A6
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2019
Sanborn: All nine suites are now full Tug: He was lucky
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
“He just was ahead of
his time, and eclectic and
just had this vision of what
I think would just make
people happy and feel like
they just stumbled upon
this secret,” Norgaard said .
D ownstairs at the San-
born Building is United
Way of Clatsop County
and professional offi ces,
such as Counseling Solu-
tions NW, run by Camille
Holland.
Across a main lobby
from Norgaard, artist Son-
dra Carr opened Weird
Sisters Freak Boutique.
She describes her space,
decorated in nautical, for-
ested and other themes, as
an art installation reimag-
ined as a shop, showcasing
the work of local artisans.
“We’re just trying
to collect all the freaky
weirdness in one place,”
Carr said.
Norgaard
recruited
Megan Davis, owner of
the Floral Haze Vintage
boutique and her former
next-door neighbor from
the Copeland Building, to
move into the center suite
of the mall, where a local
family had attempted to
open a Mexican restaurant.
Janet
Hutchings
recently opened West
Coast Artisans, a gallery
for local artists, on 10th
Street in the former McVa-
rish Gallery. Jill McVar-
ish has concentrated her
efforts into the Secret Gal-
lery, a back room in the
upstairs interior of the
Sanborn Building accessed
Tug had been adopted by
Paul Turchetta from the a ni-
mal s helter only a few months
before. In the days ahead of
the Fourth of July, Tug had
ignored the booms and explo-
sions in his Astoria neighbor-
hood, seemingly unfazed.
On the night of the Fourth,
Turchetta was downtown
with his brother and sister-in-
law, Tug in tow. They went to
the Riverwalk ahead of a city
fi reworks show. Just before
the fi reworks started to go
off, Turchetta decided to take
Tug back to the car and con-
templated just taking him
home.
But things did not go
according to plan.
The fi rst big fi rework
exploded in the sky as they
reached the base of 15th
Street.
“He literally looked up at
me and he started dragging
me up the street,” Turchetta
said.
When the next big explo-
sion went off, Tug broke
loose. Turchetta fell and Tug
raced uphill, his leash snap-
ping behind him.
Turchetta started to fol-
low but was stopped by a
car. The driver said he and
his girlfriend had seen every-
thing that happened. He told
Turchetta to hop in and they
would go after Tug.
“My girlfriend is already
chasing him,” the man said.
Turchetta looked up 15th
Street and distantly saw a
woman running full speed
straight up the hill.
“Oh, she’s a triathlete,”
the man remarked casually.
Photos by Edward Stratton/The Astorian
Kirsten Norgaard has turned The Cellar on 10th wine store in the basement of the Sanborn
Building into the new Kit’s Apothecary.
Janet
Hutchings,
center, took
over the
former Jill
McVarish
Gallery on
10th Street
and turned it
into West Coast
Artisans, a
gallery hosting
a collection of
local artists.
from 10th Street through
a side door and up a hall-
way named the John Jacob
Astor Alley.
“They see a secret, and
they’re like, ‘Ooh, what’s
this about,’” McVarish
said of passersby. “And the
building is so compelling.”
McVarish enlisted Chris
Minnick, a local writer
who organized the Asto-
ria Freak Show, to mar-
ket the Secret Gallery and
help organize events in the
space, such as a vegetar-
ian fundraiser dinner next
month for Clatsop Animal
Assistance.
All nine suites in the
Whales: Entanglements pose problems
Continued from Page A1
The bulk of the whales
found tangled in fi shing
gear on the West Coast are
reported off California, but
gear from all three states has
been implicated .
‘OK to live with’
Pulling gear earlier than
usual “is something every-
body seems OK to live
with,” said Clint Funder-
burg, vice president and
director of the Oregon Coast
Crab Association, a group of
commercial fi shermen that
formed this year in response
to the debate around crab
gear and whales. “It’s some-
thing that’s doable.”
Other changes — such as
gear modifi cation or further
limiting entry into the fi sh-
ery — could be more con-
tentious, he said.
In September, the Ore-
gon Fish and Wildlife Com-
mission will hear a regula-
tory package that includes
accountability and infor-
mational measures and rep-
resents an effort to fi ll in
some gaps.
Along with California
and Washington state, Ore-
gon has begun the process
of applying for an inciden-
tal take permit from the fed-
eral government, a lengthy
process that, if successful,
would allow crab fi shermen
to lawfully take a small num-
ber of endangered whales
each year in the course of
fi shing.
“But the hardest conver-
sation is moving into what
we do with our fi shery in
terms of lines that are in
the water and making those
count and reducing them
where they don’t count,”
Caren Braby, a marine
resources program man-
ager for the state, told the
whale entanglement work-
ing group at a meeting last
week.
A survey Oregon Sea
Grant sent out to the state’s
commercial fl eet revealed
a mix of opinions on man-
agement measures. No one
action elicited universal
support.
“Instead we have a
divided fl eet,” Braby said
during a presentation to the
Fish and Wildlife Commis-
sion in June. “We have a
lot of dissension about what
would be effective, what the
fl eet could live with and how
to move forward.”
For Funderburg and
other fi shermen, even if they
switch between fi sheries,
crabbing continues to be a
major money maker.
“Without it we wouldn’t
survive,” he said.
“The state’s been good
working with fi shermen,”
Funderburg said. “I think
they understand we need to
come up with something that
keeps us in existence. We’re
such an important part of the
coastal economies and these
small communities.”
