a pdf of the Winter 2014 Edition

Transcription

WINTER EDITION 2014
PROCESSOR POWER
SILVER BAY
GOES BOOM
BOATBUILDING \ SEINERS
LIMITED BY CLASS RULES
GEAR SHIFTS \ OILSKINS
centuries of coverage
Alaska didn’t jump on the
SUSTAINABILITY trend.
WE STARTED IT.
Marine conservation isn’t new to Alaska Seafood.
In fact, a precautionary approach to setting harvest
levels has been in place for decades. Look at the
BSAI Catch Limits chart and see how the numbers tell the story. Each year
scientists conduct surveys of the available biomass and use this data
to calculate conservative catch limits – Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC).
Then, fisheries managers go a step further and set harvest quotas –
Total Allowable Catch (TAC) – that never exceeds the sustainable ABC.
And, with the FAO-Based Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM)
Certification, you have even more assurance that conserving our oceans
is anything but trendy to us. Learn more at www.alaskaseafood.org
1981-2012
Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI)
Groundfish Catch Limits
18
28
COLUMNS
FEATURES
11
18
COMFORT ZONE
Safety can raise productivity.
12
8
DEPARTMENTS
2
3
4
5
6
8
PILOTHOUSE LOG
INDUSTRY WAYPOINTS
TIDINGS
CALENDAR
READY, SET, GO!
OUR TOWN
ALSO
35
36
AD INDEX
IN FOCUS
City of Santa Barbara
Joshua Veldstra
Jennifer Finn
WINTER 2014
YOUNGBLOODS
Politics demands your time.
12
On the HoRIZON
Plan for compliance costs.
14
ON THE HOMEFRONT
Meet the shoreside skipper.
15
GEAR SHIFTS
Oilskins have come pretty far from
the linseed-saturated cotton gear that
protected fishermen for a century.
20
LIMITING ALASKA SEINERS
Coast Guard rules that hike up costs for
building new boats 50 feet and longer
could beget a fleet of 49-footers.
28
GROWING PAINS
Success has been swift for Alaska’s
Silver Bay Seafoods, but it has posed
challenges for some fishing communities.
THE LONG HAUL
Fishing’s core values remain.
16
WINTER EDITION 2014
PROCESSOR POWER
MAKING THE RULES
Sizing up the setnet war.
SILVER BAY
GOES BOOM
BOATBUILDING \ SEINERS
LIMITED BY CLASS RULES
GEAR SHIFTS \ OILSKINS
CENTURIES OF COVERAGE
Cover: The Sherrie Marie unloads
P-cod at Silver Bay Seafoods in Sitka.
Daniel Evans photo
WINTER 2014 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS
1
PILOTHOUSE LOG
RISE WITH THE SUN
A
s this magazine falls into your hands, spring should be
just around the corner. That means it’s time to book
your flight back from Hawaii or Arizona and get to talking
about sac roe herring, halibut and of course salmon. But do
we ever stop talking about salmon (or halibut, for that matter)?
In the last few years, Silver Bay Seafoods has made salmon
an even hotter topic in Alaska. As the company spreads from
its home port in Sitka north to Bristol Bay and as far south
as the California squid fishery, I’m pretty sure the talk will
continue. Seattle-based freelance writer Sierra Golden tells us
more on page 28 about this burgeoning, fisherman-owned
seafood processing company that continues to make waves
with its rapid growth, soaring goals and the potential to put
more wild salmon into freezers rather than in cans.
There could be no better timing for the freezing capacity
Silver Bay has to offer. Seafood processors and the Alaska
Seafood Marketing Institute spent the winter scrambling to
find outlets for the millions of cases of cans that resulted from
the record pink harvest. The Alaska Department of Fish &
Game predicts another strong year for humpies. It’s a good
problem to have — record-breaking harvests and more fish
than you can shake a net at — but another glut of pinks will
only compound the problem. Processors like Silver Bay can
put more of the harvest on freezer plates, which opens up
opportunities for new inventory streams.
But we’re talking about more than salmon. In these pages, you’ll find the voices of your industry, your region. The
Alaska Marine Safety Education Association’s Jerry Dzugan
offers some easy ways to improve onboard ergonomics on
page 11. Brett Veerhusen — gillnet skipper and federal fisheries coordinator for the
Commercial Fishermen
for Bristol Bay — represents the voices of
young fishermen on
page 12 with a call to
arms to get involved
in fish politics. On
JESSICA HATHAWAY
page 14, Bellingham,
Wash.-based
ComEditor in chief
mercial Fishing Mom
Jen Karuza Schile writes from her perspective of running the
family business onshore.
We hope that you’ll find the North Pacific Focus to be a
valuable resource. It only seems fair. You work hard all year
to keep your business running, so we are working to make
sure you have the right information to help run your business. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with feedback. Best
of luck in the season to come.
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North Pacific Focus, Winter 2014, Vol. 1, No. 1, is published quarterly by Diversified Business Communications, 121 Free St., P.O. Box 7438, Portland, ME 04112-7438. Periodicals postage paid at
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2
NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / WINTER 2014
INDUSTRY WAYPOINTS
▲
The Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle is
hosting a yearlong exhibit to celebrate the
historic longline halibut fleet as well as the 100th anniversary of the Fishing Vessel Owners’ Association.
The exhibit, “Highliners: Boats of the Century,” tells
the story of the historic halibut schooners and the
men and women who continue to take them to the
North Pacific. It documents the boats — made of
wood and still in service after 100 years — and the
advances in technology and fisheries management
that members of the Fishing Vessel Owners’ Association helped implement during the organization’s
long history. The celebration kicked off in February with a gathering of some of the remaining vessels
at South Lake Union, including the Seymour, Vansee, Grant, Polaris, Resolute, Evening Star, Kristiana, St.
John II and Memories.
