SEPTEMBER 2007: AROUND THE STATE
Slim salmon
season but some relief
OREGON COAST
Oregon’s salmon fishing fleet finally reeled in a break
— but not many fish along with it.
The federal disaster relief funding for last year’s
restricted Chinook salmon fishing season, signed by the
president in May, finally reached Pacific States Marine
Fisheries Commission in August and checks are expected to start
going out as early as this month. “It’s a huge
relief,” says Nancy Fitzpatrick, administrator of the
Oregon Salmon Commission.
The only pitfall is, with the way the 2007 fishing season is
going, there might just be another disaster declared.
“I’ve been around the fishing business for 30-plus
years,” says Jeff Reeves, a North Bend-based fisherman
and vice-chair of the Oregon Salmon Commission, “and this
is the worst I remember seeing for Chinook.”
Out on his boat in August, Reeves suspected he might actually
bring a profitable load to shore for the first time this year.
But even if the salmon season picks up this fall, it got a slow
start up and down the coast.
The scarcity drove up prices — at $6.30 a pound a single
15-pound fish is worth close to $100 — but was
discouraging for the fleet when so many boats were coming back
with light loads. So it was welcome news that every salmon
fisherman would get at least $3,000 in relief funding for
safety and maintenance work on their boats.
“We’ve had two real bad years in a row,”
says Mark Newell, a Toledo-based fisherman and wholesaler.
“People weren’t making enough money to keep their
boats maintained.”
CHRISTINA
WILLIAMS
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