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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2018)
145TH YEAR, NO. 154 ONE DOLLAR WEEKEND EDITION // Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian A Coast Guard crew monitors the local crab fleet. CRAB CONTROL C-27 PLANE PROVIDES AERIAL PERSPECTIVE Matthew Young, 3rd Class marine enforcement specialist, writes down information about fishing vessels ob- served during a flight. Chris Porter, 1st Class aviation main- tenance technician with the Coast Guard, keeps a close eye on the crab fleet from a C-27 aircraft. By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian 3rd Class Maritime Enforcement Special- ist Matthew Young said. Besides aiding an occasional search- and-rescue operation, the crew’s main objective is to keep track of crab boats and provide an aerial perspective — any- where from 500 feet to 1,500 feet above the water — of crabbing. Their observa- tions are relayed to Coast Guard vessels and state regulators, who then may be bet- ter able to focus patrols. A s crabbers crowd the mouth of the Columbia River and jockey for their catch, the Coast Guard soars above, ensuring some order to the fray. On some days during crab season, a four-member Coast Guard crew flies a C-27 plane north from Air Station Sac- ramento to help patrol crab boats off the Oregon and Washington state coasts. The plane flew along the coast Thursday A crab boat churns through the waters off the Oregon Coast. for more than two hours, as far south as Oceanside and up north to Grays Harbor, a span of over 100 miles. The crew and a local marine enforce- ment specialist from Air Station Astoria spotted roughly 100 vessels, about 80 of which were concentrated within 40 miles of the mouth of the river. “With such a large fleet in a small area, there’s not a lot of margin for error there,” See CRAB CONTROL, Page 7A ‘WITH SUCH A LARGE FLEET IN A SMALL AREA, THERE’S NOT A LOT OF MARGIN FOR ERROR THERE.’ Matthew Young | 3rd Class Maritime Enforcement Specialist Drunken-driving arrests surge in Warrenton Up from a curious low in 2014 By DERRICK DePLEDGE The Daily Astorian WARRENTON — Police Chief Mathew Workman realized the num- ber was unacceptable. His officers made only six arrests for driving under the influence of intoxicants in 2014, rais- ing questions about whether police were giving drunken drivers a free pass. Clatsop County averages 250 to 300 DUII prosecutions a year, so War- renton stood out. “There are numerous factors that play into the low numbers, but, you know, the simplest is we did not do a good job that year of enforcing DUIIs,” Workman said. After a commitment by the police chief to improve, drunken and drugged driving arrests in Warrenton climbed to 55 last year. Warrenton is a regional shop- ping hub, but many bars and restaurants cater to locals. Like the rest of the county, the city has a hard-drinking culture rooted in fishing and logging. But the spike in arrests was not from a spree of drunken driving. Workman adjusted patrol sched- ules to ensure two officers are on duty during evening hours when drunken driving peaks, even if it means See DUIIS, Page 7A Catching up 55 Warrenton police DUII arrests have made patrols for drunken or drugged driving a priority after years when there were 37 surprisingly few arrests. Source: Warrenton Police Department 15 14 6 2013 ’14 ’15 ’16 2017 Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group Oregon’s top prosecutor holds marijuana summit By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press PORTLAND — Oregon’s top federal prosecutor will hold a marijuana summit today to hear how the state, law enforce- ment, tribal and industry leaders plan to address a pot surplus that he says has wound up on the black market in other states and is fueling crime. U.S. Attorney Billy Williams laid out his plans for the unprecedented event in a recent newspaper column, saying Oregon has a “massive marijuana overproduction prob- lem” that is attracting cartels and criminal See POT SUMMIT, Page 7A