• Also celebrating anniversaries in
2014 are Seattle’s Fremont Maritime
Services, which is turning 25 in November, and rugged marine clothing
manufacturer Guy Cotten is turning
50. Seattle’s Fishermen’s Terminal
turns 100 this year, as well. The facility’s official birthday falls on Jan. 10,
the date it was dedicated in 1914 in a
ceremony that featured bands, singing,
speeches and a parade of fishing boats.
Officials are planning events to mark
the anniversary through the year.
• Michael Petersen is now general
manager for Alaska Longline Co.
in Petersburg. He oversees all business
operations for the
company. Petersen has served as
captain on a wide
variety of vessels
since 1979 with
experience in the
Michael Petersen
Bering Sea, Aleu-
• Oregon Sea Grant will host a series
of meetings to discuss changes to
commercial fishing industry safety
requirements set to take effect soon.
Curt Farrell (below, left), commercial fishing vessel safety coordinator
for Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit
Portland, Ore., will discuss regulation
changes enacted with the Coast Guard
Authorization Act of 2010 and the
Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2012. Meetings are scheduled for March 4 at Astoria City Hall,
Astoria; March 5 at Englund Marine
Supply, Newport; March 6 at Charleston RV Park, Charleston; March 7
at Harbor Water District, Brookings;
USCG
Melissa Wood
tian Islands, Gulf of Alaska and Washington and Oregon coasts. He is based
in the company’s Seattle office.
and April 7 at Englund Marine Supply,
Newport. Meetings begin at 10 a.m.
and are scheduled for two hours, but
will last as long as necessary to answer
all questions.
For more information, contact Ruby
Moon with OSU Extension Sea Grant
at ruby.moon@oregonstate.edu or
(541) 272-9096.
• Armstrong Marine in Port Angeles, Wash., is building a second plant in
Onslow, N.C. The new welded aluminum boat manufacturing facility will
cost more than $8.4 million and create
200 jobs. Josh Armstrong, president and
CEO of Armstrong Marine, told Area
Development magazine that the company
decided to expand after realizing the
existing manufacturing facility in Port
Angeles was not adequate to meet the
expanding demands of the market and
because it would reduce substantial shipping costs to clients on the East Coast.
• Vigor Industrial entered into an
agreement to buy the assets of Seward
Ship’s Drydock, a full-service shipyard
and drydock facility in Seward, Alaska.
Under the terms of the deal, which were
still tentative at press time, the Seward
shipyard would join Vigor as a subsidiary
of the company’s Vigor Alaska yard.
Frank Foti, Vigor Industrial’s president
and CEO, explained the move was part
of Vigor’s larger plan to improve the
company’s service offerings in Alaska for
existing customers in the fishing, oil and
gas and marine transportation sectors as
well as increase overall capacity to meet
expected increases in demand from arctic drilling and the revitalization of the
commercial fishing fleets in the area.
3
Tidings
Bristol Bay
Kodiak
NEWS from
the West Coast & Alaska
By Melissa Wood
Seattle
Portland
Despite growing momentum, Pebble fight isn’t over
T
W
NOAA
hen Alaska’s big island hosts
ComFish in April (see calendar) the election year will draw Alaska
Sens. Lisa Murkowsi and Mark Begich.
Both plan to head to Kodiak, where
Begich will host a
forum on the reauthorization of the
Magnuson-Stevens
Act and may bring
along new NMFS
Administrator Eileen Sobeck, says
forum organizer
Eileen Sobeck
Laine Welch.
Expected forum topics include an
update on the expanded observer program in the longliner fleet, a presentation on advances in bycatch gear, and
4
More than 200 people opposed to
Pebble Mine gathered for a Seattle rally.
yet,” says Brett Veerhusen of Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay. For that
to happen, the EPA needs to institute a
404(c) to prohibit development. Veerhusen says a final decision could come
in spring 2014.
panels on ocean acidification and the
upcoming catch share program for the
Gulf of Alaska’s groundfish fleet.
“Kodiak does have the largest and
most diverse fishing fleet in all of Alaska
and the most processing, so it’s a big
draw for people to come into the community,” says Welch.
ing rumors about the safety of their
fish, fishermen-owned Loki Fish Co. in
Seattle decided to pay for its own radiation tests. Their results? The salmon
was fine.
The company tested seven Puget
Sound and Alaska stocks, finding that
five samples did not have detectable
levels of radionuclides. Two registered
at trace levels — keta and pinks from
Alaska — but were far below the critical limit set by the FDA.
Reasons behind recent
sardine crash still unclear
B
efore their 1950s bust, sardines accounted for 25 percent of all the fish
landed in U.S. fisheries. Now after years
of cautionary fishing, stocks have fallen
an estimated 72 percent since 2006,
leading the Pacific Fishery Management
Council to reduce the 2014 commercial
quota for California, Oregon and Wash-
Fishermen test salmon after
nuclear radiation concerns
H
undreds of millions of gallons of
contaminated water flowed into
the Pacific Ocean following Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster three years ago.
While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asserted West Coast fish are
acceptable for human consumption, it
hasn’t published any results to back that
up.
With that lack of information fuel-
NOAA
Candidates, compelling
talks expected at ComFish
Moss Landing
Susan Chesney
here was good news for Pebble
Mine opponents in January. First,
the Environmental Protection Agency
released its final watershed assessment,
finding that large-scale mining operations pose a significant threat to the
Bristol Bay watershed, home to half
the world’s wild sockeye.
Then, Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska)
came out against the project, stating,
“Pebble is not worth the risk.” And on
Jan. 23, more than 200 people, including dozens of fishermen, rallied against
the mine with Sen. Maria Cantwell
(D-Wash.) in Seattle.
“I think the important thing is to
really keep this momentum going because the nail in the coffin isn’t there
Sardines’ typical booms and busts
make management a challenge.
ington by more than two-thirds.
