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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018
A culture of safety in a dangerous fishing industry
Hard and risky
way to earn a
living on water
By KRISTIAN
FODEN-VENCIL
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Life in Oregon’s fishing
and crabbing industries is hard
and risky; crabbing, in particu-
lar, is among the most danger-
ous jobs in the nation.
So the Coast Guard is
working with skippers like
Kelly Barnett to increase
safety and awareness.
Barnett captains the “Good
Intentions,” which is docked
in Garibaldi. He’s spent his
whole life in the fishing indus-
try, mainly buying and selling
fish on the shore.
But last year, he decided he
wanted to catch his own prod-
uct. So he bought a boat and
decided he ought to attend
the Coast Guard’s survival
training.
“I want to be safer on the
line,” he said. “I want to know
everything I can.”
The Coast Guard tells com-
mercial captains to run drills
once a month to make sure
their crews are well-versed
in how to abandon ship, fight
onboard fires and quickly don
bright red survival suits.
As part of the class, instruc-
tors taught Barnett what to do
if he hit another fishing vessel
in the fog.
Then they made him
respond to a mock accident:
You’ve just collided with
another boat. Respond.
“There’s a man in the
water! Somebody get an eye
on him! Mayday! Mayday!
Mayday!” he barked on the
radio.
Barnett was standing at the
controls of his boat as Coast
Guard Auxiliary Officer Ron
Hilburger, pretending to be on
Kristian Foden-Vencil/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Fixing a hole in a boat isn’t easy. Students are taught to get a kit or use bits of wood and rubber they may have lying around.
the other end of the radio, pep-
pered him with questions.
“What’s the status of your
vessel?”
“We have sustained dam-
age ourselves. We are prob-
ably taking on water. I say,
‘We’re taking on water,’” Bar-
nett shouted. “We’ve had a
collision. We’re at the entrance
to the Tillamook Bay Bar. We
have him on board; we need
medical attention.”
At the back of the boat,
deckhands simulated the acci-
dent by dragging Coast Guard
instructor Dan Cary off the
dock and onto the boat.
Once the drill ends, Cary
asked how they think it went.
“So, how was that pulling
me over the side? Harder than
‘I grew up at a time when
I didn’t wear a bicycle
helmet. The seat belt in
the car was my mom’s
hand keeping me from
hitting the windshield.’
Coast Guard Officer Mike Rudolph
you thought, right?” he said.
“Imagine trying to reach down
into the water?”
The Coast Guard requires
commercial fishing boats to
run drills for 10 different sub-
jects once a month. By taking
a Coast Guard class, fisher-
men such as Barnett can fulfill
requirements for four different
subjects, including what to do
when someone falls overboard
and how to use an onboard dis-
tress signal.
The importance of such
drills is stressed over the
Permit filed to demolish the
never-used Wapato Jail in Portland
Schnitzer
bought the
property
By ERICKA CRUZ
GUEVARRA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The Wapato Jail won’t
become a homeless shelter
after all.
In fact, Wapato Jail won’t
even be the Wapato Jail for
much longer.
A demolition permit is in
place for the never-opened
Multnomah County jail, which
was sold to private developer
Jordan Schnitzer in April.
A demolition building per-
mit application through the
city of Portland’s Bureau of
Development Services was
signed by the property owner
on Nov. 1, according to
documents.
A final permit for a com-
mercial inspection, in addi-
tion to an erosion and site con-
trol inspection is underway as
of Nov. 2. Documents show
applicants valued the cost of
all equipment, materials, labor
overhead and profit for the
work at $1 million.
The permitting process
to demolish the building —
which has been referred to as
an albatross that has strained
county resources since it was
completed in 2004 — began
less than a week before Port-
land voters would decide
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Wapato Jail, which Multnomah County just sold, has nev-
er been used for incarceration.
between two city councilors
who disagreed vehemently on
what to do with the jail.
Voters ultimately chose Jo
Ann Hardesty, who has been
critical of calls for the jail to
be converted into a homeless
shelter.
“I thought this was a city
of compassionate people,
empathetic people, people
who believed we can do bet-
ter than jail cells for people
who are houseless,” Hardesty
said in a speech at her election
night party soon after her win
Tuesday.
On the campaign trail,
Hardesty’s opponent, Mult-
nomah County Commissioner
Loretta Smith, said she wanted
to turn the jail into a triage
center for residential drug and
alcohol rehabilitation, mental
health support and job training
programs.
