituaries, looking for familiar names. He hadn’t intended to be a fisherman, he said. “You wanted to do some- thing else, but it was a part of life,” he said. “It just kind of stuck to you.” Gillnetters now fish areas once considered supplemen- tary fishing grounds, off- shoots like Youngs Bay or Tongue Point — what the states refer to as “select areas,” and what Wells calls “the back of the pipeline.” Hundreds of sport fish- ing and guide boats crowd both sides of the river nearly every day during the popular Buoy 10 season in the sum- mer. When the weather heats up, shallow Youngs Bay is not as attractive to fish and com- mercial fishermen must also compete with other river res- idents, hungry sea lions and fish-eating birds. “You get the scraps,” Wells said. “To think that this is going to replace our main stem fishery, no way.” The commercial fishermen believe they could and should get a bigger slice of the fish- ing pie. Sport fishermen can only target so many fish, they argue. Meanwhile, a large number of the fish made avail- able by state fishery manag- ers goes uncaught. Wasted and unavailable to the consuming public, the commercial fisher- men maintain. It’s a battle the gillnetters have been waging for years, and one they seem no closer to winning. The only glimmers of hope Kytr sees are changes at the two states’ fish and wildlife commissions. Commissioners who have, in the past, pushed to move gillnetters off the river have started to change their minds or have been replaced with new commissioners who may be more sympathetic to the gillnetters’ pleas, he said. He is waiting to see what the new year will bring. Davis: ‘We think, that food should be food, fun and family’ Continued from Page 1A He and Villanueva, a mas- sage therapist in Northern California, met at Bill’s Tav- ern & Brewhouse in Cannon Beach, where they hatched the idea of Table 360 on a napkin. “The Table 360 is repre- sentative of what we think, that food should be food, fun and family,” Davis said. “And then our tag- line is ‘Gather, Toast, Nosh, Repeat.’” Table 360 will hold a grand opening during Second Saturday Art Walk, featuring the oil paintings of truck driver-turned-art- ist Terry Freeman. The show will also serve as a precursor to the globe-trot- ting bistro they want to open in the spring. “The landing is going to be a lounge-like area,” Davis said of the mezzanine over- looking the bakery. “What started out as a wine bar idea has now turned into more of a lounge of a few clas- sic cocktails, and of course wine pairings with cheese and charcuterie plates. And then the back dining room, which is the bistro side of it, will actually be tapas and small plates, appetizer kind of things.” The bistro’s menu will rotate every couple of months, visiting new conti- nents and cuisines. “We may take you to Africa for eight weeks,” Davis said. “We may take you to Spain for eight weeks.”