What’s behind the booms and busts is
still unclear. The crashes may be partly explained by 20- to 30-year Pacific
decadal oscillation cycles. While sardines
do well in its warmer phases, Francisco
Chavez, scientist at the Monterey Bay
Aquarium Research Institute in Moss
Landing, Calif., told the Monterey
County Weekly there must be other environmental factors. When the Pacific
Ocean experienced a temperature shift
in the late 1990s, sardine populations fell
in Japan and Peru, but California’s only
started to fall off after a peak in 2006.
So far labeling and marketing has remained the same for walleye, or Alaska,
pollock after NMFS announced its scientific name was changed from Theragra
chalcogramma to Gadus chalcogrammus.
According to NOAA’s James Orr and
Duane Stevenson, the change came after genetic studies found that pollock’s
family tree was closer to Pacific, Atlantic and Greenland cods. In fact, pollock
is more closely related to Atlantic cod
than other cod species.
Despite the name change, it’s incorrect to label pollock as cod, according
to NOAA — a designation that’s likely
to be challenged, speculated industry
analyst Rob Reierson of Tradex Foods.
Ramifications may follow
pollock’s new scientific name Salmon makes progress in
hat’s in a name for the United
States’ highest volume fishery upstream fight to city waters
W
now that pollock is a cod?
T
hanks to environmentally friendly
practices like stormwater management, watershed conservation and
streamside habitat recovery, wild salmon are slowly rebuilding in urban areas
MARCH
March 7-13
Pacific Fishery Management
Council Meeting
DoubleTree by Hilton Sacramento
2001 Point West Way
Sacramento, Calif.
(916) 929-8855 or (800) 686-3775
www.pcouncil.org
March 9
86th Annual Blessing
of the Fleet
Fishermen’s Terminal, Seattle
(206) 787-3000 / www.portseattle.org
March 17
Magnuson Hearing — SENA
Seafood Expo North Atlantic,
Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
Room 254B, 8–10 a.m.
Contact: Center for Sustainable Fisheries
(508) 992-1170
info@centerforsustainablefisheries.org
www.nationalfisherman.com/magnuson
APRIL
April 4-10
Pacific Fishery Management
Council Meeting
Hilton Vancouver Washington
where
they
were never expected to return, according
to Alan Yeakley, director of
Portland (Ore.)
State University’s School of
the Environment.
A new book looks at
“The urban city salmon recovery.
areas were written off as wastelands by fish managers,”
Yeakley told Sustainable Business Oregon. His new book, “Wild Salmonids
in the Urbanizing Pacific Northwest,”
examines the science behind salmon recovery.
Portland adopted a Watershed
Management Plan in 2005 to help with
salmon recovery in city waterways. Following the plan’s adoption, more residents began installing green roofs and
bioswales, and several purchased land to
restore along Johnson Creek.
APRIL
301 W. Sixth St., Vancouver, Wash.
(360) 993-4500 / www.pcouncil.org
April 17-19
ComFish Alaska
Kodiak Harbor Convention Center
& Kodiak Best Western Inn
Kodiak, Alaska
www.comfishalaska.com
April 22-25
Kodiak Area Marine
Science Symposium
Alaska Sea Grant, Kodiak Harbor
Convention Center, Kodiak, Alaska
(907) 486-1514 / www.seagrant.uaf.edu
MAY
May 8-11
Seattle Maritime Festival
Fishermen’s Terminal, Seattle
Pier 66 and Bell Harbor Marina
www.seattlepropellerclub.org
May 13-16
Fisheries Bycatch: Global
Issues and Creative Solutions
Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium
Hilton Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska
(907) 272-7411 / www.seagrant.uaf.edu
MAY
May 23
U.S. Senate candidates
for Alaska debate
Kodiak High School Auditorium
Live broadcast on Alaska Public Radio
networks
www.alaskapublic.org
May 23-27
Kodiak Crab Festival
Downtown Kodiak, Alaska
Kodiak Chamber of Commerce
(907) 486-5557 / www.kodiak.org
ongoing
Through Dec. 31
Highliners: Boats
of the Century
Longline Centennials Project
Center for Wooden Boats
1010 Valley St., Seattle
(206) 382-2628
www.cwb.org
To list your event in North Pacific
Focus, contact Melissa Wood at
mwood@divcom.com or
(207) 842-5629
5
READY,
PRE-SEASON PREVIEW
Jessica Hathaway
Will Alaska’s
pinks return for
another banner
season?
Outlook: Alaska
Positive indicators abound
for 2014 seasons statewide
By WESLEY LOY
O
ptimism characterizes the 2014 fishing
season in Alaska — cautious optimism.
Last year saw a record catch of around 270 million salmon, with an explosive haul of pink salmon
leading the way. The estimated ex-vessel value of
$691 million was the highest in 25 years.
State permit prices, a gauge of industry health, are soaring.
For example, a Southeast seine permit was worth more than
$300,000 in 2013, nearly 10 times its value a decade earlier.
On other fronts, Alaska’s enormous groundfish stocks remain robust, and the state is forecasting strong herring catches
in parts of the state.
Off the water, a landmark regulatory change takes effect this
year — the halibut catch-sharing plan. Now the charter boat
sector, like the commercial longline fleet, must adhere to firm
catch limits.
State political leaders also won a pledge from retail giant Walmart to keep buying Alaska salmon, even though the
industry has largely dropped out of the Marine Stewardship
Council certification program.
So, in many ways the outlook for Alaska fisheries is bright.
But significant worries lurk. The halibut stock is in a deep
downward trend. King salmon returns to many of the state’s
river systems are seriously depressed, and state biologists don’t
foresee much improvement. And the state’s pollock industry is
facing some tough market conditions.
