Friday, October 8, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
Abundance of clams awaits
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
It’s been nearly a year
since someone could walk
from a parking lot in Fort Ste-
vens State Park to the wet
sand by the South Jetty and
shove a clam gun in a razor
clam’s face.
People are once again
be able to bring their tool of
choice — be it shovel, clam
gun, or their own two hands
— to Oregon’s most popular
clamming beach to dig their
daily limit.
The Clatsop beaches area
shut down last year after
marine toxin levels spiked.
Domoic acid levels remained
high into 2021 and an annual
summer conservation closure
period followed.
Now, toxin levels have
dipped and ocean conditions
were ideal for young and
more mature clams. Razor
clam abundance is the highest
it has been since 2004, when
the state fi rst began assessing
the population, according to
fi shery managers.
It’s welcome news to
clammers. The Clatsop
beaches area, an 18-mile
stretch of beach between Sea-
side and the South Jetty near
the Columbia River, is home
to productive clam beds. It is
where the bulk of Oregon’s
razor clams are harvested
each season.
There is a tremendous
amount of clams out on the
beach, said Matt Hunter, the
shellfi sh project leader with
the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife’s marine
resources program.
Abundance is high in
Washington state, as well —
so high, in fact, that fi shery
managers there increased the
daily bag limit from the fi rst
15 clams dug to the fi rst 20.
In Oregon, the daily bag limit
continues to be the fi rst 15
clams dug.
Washington enforcement
offi cials have written a num-
ber of citations for people
who went over the limit, but
Dan Ayres, the coastal shell-
fi sh manager for the Washing-
ton Department of Fish and
Wildlife, said he has had other
people tell him “20 clams was
too many and they just took
what they could eat.”
The department has only
changed bag limits once
before in Ayres’ long time
with the state.
Several years ago, they
allowed people to keep up
to 25 clams in Long Beach.
A preseason assessment pre-
dicted the beach would be full
of clams, but the area hadn’t
been open for months because
of issues with domoic acid.
When people fi nally began
to dig in the spring, peo-
ple struggled to dig even the
usual 15. Many clams hadn’t
survived.
That won’t be a problem
this year, Ayres said.
Photos by Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
ABOVE: Razor clam digging reopened on the Clatsop beaches
area last Friday. LEFT: Biologists pull up razor clams to check
size and abundance on Clatsop beaches in July during an
annual conservation closure.
But the naturally occurring
marine toxin remains a treat.
Levels may not be at unsafe
levels right now, but blooms
can occur in the early fall and
fi shery managers saw lev-
els fl uctuate throughout the
summer.
In recent years, domoic
acid has not only shut down
razor clam digs, it has
impacted the Dungeness crab
fi shery.
Recent stormy weather
likely spelled good news for
the start of the razor clam sea-
son. Ayres said the wind and
rain appears to have cleared
up the water.
“It’s looking better now
than it did before,” he said.
In Oregon, Hunter will
be looking at weekly water
samples taken from up and
down the coast, keeping an
eye on pseudo-nitzschia in
the water. The planktonic dia-
tom can produce domoic acid
and is becoming a familiar,
near-constant presence in the
water column, Hunter said.
“I think this is going to be
our new normal with chang-
ing oceans and a changing
climate,” he said.
If the two states don’t see
any harmful algal blooms
in the early fall, it is rare for
them to experience any issues
through the winter. They will
start worrying about domoic
acid again in the spring.
School districts struggle
with lack of bus drivers
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
School
superinten-
dents in Clatsop County are
sounding the alarm about a
lack of school bus drivers.
The labor shortage comes
as coronavirus protocols
limit the number of students
that can be on a bus at once,
increasing the pressure to
fi nd more drivers. Between
the fi ve school districts,
they need nine bus drivers,
Knappa Superintendent Bill
Fritz said.
Knappa school bus
R.J. Marx
Testing for the coronavirus at Providence Seaside Hospital.
Local hospitals work to
vaccinate staff against virus
By ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
Administrators at Colum-
bia Memorial Hospital and
Providence Seaside Hospital
believe most hospital staff
will be vaccinated against
the coronavirus by the state’s
deadline for health care
workers in mid-October.
More than 80% of
caregivers at Columbia
Memorial have received a
COVID-19 vaccine.
The state has set an
Oct. 18 deadline for health
care workers, teachers
and other school staff to
get vaccinated against the
coronavirus.
The Astoria hospital
expects more staff to get
their second doses over
the next week, Jarrod Kar-
nofski, the vice president
of Columbia Memorial’s
ancillary and support ser-
vices, said at a news con-
ference hosted by the Clat-
sop County Public Health
Department on Wednesday.
At Providence Sea-
side, about 85% of caregiv-
ers have been vaccinated,
according to Jason Plamon-
don, the hospital’s chief
nursing offi cer, who was
not at the news conference
but answered questions via
email.
Gov. Kate Brown has
set an Oct. 18 deadline for
health care workers, teach-
ers and other school staff to
be vaccinated. The Oregon
Health Authority allows for
exemptions for religious
and medical reasons.