Stave off lawsuit
At a meeting in June,
Fish and Wildlife Commis-
sioner Bruce Buckmaster,
of Astoria, asked if staff was
confi dent the measures they
were recommending would
stave off a lawsuit similar to
what was seen in California.
“It does matter that we
have this threat of lawsuit,
but it doesn’t matter,” Braby
replied, “and what we really
need to focus on is doing the
right thing for the whales
and the crab fi shery and that
will set our course.”
Entanglement numbers
for large whales like hump-
backs and gray whales sky-
rocketed for four straight
years beginning in 2014.
Forty-six whales were con-
fi rmed entangled off the Ore-
gon, Washington state and
California coasts in 2018,
the majority of them hump-
backs, according to a federal
report released in June.
Of the 46 entanglements ,
24 were associated with spe-
cifi c fi sheries or gear . Com-
mercial crab fi sheries in
California and Oregon and
commercial and tribal crab
fi sheries in Washington
state accounted for 14 of the
entanglement reports.
Last year’s numbers were
slightly lower than the his-
toric highs seen in 2015 and
2016, “but still represent a
concerning level and a large
increase compared to pre-
2014 levels when the aver-
age was less than 10 con-
fi rmed entanglements per
year,” the report found .
As of July 16, there have
been 10 confi rmed reports
of entangled whales and two
unconfi rmed reports, accord-
ing to preliminary data from
the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administra-
tion. Of these, six entangle-
ments were associated with
commercial fi sheries — four
specifi cally with commer-
cial crabbing.
Researchers and fi shery
managers are looking at how
fi shing could be adjusted so
that the most effort is hap-
pening at times when there
appear to be fewer whales
around.
Leigh Torres, a researcher
with Oregon State Univer-
sity and a member of the
working group, launched a
study to answer questions
about when whales are off
the Oregon Coast, why,
what oceanographic condi-
tions may come into play,
how many are humpbacks
that are part of stocks listed
under the Endangered Spe-
cies Act and, ultimately, how
fi shermen can avoid whales.
“The ultimate goal is
to provide these layers of
entanglement risk,” Torres
said.
Torres and her team fl y
on Coast Guard helicopters
four times a month, looking
for whales. They collect data
on where they see whales,
but also where they don’t.
This summer and next sum-
mer, Torres hopes that when
they do see whales, they’ll
be able to launch boats to
take photos to identify indi-
vidual animals and take tis-
sue samples.
What it all ultimately
means for commercial crab-
bers remains to be seen.
Fishermen don’t like to
see whale entanglements,
said Tim Novotny, a spokes-
man for the Oregon Dunge-
ness Crab Commission.
Besides, “from a purely
business standpoint, it’s not
cost-effective.”
Whale entanglement is
not something the industry
can ignore. If the problem
is not addressed and whale
entanglement issues con-
tinue or worsen, fi shermen
run the risk of “somebody
else telling you how to oper-
ate your season,” Novotny
said. “Another thing you
don’t want.”
The c rab c ommission
provided some initial fund-
ing for Torres’ study and
has kicked in money to help
cover the costs of new, dou-
ble-sided tags for the fl eet —
examples of the commission
“putting its money where its
mouth is,” said Hugh Link,
the executive director.
“For the c rab c ommis-
sion, for the crab fi sher-
men, the thought process
has always been: Whatever
we can do to take a proac-
tive approach to not entan-
gle whales,” Novotny said,
“and to manage the resource
as best as we can for what’s
good for the ocean, for
what’s good for the fi shery.”
Sanborn Building are
now full, owner Eliza-
beth Konez said. In addi-
tion to the underground
and art tenants are long-
time Marine Drive staples
Himani Indian Cuisine and
an accounting fi rm run by
Mike Wallis, who also ran
the wine shop.
At the corner entrance
on 10th and Marine , Konez
is building out the Coffee
Underground, a new cof-
fee shop with seating in
the underground lobby she
hopes of driving more foot
traffi c downstairs.
“I think just getting
them in the door,” she said
of marketing the space.
“Right now, you walk by.
Kit’s got some nice sig-
nage, but it’s hard to know
what’s downstairs.”
They searched, but there
was no sign of Tug. Turchetta
returned home, called the
police to let them know about
the missing dog and left a
message at the shelter.
“It was a restless night,”
Turchetta said.
But he didn’t have to
wait long the next morning
for word of Tug. The police
called him at 7 a.m. to let him
know Tug had shown up on a
family’s front porch.
Tug bounces straight up
and down like he’s riding a
pogo stick when he fi rst meets
you — eyes a little wild and
ears fl opping. Sweet-tem-
pered, he might still try to
use your arm as a chew toy.
When Turchetta snaps on his
leash, Tug is inclined to grab
the leash in his mouth and
loll on the ground like a furry
toddler.
It was Tug’s eyes that
drew Turchetta when he
fi rst saw the dog at the shel-
ter: bright, direct, brown and
gold. Piercing eyes, Turchetta
thought. Those eyes and the
fact that “he needed a home.”
With the route Tug took
up 15th Street on the Fourth
of July, he passed a num-
ber of opportunities to disap-
pear: down streets and into
the woods. Young, energetic,
panicked and with fi reworks
going off through the late
hours of the night, he could
have easily kept running.
“He was lucky,” Stephens
said of Tug. “He could have
been lost for a long time.”
Will Tug ever attend
another fi reworks display?
Turchetta can answer that
question without a second’s
thought: “Hell no.”
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