Alaska fisheries follow an annual cycle: Herring harvests start
in the spring and extend into summer, as the major salmon
fisheries kick in. Bering Sea crab fisheries play out in the fall
and winter. Groundfish and halibut fisheries span much of the
year. And smaller fisheries, such as Dungeness crab, geoduck
and scallops, are sprinkled here and there.
Sitka and Togiak, in remote Southwest Alaska, host the
state’s two most important herring fisheries. The herring are
valued mainly for their eggs, or roe. Unfortunately, the Japanese
market for Alaska roe has fallen off badly since the mid-1990s.
Still, competition for herring remains feisty at Sitka, where
pollock
6
HERRING
48 seine boats were expected to go to battle in late March.
State biologists have set a preliminary catch limit of 17,592 tons
of herring. A catch of that size would signify a big rebound
from last season’s disappointing result.
At Togiak, where the herring sac roe fishery opens in May,
the forecast calls for a huge harvest of 27,890 tons. Last season,
seiners and gillnetters combined for about 28,800 tons, but received a reported grounds price of only $100 per ton.
The situation with halibut, one of Alaska’s most valuable
fisheries, is frankly worrisome.
In January, the International Pacific Halibut Commission
set an overall limit of 27.5 million pounds for the
U.S. West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska. It
marked another in a series of significant cuts.
One bright spot was in Southeast Alaska,
Alaska
one
of the hardest hit areas during the halifisheries
but slump, where commissioners set a limit of
3.3 million pounds for the commercial fishery, a substantial increase from last year. They
also set, under the new plan, a limit of about
761,000 pounds for the charter boat sector.
The season for Alaska halibut individual quota
holders opens March 8 and finishes Nov. 7.
Total halibut removals have ranged from 34 million to 100
million pounds annually over the last century, the commission
says. Estimated removals in 2013 were 46 million pounds.
What accounts for the downward trend of recent years?
Scientists cite two main factors: lower recruitment than that
seen through the 1980s and ’90s, and a slower growth rate
for halibut. Smaller halibut translates to a smaller biomass and
lower catch limits.
The halibut decline has heightened political pressure to clamp
down on bycatch, especially in the state’s trawl fisheries.
Malcolm Milne, 43, of Homer, has been fishing halibut since
1994, and has been following the situation closely. He has invested in individual quotas and owns the Captain Cook, a fiberglass 48-foot Delta.
“I’m really hopeful we’re just in a natural trough here,”
Milne says. He worries too many removals are going unaccounted for.
The Copper River fishery marks the unofficial start of Alaska’s salmon season. Some 500 drift gillnetters will blast off in
mid-May, targeting sockeye and kings. Often, these early fish
pay some of the highest prices of any salmon caught in Alaska.
State biologists are forecasting a commercial harvest of 1.6
million sockeye, which would slightly exceed last season’s excellent catch, and 22,000 kings.
The state’s most valuable salmon fishery is Bristol Bay, which
starts in June and peaks around the Fourth of July. The catch
forecast is relatively small at 16.9 million sockeye. Last year
also saw a small catch, but processors paid a sharply higher base
price of $1.50 per pound.
During the off-season, many in the salmon industry fretted
about the record pink salmon catch of more than 215 million
KING salmon
halibut
pink salmon
fish during 2013. The fear was that the enormous canned pack
could glut the market and depress prices this season. The Alaska
Seafood Marketing Institute was working on strategies to boost
retail sales, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture committed
to buying volumes of canned pinks for use in food aid programs.
Pollock is the largest Alaska groundfish harvest by weight,
with Bering Sea trawlers taking the bulk of the fish. Other important groundfish species include Pacific cod, blackcod and a
variety of soles.
Overall, groundfish stocks are quite healthy. Regulators
slightly raised the Bering Sea pollock quota this year to nearly
1.3 million metric tons.
But pollock producers say they face a very tough market
situation. Roe is a big part of pollock value, but poor recoveries
severely cut roe revenue in 2013. What’s more, the surimi and
block markets weakened last year.
The top challenge for the pollock industry appears to be competition from Russian producers now that the Sea of Okhotsk
fishery has won the same MSC certification as Alaska’s fishery.
Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers, a Seattle-based trade
group, says MSC certification really matters to some customers, particularly in Germany. U.S. pollock once commanded a
premium in the marketplace, but now the industry faces fierce
competition from MSC-certified Russian products, which are
billed to consumers as “Alaska pollock,” the group says.
West Coast fishermen hope 2014 will
be as strong as 2013, when they landed
71.5 million pounds of pink shrimp.
Susan Chambers
SET, GO!
good seasons; the ocean is the healthiest I’ve ever seen it.”
That ocean health has transferred to salmon as well. Fishery managers expect 308,000 adult spring king returns to the
Columbia River. Of that, 227,000 are upriver spring kings.
Last year, the actual upriver spring king returns were 123,100.
Forecasts of fall kings are still being measured.
“There will be a high demand for (spring kings), too,” says
Steve Fick, of Fishhawk Fisheries in Astoria, Ore., noting that
ex-vessel prices may rival that for Copper River kings from
Alaska. “It’s just frustrating that 98 percent of Oregonians
won’t have access to this fish in three years.”
The higher spring expectations are a catch-22 for Columbia River gillnetters: though there may be more fish available,
more of those fish — 70 percent in 2014 vs. 60 percent historically — will be allocated to recreational fishermen under a plan
that phases out the commercial gillnet fishery on the main stem
of the river by the end of 2017.
Ocean salmon trollers likely will have more opportunity this
year, following on the heels of a successful 2013 season that
Wesley Loy is a freelance writer based in Anchorage, Alaska.
resulted in California fishermen having more than just a few
weeks of fishing time on the water. California trollers landed
4.3 million pounds of salmon in 2013 — far more than the 2.9
million pounds they landed in 2012.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council was expected to
determine the seasons at March and April meetings, but early
Rosy prospects for shrimp, salmon
indications were that fishermen could begin deliveries by early
— if processors can handle the catch
spring. Harvest could surpass the 48 million pounds delivered by all three West Coast states and the Columbia
River in 2013.