GOV. KATE BROWN HAS SET AN
OCT. 18 DEADLINE FOR HEALTH
CARE WORKERS, TEACHERS
AND OTHER SCHOOL STAFF TO
BE VACCINATED. THE OREGON
HEALTH AUTHORITY ALLOWS FOR
EXEMPTIONS FOR RELIGIOUS AND
MEDICAL REASONS.
Columbia
Memorial
anticipates that “a fair num-
ber” of unvaccinated staff
will request exemptions to
the vaccine mandate, Karn-
ofski said.
“We have already been
working on a process inter-
nally to evaluate those reli-
gious and medical excep-
tions, and approving or
denying those exceptions
per the Oregon Health
Authority guidelines,” he
said.
Columbia
Memorial
is hopeful, he said, that it
won’t have many caregiv-
ers without a vaccine or
approved exemption by the
deadline.
Providence Seaside is
seeing “a few” workers ask-
ing for exemptions, Pla-
mondon said.
Columbia Memorial and
Providence Seaside are
among the region’s larg-
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est employers, so if even
a fraction of hospital staff
remains unvaccinated by
the deadline, it could mean
dozens of workers could
lose their jobs for refusing
a vaccine.
Hospitalizations linked
to the virus peaked on the
North Coast during the late
summer as the delta variant
led to a record number of
new virus cases. But local
hospitalizations have fallen
over the past few weeks.
Columbia Memorial has
reopened its same-day ser-
vices unit — used for a time
as a special COVID unit —
and is doing elective surger-
ies again.
Knappa and other school
districts are in need of bus
drivers.
Fritz and Astoria Super-
intendent Craig Hoppes said
they have been able to make
ends meet to start the school
year, but the lack of backup
drivers is concerning.
Although Knappa has yet
to make cuts to routes or see
long delays, Fritz said, “it’s
only a matter of time unless
we can get some drivers.”
In September, a joint
request was made on behalf
of superintendents in Asto-
ria, Knappa, Warrenton and
Seaside to the Oregon Offi ce
of Emergency Management
asking for school bus driv-
ers, which could result in
the Oregon National Guard
stepping in to help.
“Unless they are able to
get permanent-type driv-
ers … it’s just going to be a
Band-Aid until we can get
more drivers,” Hoppes said.
The
Warrenton-Ham-
mond School District does
not have a major shortage,
Superintendent Tom Rogo-
zinski said, but is running a
little thin due to increased
routes from the addition of
Warrenton Middle School.
Jewell Superintendent
Steve Phillips said that as
a rural school district, it is
always tough to fi nd school
bus drivers, but the district
does not have an immedi-
ate need and did not join the
countywide request.
School districts expect to
lose some workers because
of Gov. Kate Brown’s vac-
cine mandate on teachers
and other school staff . But
the school bus driver short-
age is largely rooted in
another challenge — com-
mercial driver’s licenses.
School bus drivers need
more training than most
truck drivers, but with a
commercial driver’s license,
they can likely make more
money elsewhere, Fritz said.
“The level of train-
ing is complicated and the
price point is diffi cult for
us to match,” he said. “I
would say our cargo is more
precious.”
While issues surrounding
commercial driver’s licenses
seem to be the driving fac-
tor in the shortage, Fritz sees
other things at play.
“I think there are some
people who are averse to
working in close quarters
with people right now due to
COVID … While bus driv-
ing is very rewarding work,
because you get to make a
diff erence in your commu-
nity, it is also very challeng-
ing work,” he said. “You’re
trying to safely get students
to and from school in a large
piece of mechanical equip-
ment and you’re trying to
manage the kids at the same
time.
“Some people have the
gift for doing that, and they
do it very well, and they
really make a diff erence in
kids’ lives. But it can be very
stressful.”
In an eff ort to recruit
more drivers, Knappa added
a $500 signing bonus. Asto-
ria provided bus drivers and
classifi ed staff with a 10%
wage increase this school
year, Hoppes said.
As the school districts
wait to hear back from the
state, superintendents have
looked at alternatives.
“One of the things that
has been very helpful —
very helpful — is we adver-
tised throughout the last
month that if parents can
take their kids to school and
pick them up, to please do
so,” Hoppes said. “A lot of
parents have called in and
said, ‘Hey, I can take care
of it. I know you guys are
strapped by drivers and not
a lot of seats.’
“But that’s mainly it.
There are not a lot of other
options.”
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FOSTER CHILDREN IN CLATSOP COUNTY NEED YOU!
Become a CASA volunteer!
Fall training begins October 13th and will be held virtually
A Court Appointed Special Advocate is a community volunteer who advocates for a child who has been
abused or neglected. CASA volunteers work hard to ensure that children in foster care in Clatsop County will
have a safe and nurturing permanent home as soon as possible. Join us and make a difference.
Contact us today to set up a
CASA 101 Orientation!
(503) 338-6063