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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 2018)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2018 PORT ORFORD SEASON OF CRAB AND CRISIS A fishing town tries to cope with disruption Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Angela Cosby, the Astoria parks director, is leaving for a job in Colorado. By ARYA SUROWIDJOJO Oregon Public Broadcasting Astoria parks director to leave for job in Steamboat Springs Oregon’s toxic algae trou- bles didn’t begin with the sum- mer bloom tainting Salem’s water supply. The opening salvo actually came from the wintry Pacific, where high levels of domoic acid — a neurotoxin byprod- uct of marine algae blooms — disrupted seafood production along Oregon’s south coast. For Port Orford in partic- ular, where the fishing indus- try sustains about one-third of the local economy, this meant a season of loss instead of bounty. By the numbers, Port Orford really can’t afford more economic distress. Data from the Oregon Department of Human Ser- vices in 2015 show that Port Orford lies in a poverty hot spot in what is an already depressed Curry County. “You can feel it in the com- munity, that sensation that there’s a good portion of your neighbors that are struggling,” said Port of Port Orford Commission President Tom Calvanese. At the heart of the town’s crisis this year was Dungeness crab. According to the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commis- sion, commercial fishermen up and down the state net- ted more than $65 million for this native West Coast crab in 2017. In Port Orford, a town of just over 1,100 people, that value was almost $1.5 million. “It’s kind of our ticket,” Calvanese said. “There aren’t a lot of other options. When your annual cycle includes this large influx of financing at a certain time of year and that doesn’t happen, you start to hurt.” But the Pacific Ocean is undergoing changes to its water chemistry: from wide- spread domoic acid events and ocean acidification to low-ox- ygen “dead zones” that are suffocating Dungeness crab in their habitat. Cosby led the department for five years By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian Astoria is losing another department head. Angela Cosby, the direc- tor of the Parks and Recre- ation Department, announced Thursday she is leaving the city to take a job as the parks and recreation director for Steamboat Springs, Colo- rado. Her last day is Aug. 15. Jonah Dart-McLean, the parks maintenance supervi- sor, will take over as interim director. “Astoria is a magical place and the community has left a profound impact on me personally and profession- ally,” Cosby wrote in a letter to the Parks, Recreation and Community Foundation. “While there’s still work to be done and adjustments to be made, the department is in a more sustainable place than it has been in the past several decades.” Cosby’s departure comes at a time when the city is still trying to fill two other depart- ment head positions: the fire chief and the community development director. City Manager Brett Estes hopes to interview candi- dates for the posts in August as the search for a new parks director begins. Cosby has worked as the city’s parks and recre- ation director for the past five years, overseeing 36 parks as well as multiple trails, histor- ical sites, athletic fields, com- munity programs, the Ocean View Cemetery in Warren- ton, the Astoria Recreation Center and the Aquatic Cen- ter, among other duties. The department weath- ered major shifts during her tenure, in particular a pain- ful effort to represent the true costs of operations and establish sustainable fund- ing sources. The city wres- tled with various funding scenarios and cut programs during this time. The City Council ultimately approved an increase to the lodging tax to help provide a steadier source of income for parks. In April, Cosby presented the first budget that matched the department’s expenses with revenue and did not rely on transfers from the general fund to pencil out. “We are grateful to Angela for her commitment and vision for the parks department,” Estes said. “She has worked hard for her staff, and worked alongside the City Council and other city department staff to stabilize funding scenarios while finding creative ways to utilize our open spaces. The parks department is in a more sustainable place.” This year, Cosby focused on rebuilding and stabiliz- ing the department’s inter- nal operations after a year of uncertainty, hiring on staff and streamlining processes. It is work Estes is confident will continue. “The funding sources are in place and there’s a good team on board to be able to take everything and run with it,” he said. Arya Surowidjojo/Oregon Public Broadcasting Port Orford fisherman Rodney Fisher tugs at the line to pull up one of his crab pots. And these climatic phe- nomena directly impact coastal communities like Port Orford. In November 2017, the waters from Coos Bay to the California border tested pos- itive for “hot crab,” or high levels of domoic acid in the Dungeness population. The state delayed the south coast’s 2018 crabbing season, which normally kicks off Dec. 1. “The crab concentrates that toxin in their tissues and they become toxic to us. So we can’t eat the crab that have too much domoic acid in them,” Calvanese said. Port Orford’s fishermen were finally given the green light to go crabbing in early February, but they had already missed the December–Janu- ary window when the Dunge- ness stock is most abundant and most