By SUSAN CHAMBERS
The fresh salmon market should remain robust,
says Hallmark Fisheries Production Manager
f the four fisheries starting this spring
Washington
Scott Adams, from Charleston, Ore. “I’m option the West Coast, pink shrimp and
Oregon
mistic we’ll have a good salmon year.”
salmon seem to hold the greatest potential for
California
The one fishery that likely will not reach hisvalue and volume. Fisheries
toric highs in terms of either volume or value is
Pink shrimp highliner Nick Edwards, of the
fixed-gear blackcod. Though it is a prime species
Carter Jon, says all three West Coast states have
for the Japanese market and enjoyed extraordinarily
benefited from Oregon’s leadership in coldwater
high ex-vessel prices in 2010 and part of 2011, prices
shrimp. The West Coast now supplies 10 percent of
crashed in the latter half of 2011 and have not recovered. And
the global demand for coldwater prawns and shrimp, he says.
Oregon’s fleet is the largest with around 60 boats. California they likely won’t, Adams says.
“The yen is weak,” he says, “and fishermen may get a little
and Washington have about 20 each.
“The problem is we don’t have the infrastructure to process bit more of a [price] bump at the beginning, but not like it was.
On the other hand, it seems prices won’t slide any more than
the shrimp we could catch,” Edwards says.
Last year, West Coast fishermen landed around 71.5 million they already have.”
pounds and Edwards expects 2014 to be just as good. “There’s
healthy recruitment, a good year class. We’ve had four really Susan Chambers is a freelance fisheries writer based in Coos Bay, Ore.
Outlook: West Coast
O
SHRIMP
salmon
7
OUR TOWN
Quick Look
at the port of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, Calif.
Calif.
POPULATION
89,639
NUMBER OF BOATS 75 to 80
Fast, seaworthy Radon boats are
popular with local dive fishermen.
By LINC BEDROSIAN
W
hat stands out about Santa Barbara, Calif., as a fishing port is the support it
receives from the community. The town’s rich commercial fishing tradition
dates back to the 1850s. City officials understand the industry’s importance to the
community and are committed to supporting it.
“The city fathers, every city council I’ve worked with in my 14 years here have
been solidly behind the industry,” says Mick Kronman, 65, who has been Santa Barbara’s harbor operations manager
for 14 years. “Our department
has a commitment to supporting our working waterfront and
maintaining our working waterfront as a staple to this port far
into the future.”
“It caters to the fishermen,
which other harbors in California do not,” adds Mike McCorkle, 75, who began fishing in
the 1950s, saving up money to
buy his first boat in 1956.
For example, the city designates 45 slips specifically for commercial fishing vessels. They’re
made available to fishermen at
half price, says McCorkle, a 1985
NF Highliner Award recipient.
The ice machine at the Union
Marine Fuel dock produces 10
Red sea urchins, valued for their roe, are
tons a day, he says. Flake ice costs
off-loaded at Santa Barbara Harbor.
$80 per ton. And each $1 token
fishermen buy gets them 10 minutes of time on one of four independent fish hoists.
Kronman, a former NF Pacific Bureau Chief, has written a history of Santa Barbara’s commercial fishing industry titled, “From Hooks to Harpoons… the Story
of Santa Barbara Channel Fisheries.” In it, he describes the variety of gear the city’s
8
2012 TOP LANDINGS
BY VALUE
Red sea urchins: 4.53 million
pounds worth $3.16 million
Spiny lobster: 162,992 pounds
worth $2.59 million
Rock crab: 1.19 million pounds
worth $1.71 million
Blackcod: 345,620 pounds
worth $1.06 million
Sea cucumber: 187,525 pounds
worth $714,992
Source: “Santa Barbara Fisheries Landings
and Trends,” Derek Stein, California
Department of Fish and Wildlife
SOME LOCAL BOATS
AND THEIR FISHERIES
Pieface — Halibut, shrimp, sea
cucumbers
Sal C. — Rock crab
Tytan — Swordfish
Kayla B — Sea urchin, blackcod
Mysteri — Spiny lobster
LOCAL FISHING
ASSOCIATIONS
Commercial Fishermen of
Santa Barbara
WHERE FISHERMEN
GO FOR COFFEE…
Breakwater
On the Alley
…FOR BEer
Brophy Brothers Restaurant
Endless Summer
CLAIMS TO FAME
Santa Barbara was one of the
first California ports to sponsor a
fishermen’s market. It’s also home
to the annual Harbor and Seafood
Festival, held in October.
fishermen have historically used to catch their target species — traps, nets, hooks,
harpoons and dive equipment — and documents the port’s fishing history.
Those gear types have snared a wide variety of fish and shellfish, including
spiny lobster, rock crab, ridgeback and spot prawns, squid, rockfish, swordfish,
halibut, blackcod, salmon, sea cucumbers, abalone and sea urchins.
Through the years, increasingly strict state and federal regulations and campaigns by environmental and recreational fishing organizations have made access
to fishing grounds a big problem.
For example, the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary is off-limits to
fishing. So is the network of marine protected areas established in state waters
through California’s Marine Life Protection Act. Essential Fish Habitat zones shut
trawl fishermen out of another 300,000 square miles offshore.
Fran Collin
Halibut are
transferred from trawl
nets to oxygenated
tanks for delivery to
live markets.
Linc Bedrosian
Seen and heard
in Santa Barbara
Mick Kronman
A former
fisherman,
Kronman is
Santa Barbara’s
harbor operations
manager.
Stephanie Mutz
The president
of Commercial
Fishermen of
Santa Barbara
fishes mostly for
urchins and snails.