Schnitzer, who backed
Smith in her campaign for City
Council, told Willamette Week
in September that he’d demol-
ish the building if funding to
use the jail as a homeless shel-
ter didn’t materialize by Oct. 1.
The money never came.
Schnitzer faced mount-
ing pressure from leaders,
including Portland Mayor Ted
Wheeler and state Rep. Knute
Buehler, to consider more
pitches on what to do with the
jail.
Schnitzer pays $50,000 a
month to maintain the empty
jail — a price he told The Ore-
gonian he wasn’t keen on pay-
ing forever.
18-hour course. Students also
learn how to repair a hole in
the boat with bits of wood and
rubber that are lying around
most vessels. They’re taught
to have a safe space on board
for flammable materials.
Barnett has been in the fish-
ing industry since he was a
child tagging along behind his
father. He says he’s still learn-
ing things about safety.
For example: “To get into
the survival suit, you have to
do something with your shoes.
Your footwear does not slide
in very easily, you either have
to take them off or put plas-
tic bags over them, or you’re
going to struggle a lot to get
into that survival suit,” he said.
Coast Guard Officer Mike
Rudolph was the one who
explained that putting plas-
tic bags over shoes will help
people slide into their survival
suits in less than a minute.
That can be life-saving infor-
mation because a boat can sink
in just two minutes.
Rudolph’s regular job
involves examining fishing
vessels for the Coast Guard
to make sure they’re seawor-
thy. He says that 15 years ago,
safety training was lacking
along the Pacific coast. Fisher-
men had to drive up to Seattle
to take Coast Guard classes.
But Rudolph says the
culture along the coast is
changing.
“I grew up at a time when
I didn’t wear a bicycle helmet.
The seat belt in the car was my
mom’s hand keeping me from
hitting the windshield,” he
said. “ … I see it in a lot of the
younger crew members com-
ing on board. These are guys
who grew up wearing bicycle
helmets.”
A mile away, the notorious
Tillamook Bay Bar rumbles.
In 2003, 11 people died when
the chartered fishing boat Taki-
Tooo rolled over on the way
out. Most fishermen have their
own story to tell about the dan-
gers of working the waters off
Oregon.
Barnett remembers a storm
that appeared suddenly when
he was tuna fishing with his
father.
“We were taking water over
the top of the boat. And as I’m
laying in the bunk, the boat
rolls over to the side, there’s
no air between the window, the
water and me,” he said.
He survived, but the mem-
ory makes him very aware
of the need to stay trained on
basic safety.
The Coast Guard is offering
another four survival classes
between now and the first
week of December — in Coos
Bay, Newport and Astoria.
Group calls for halt
to orca boat tours
By PHUONG LE
Associated Press
SEATTLE — A Washing-
ton state task force on critically
endangered Northwest orcas
wants to temporarily suspend
whale-watching boat tours
focused on those whales, one
of three dozen recommenda-
tions to save a population that
is at its lowest in over 30 years.
The group advising Gov.
Jay Inslee voted Tuesday to
recommend a three- to five-
year moratorium on viewing
southern resident killer whales
by all boats in Puget Sound.
Disturbances and noise
from boats can interfere with
the whale’s ability to find
food or communicate, and
supporters said it would pro-
tect the whales. Critics said
it doesn’t address the larger
issue of dwindling food sup-
ply and it would be devastat-
ing for the industry.
The proposed moratorium
would not apply to boats view-
ing other whales in the region,
including gray or transient
whales.
The endangered orcas
struggle from pollution, boat
noise and lack of Chinook
salmon, which have been
declining because of dams,
habitat loss and overfishing.
The task force plans to for-
ward its recommendations to
the governor next week. He’ll
consider the ideas as he pro-
poses a budget and potential
legislation that will also go
before the Legislature.
Among the more conten-
tious ideas, the task force is
recommending that the state
set up a stakeholder process
to address issues related to the
possible breaching or removal
of the four Snake River dams
in eastern Washington.
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Veterans Day
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10 TH
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10 am -Noon or gone
12:30 pm
Veterans Day Program
Presentation of Colors & All Service Flags
“National Anthem” Chris Lyn Taylor
Program, Displays, Memorabilia, Photo Display and Guest Speakers
“Tapped Out Tappers” • POW/MIA Ceremony
“God Bless America” Chris Lynn Taylor
2:30 pm - U.S. Marine Corp Birthday - Cake
4-6 pm - Prime Rib Dinner $10 each
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