profitable. This meant many in the community had to go without gifts under the Christmas tree, like fisherman Steve Shelton. “I didn’t have a Christ- mas. We couldn’t do anything else — because this town, its Christmas is crab,” Shelton said. “There’s a few hundred people that work on that dock that are dealing around crab.” The 2018 Dungeness crab season delay was a window into the volatility of the Ore- gon Coast’s fishing economy. On the flip side, the months following the actual open demonstrated coastal resil- ience in action — when Port Orford fishermen stormed the ocean to regain their losses. “Some of us hadn’t worked for three or four months before that. So it’s hard to prepare for those times when you’re not ready for it,” said Rodney Fisher, a Port Orford seaman of 20 years. ‘It’s kind of our ticket. There aren’t a lot of other options.’ Tom Calvanese Port of Port Orford commission president That urgency showed, even as late as May. On deck, Fisher was a dynamo: all sinews and explo- sive movement. With his boat steadily run- ning at 3 knots, he jabbed at the water with a hooked pole and yanked up a line, which was quickly fed through a motorized pulley called a “crab block.” A loud whir and the block pulled up a potful of Dungeness crab. “Then I’ll drive to my next crab pot and I’ll buoy up the next one, and we just run through 40 to 50 pots at a time, until I get through all my gear,” Fisher said. At the same time that Port Orford fishermen are perse- vering, they’re also exploring other ways of making a living. “Fishermen are leading the way,” said Calvanese. “Just, for example, we have a local fisherman who has gone into the business of cultivating an edible seaweed called ‘dulse.’” Port-side farming may be a less thrilling alternative to the high seas, but there are good incentives for growing dulse: It tastes like bacon and a recent analysis predicted the global seaweed market to reach over $20 billion by 2023. At any given time, dulse farmer James Weimar culti- vates up to 700 pounds of the stuff, which supports about 100 pounds of production each week. Currently sell- ing at about $10 per poundv, fresh dulse is relatively on par with the retail value for whole Dungeness crab — which slides between $6 to $12 per pound throughout the season. And although Weimar has to constantly “weed” out unwanted growth from the dulse crop, his company can grow dulse in seawater tanks year-round — unlike seasonal catch like crab. When it’s slim pickings in the ocean, that just means more options for a fishing town looking to stay above water. Oregon schools promised support, not sanctions, under state guidance School districts will take the lead By ROB MANNING Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon will have an entirely different system for judging schools this fall, based on sup- port, rather than penalties. For years, schools across the country faced sanctions if their test scores failed to reach specific federal targets, known as adequate yearly progress. Year-by-year, targets under the federal No Child Left Behind law got higher, as sanctions got tougher for schools with low scores. In recent years, though, federal education officials moved in another direction — first, by granting waivers from aspects of the law, and then in late 2015, with congressional passage of the new Every Stu- dent Succeeds law. Now, punitive measures are largely gone. The focus is on supporting schools, based on their local needs. Buck’s Books Closing EVERYTHING MUST GO! Bring-a-Bag fill it for $2 On Broadway across from the Seaside Chamber of Commerce Doors open at 9am July 26 th , 27 th & 28 th Oregon schools will be judged on a number of mea- sures. Some are familiar — like standardized test scores and high schools’ four-year graduation rates. Others are new accountability metrics — like tracking students who are chronically absent, whether ninth graders are earning enough credits to graduate on time and five-year graduation rates. Schools that are low on sev- eral measures will be labeled as needing “comprehensive” support. Schools where just certain student groups are struggling will get “targeted support.” High schools with low graduation rates will get support designations, too. In new guidance from the state, school districts are iden- tified as the leaders of the improvement efforts, rather than individual schools. “This new plan recognizes individual schools as part of a larger district system,” said Oregon Department of Educa- tion in a statement to Oregon Public Broadcasting. “Moving forward, districts will be the point of contact for identified schools.” That’s a change from the state’s previous accountabil- ity systems where government regulators worked directly with school-level administrators. The new guidance high- lights the importance of local data and context. Condi- tions at schools that need help will be at the center of needs assessments and “continu- ous improvement plans.” The Department of Education will provide technical assistance to all districts, but the state agency is offering additional help to districts with multiple schools in need of support. A list of affected schools is due out in October. WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 TIMBERLANDS CLOSED DUE TO HIGH FIRE DANGER Lewis & Clark Timberlands Fre e Est Fast ima tes Call me ti Any Jeff Hale Painting • • • • Over 25 years local experience 503-440-2169 are CLOSED as of August 1, 2018 to all public entry and will remain in effect until further notice. 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