Mike McCorkle
The Southern
California
Trawlers
Association
president is an
NF Highliner.
9
OUR TOWN
Mick Kronman
Rena Castagnola
The Rex, Pelican, Santa Lucia, Santa Clara and St.
Patrick head out of Santa Barbara Harbor in the 1940s.
Mike McCorkle sells salmon dockside at the
city’s weekly fishermen’s market.
“We have the state and federal government all implementing closures,” McCorkle says. “All these add up to large areas of closed waters, which is forcing
the fishermen on top of each other, and forcing some out of business.”
The closures and strict regulations also affect consumer impressions of the
fishing industry, says Stephanie Mutz, 35, who fishes predominantly for urchins
and snails and is president of the Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara.
“We need to educate our community that seafood is seasonal like produce,”
Mutz says. Consumers don’t understand that fishermen may not be able to supply consumers with seafood they seek, because regulations may prevent them
from doing so or a particular fishery isn’t open all year, she says.
McCorkle continues to make day trips fishing around the Channel Islands
but also attends plenty of meetings, working to protect fishermen’s interests. As
president of the Southern California Trawlers Association, he says it’s worth the
time and effort to combat anti-commercial fishing efforts.
“The NGOs are working hard to come up with a new crisis all the time,” he
says, “most of which can be disputed if fishermen do it.”
According to Mutz, the city has about 200 full- and part-time commercial
CONTINUED ON PAGE 26
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COMFORT ZONE
Fish smarter,
not harder
Jerry Dzugan is a marine safety trainer and
the director of the Alaska Marine Safety
Education Association. He still occasionally
crews on an Alaska fishing boat.
By JERRY DZUGAN
he first time it happened was when I woke up to the
sound of my skipper’s voice announcing that it was time
to pick up the gear. My claw-like hands were partially numb
with a burning sensation and bent at a 90-degree angle to my
forearm. I didn’t know how my hands would be able to gut,
clean and pull out the gonads from thousands of pounds of
halibut for yet another 22-hour day.
Fast forward 30 years and those symptoms of tendonitis still
occasionally flare. To keep the pain at a minimum, these days
I use wristers to keep my wrists warm and in alignment, and
avoid using a forceful pinching-type grip with my fingertips
when cleaning fish. Rotating work duties also helps.
Talking to fishermen about ergonomics — the science of
designing tools and the workplace to fit the worker — draws
different responses, depending on their age. Some younger
fishermen laugh it off as just a problem for old timers. Old
timers respond that they wish they knew more about it when
they were younger. Yet it is not rare to find young fishermen
who already suffer from back, shoulder, elbow and wrist problems related to fishing.
According to Alaska’s Fisherman’s Fund, strains, sprains,
tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome comprise about 40
Ergo essentials
There are more than 100 unique fisheries in the United
States, each with its own ergonomic problems and solutions. It is impossible for one person to know the solutions for all fisheries. However, I’ve worked with Dr. Don
Bloswick, a biomechanical engineer and researcher in
ergonomics with a special interest in commercial fishing,
to compile 13 basic principles for reducing body stress.
• Limit lifting by using blocks and mechanical
advantages
• Limit lifting of objects above the chest
• Bend knees, not the back, to pick up objects
• Get help when moving heavy objects
• When carrying a load, keep the weight close to
your body
• Don’t jerk weights when lifting
• Don’t twist your body when lifting; move your feet,
not your torso
• Make a “bridge” when picking up weight by
bracing a hand on the hatch or other surface
• Automate procedures with machinery
• Eliminate unnecessary steps and movements when
fishing
• Use ergonomic tools that keep the body in neutral
positions; put the bend in tool handles, not your wrist
• Keep fish cleaning surfaces at a comfortable height
• Make stretching a part of your daily routine
percent of all injuries. In one study of North Carolina fishermen, 50 percent of injuries were strains, sprains and carpal
tunnel syndrome, 70 percent of which were caused by lifting
and moving. Another study of Swedish fishermen found that
50 percent had suffered from low back pain in just 12 months,
and 66 percent of New Zealand fishermen have lower back
problems related to fishing.
Commercial fishing is a challenging work environment. The
workspace is congested, slippery, exposes the body to cold —
which increases musculoskeletal problems — and the unstable
deck doesn’t provide solid support for the legs. However, some
changes can make it less stressful
to the body. Those who have
made the changes catch more
fish with less effort, have fewer
medical expenses and work in a
more comfortable workspace.
Eric Jordan, a Sitka salmon
troller and NF Highliner, has
been using ergonomics on his
boat with his son, Karl, for
Standing on a mat reduces
many years. He realized a sig- leg and foot strain.
nificant increase in
productivity. Jordan
says the most important point he shares
with fishermen is to
“analyze each step,
and eliminate repetitive and unnecessary
motions.”
Jordan has arranged Fish scrapers with angled handles
keep the wrist in proper alignment.
his workspace so that
most of the work can be done without leaving the safety of the
trolling cockpit. From this secure location he can launch stabilizers, open hatches with pulleys, navigate, change troll gear,
run the gear, and gaff, bleed and ice fish. His bleeding tray is on
a swivel so he can move it over the fish hold.
His goal is to touch a fish just once. These workspace changes reduce his body movements and straining motions, while
preventing slips and falls. Fewer movements in handling fish
allow him to return his gear to the water faster to catch more
fish. Limiting his movements around the boat also reduces his
chances of falling overboard or having an accident on deck.
Jordan encourages fishermen to “think about how to make
your work more comfortable and processes more efficient.
But most importantly develop the attitude that you can make
changes for the better.” You don’t need to accept the tools and
work layout of your vessel. Making small ergonomic changes
now yields enormous benefits.
View this link for AMSEA’s three-part ergonomics slide
show: http://amsea.org/downloads.html.
