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.
Jeff Hale,
Contractor
LICENSED
BONDED
INSURED
CCB#179131
Adopt a Pet
For up-to-date
information
please call our
Roxy
2 year old
female
Pit Terrier
RECREATIONAL
HOTLINE
503-755-6655
TIMBERLANDS CLOSED
Residential
Commercial
Cedar Roof Treatments
Exterior Repaint Specialist
Beauty combined with
quick understanding and
a blithe spirit make for
being lucky in dog love.
(More on http://Petfinder.com/ )
Sponsored
By
C LATSOP
A NIMAL A SSISTANCE
C LATSOP C OUNTY A NIMAL S HELTER
1315 SE 19 th Street, Warrenton • 861 - PETS
www.dogsncats.org
Noon to 4pm, Tues-Sat