FISHING
Salmon trollers unhappy with state aid payments
THE COAST — It’s been a disastrous season for
Oregon’s commercial salmon trollers. The National Marine
Fisheries earlier this year closed 700 miles of Oregon and
California coastline to protect decimated wild runs of Klamath
River fall Chinook. What wasn’t protected were the
pocketbooks of those who make their living off the salmon. The
revenue lost to Oregon and California fishermen has been
estimated at $16 million.
So when the state announced it had $500,000 in direct aid for
Oregon trollers — hard cash to pay the bills — it
was welcome news, even though the amount paled next to the
losses being suffered.
But when the checks were handed out in late August, many in
the fleet were disappointed and angry. Out of 360 who applied,
283 salmon trollers received checks ranging from $75 to $7,500,
depending on the amount of salmon caught either in 2003, 2004
or 2005, and qualified expenses. Most of the trollers were
expecting a more equitable distribution of about $1,600
apiece.
“We didn’t gain that much financial relief,”
says Jeff Reeves, a Charleston-based fisherman and vice
chairman of the Oregon Salmon Commission, which helped set the
guidelines for disbursement.
He added that no one expected a big payout. “We
weren’t expecting this program to cure us, just to be a
leg up.” Most fishermen do not qualify for state
unemployment benefits.
The Department of Agriculture awarded the funds based on
guidelines worked out with the commission. But Reeves, who says
he received a $3,300 check, said much of the commission’s
input seemed to have been ignored.
“There’s a lot of animosity in the fleet over the
discrepancies. Our input got lost in making those
decisions,” says Reeves, who hopes the next round of
payments goes to those who didn’t get much the first
time.
Lauren Henderson, assistant director of the Department of
Agriculture, says another $500,000 was requested from the
Legislative E-Board in September. He hopes those payments, if
approved, can be made to trollers by the end of October, adding
that his office will recommend that the already-gathered
information from the current applicants be used to speed up
decisions on who gets the aid.
“Equitable is in the eyes of the beholder,” he
says about the complaints. “This wasn’t for all
fishermen, just the salmon fishermen. It was weighted that way.
All 283 [who received a check] were different stories, and we
read every one of them.”
The first round of funding, which came from the
governor’s Strategic Reserve Fund, was meant to be a
bridge to federal help. A bipartisan, bi-state coalition won a
federal declaration of “fishery failure” in August,
which covers the commercial salmon industry in Oregon and
California.
— Robin
Doussard
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