AMSEA Photos
T
11
YOUNGBLOODS
Next generation
needs good politics
Brett Veerhusen is from Homer, Alaska, runs
the Finnegan in Bristol Bay and serves as the
federal fisheries coordinator for Commercial
Fishermen for Bristol Bay in Washington, D.C.
By BRETT VEERHUSEN
Susan Chesney
C-Span
F
ishermen are used to dodging corklines and sandbars, but
recently I’ve learned to dodge taxis and Obama’s motorcade. I moved to Washington, D.C., to protect my livelihood, and the 14,000 jobs that rely on Bristol Bay’s sustainable
salmon fishery, from Pebble Mine. In addition to my jobrelated perks like the release of EPA’s finalized watershed assessment, and helping strengthen Sens. Maria Cantwell’s and
Mark Begich’s leadership in opposing Pebble, I have found
opportunities in the capital to learn more about national and
international fishery management.
At the end of January, I attended the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere,
Fisheries and Coast Guard hearing on West Coast perspectives
of the Magnuson-Stevens Act
reauthorization. Ray Toste, a
panelist and president of the
Washington Dungeness Crab
Coalition gave two compelling
statements about a fisherman’s
Ray Toste
role to the next generation.
“There’s two things I know
how to do well,” Toste said
to a hushed room, “catch fish
and create sons.” Everyone, including Cantwell and Begich,
chuckled. Leave it to a fisherman to stun a crowd by speaking the truth. It was fantastic.
Presumably, many fishermen
will agree with Toste. And to
Sen. Maria Cantwell
that effect, if we wish to continue our heritage by catching fish and creating families, we
mustn’t overharvest, so our future sons and daughters can fish
one day. Also, we mustn’t allow other industries to destroy
the fisheries that we’ve worked tirelessly to protect and sustain
ON THE HORIZON
The cash to comply
future generations. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned since
living in D.C., it’s that politics makes the decisions.
Toste, in a low and humble tone, which drew the attention
of every spectator in the Senate room, stared into the eyes of
Cantwell and Begich and said, “you folks have shown a lot
of courage; it’s easy to be Seahawks fans, it’s not so easy to
go against a power house that is the Pebble Mine. Because of
that, my youngest son will be buying an outfit in Bristol Bay.”
I know I couldn’t hide my ear-to-ear smile, nor could both
senators and many folks in the room.
The comments heard during his testimony are the elements
for fishing’s future generation. First, the next generation must
thrust itself into fish politics because at the swipe of a pen, your
privileges as a fisherman can be changed. Without proactive
mobilization, one of the world’s largest open-pit mines could
be sending toxic waste downstream to your fishery. Second,
we must thank those decision makers who are standing up
for sustainable fisheries, the tens of thousands of Alaskan and
Pacific Northwest jobs the industry supports, and a way of life
that keeps our heritage and economies returning generation
after generation.
Long gone is the limitless halibut during the derby days.
Now, commercial and recreational fishermen argue over an
allocation that continues to shrink. And long gone are days
when it seemed unfathomable to add a growth-hormone gene
of a king salmon to an Atlantic salmon to create AquaBounty’s
Frankenfish. Today, competition is fierce, and so must our
politics be as fishermen — young and old.
I encourage readers to take it upon themselves to be involved. It may not have been our duty decades ago, but today
is a different era. The fishing industry is Alaska’s largest private
employer, providing more jobs than oil/gas, mining, tourism
and timber combined. But readers understand which industries
historically play a bigger role in politics. So we must encourage
and stand behind our decision making champions who stick
their necks out for us, like Cantwell and Begich. Let’s stick our
necks out together, for the next fishing generation.
Mark Scheer is an attorney with Young
deNormandie, P.C., in Seattle and has been
involved in the fishing industry in Alaska and
on the West Coast for nearly 30 years.
By MARK SCHEER
O
wners of fishing boats that are more than 50 feet overall
and built before 1995 should be planning now to build
a replacement or prepare for a refit to comply with pending
alternative compliance certification program regulations. As I
wrote in “Regulatory red tide” (NF Pilothouse Guide 2013, p.
12
26) the U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 and Coast
Guard & Maritime Transportation Act of 2012 fundamentally
changed the fishing vessel safety compliance requirements. In
particular, the acts will impose an alternative compliance certification program in 2020. The cost could be very high.
Susan Chesney
Northern Leader, here
under construction,
leads a building boom.
Fortunately, you have at least six years
to plan and tools like the Fishing Vessel
Capital Construction Fund. Construction fund accounts have been available
to the fishing fleet for more than 70
years, but they are not as widely used
today, largely as a result of fewer fishing
boats being built over the last 20 years.
Qualifying for a construction fund account requires that you are a U.S. citizen
(individually), corporation (president
and majority of the board must also be
citizens) or partnership (with least 75
percent owned by U.S. citizens); that
you lease or own a vessel that was built
in the United States and operates in U.S.
fisheries. The application to enter into a
construction fund agreement is submitted through NMFS.
Construction accounts are funded by
depositing pretax fishing income, depreciation and/or proceeds from the sale of
vessels for the construction or purchase
of a new fishing boat. Consequently,
the federal income tax on that income
or capital gain can be deferred, becoming in effect, an interest-free loan. Better
yet, the funds deposited into the account
may be reinvested into stock (with some
limitations) or other interest bearing
investments, so the account may grow
over time. The resulting earnings may
then be reinvested into the account, and
the federal income tax on those earnings
may also be deferred.
Funds held in construction fund accounts may be used to purchase or
build a new fishing boat. And, if your
current boat cannot be refitted to meet
the new vessel safety requirements at a
commercially reasonable cost, building
or buying new may be your only viable option. You may also be able to use
the construction fund account to refit
a boat that is 25 years old or older so
that it will meet the alternative compliance standards. To do so, the applicant
must first obtain the Secretary of Commerce’s consent, which may be obtained
by a showing the work will “result in
an efficient and productive vessel with
an economically useful life
of at least 10 years beyond
the dated reconstruction is
completed,” according to
the Code of Federal Regulations. If you can show
that your boat will meet
the alternative compliance
requirements, the secretary should approve the use of your construction account.
The new vessel safety requirements are
already law. Alternative compliance cer-
ON THE HORIZON
tification will be implemented in 2020.
The question is whether you will be
ready. Planning today for these expenses
can spread the impact over a longer period of time. Construction fund accounts
are one of the tools available to help
you plan. Because they have complexities that cannot reasonably be addressed
here, talk to your CPA, tax adviser or
attorney about the Capital Construction
Fund program and whether it can work
for you. As Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t
know where you are going, you’ll end up
someplace else.”
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13
ON THE HOMEFRONT
The season ashore
By Jen Karuza Schile
Jen Karuza Schile is the author of “Captain
of her crew: The commercial fishing mom’s
guide to navigating life at home” and runs
www.commercialfishingmom.com.
T
Jen Karuza Schile
wo days into the New Year, I stood on the dock and have the other parent around! Two days after George left on
waved goodbye to my husband, George, as he blasted this last season, I woke up in the middle of the night to four
the foghorn and headed to sea for the Washington Dunge- dreaded words spoken by my 6-year-old son: “I just threw up.”
ness crab season. Once the boat was out of sight, I walked
Oh, no. I rose, bracing myself for what I would find in the
back up the dock and drove home in silence.
next room. It was worse than I’d imagined. Vomit spread over
I know myself well enough to take it easy the first couple of two beds, splattered over the hardwood floors, embedded in
days after George leaves, so I always make things as uncompli- bedframes, entrenched in and around the end table.
cated as I can, doing only what has to be done and building up
I froze.
to the rest. Just as the fisherman must plan and prepare for the
Thoughts raced through my mind. Although I’d been in
season ahead, so must the fishing wife and mother.
this position many times before, I stalled. What should I do?
When George is home from sea, we divide up household What would George do? What would I do if George were
tasks based on who enjoys them and who
here? Well, I knew exactly what I would
is most efficient. For example, George likes
do if George were here. I’d go get him,
to cook, so he makes most of our family’s
that’s what I’d do. And then I would stand
dinners. He is quicker at paying bills, so he
by offering encouragement as he cleaned
collects and sorts the mail. I enjoy vacuumup the mess.
ing and am in charge of the unending loads
Of course, that wasn’t an option. So I did
of laundry.
what I always do; got my little guy in the
When George goes back to sea and I look
bathtub and went about cleaning it all up.
at the wall calendar filled with appointments
As far as the cooking, since resuming the
and activities for three children and me, the
role of house chef, I thought it would be
stack of bills that need paying, and all of Vincent, Valerie and Eva Schile
fun to try a new recipe. Hey, how about
the meals ahead that need preparing, I feel
pub-style potato skins? Like the kind
overwhelmed. After a few days, when I have recaptured my George and I used to eat at the Highliner Tavern during our
spunk, I move forward with my usual optimism and energy.
early years in Ballard! Those were always good!
I connect with other moms and wives like me, online and
My potato skins did not turn out exactly the way I rememin person, who consider their time alone an opportunity to try bered from the Highliner Tavern, but they were close. More
new things, renew personal strength, and enjoy special time importantly, the kids had a blast making them with me. They
with the children. Equally importantly, I steer clear of indi- eagerly grabbed handfuls of grated cheese and crumbled bacon
viduals who spend their time alone complaining. Our hus- and gleefully filled each potato before the entire batch went
bands going back to sea is not punishment; it is their job.
into the oven.
There are definitely moments, however, when it helps to
A few days later, I thought about what we might try mak-
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See all our listings at www.dockstreetbrokers.com
14
ON THE HOMEFRONT
ing next. How about deviled eggs? I’ve
always liked those! The kids and I got
to work. The deviled eggs turned out
so delicious that we simply stood in the
kitchen and ate the entire platter for
dinner.
Of course, I’m not suggesting one
make potato skins or devour deviled
eggs for dinner on a regular basis, but it
is a fun diversion once in a while. In addition, because cooking does not come
easy to me, attempting two new dishes
was an accomplishment I was proud of.
Most importantly, the children shared a
special memory with Mommy that they
will always remember.
Back to the future
Roger Fitzgerald has
been covering the U.S.
fishing industry since
1976.
By ROGER FITZGERALD
I
climbed a ladder to a row of boxes
lined up along the top shelf in my
basement arranged in chronological order from 1977 to 1998, and extracted
the first issue of the Alaska Fisherman’s
Journal, dated December 1977, Vol. 1
No.1.
On the front page is a panoramic shot
of two fishermen in an open skiff, trolling poles extended, the sea flat calm, a
lone seagull in the foreground. “Open
Skiff Fisherman,” the lead feature by Joe
Upton: the dream we all had of Alaska,
the solitude, the beauty, owning our
own boat… drawing a rueful smile from
me, considering what’s ahead in those
other boxes — limited entry, halibut
derbies, gear conflicts, high seas pillaging, the king crab collapse.
Nonetheless, the image defined the
Journal because if it was anything it was
the champion of small boat fishermen
(even as the boats kept getting bigger
and bigger until today they are launching ships), but serenity… well, an elusive luxury to say the least, but Leaky
Boot (more about him later) had something just as good to offer fishermen:
humor. This from his opening editorial:
“We want the Journal to have, not
least of all, humor. We’ve made many a
fishing trip where humor made it easier
to get over the tough spots… when you
just weren’t on ’em. Like a day when
just about nothing was coming up on
the line and then finally one solitary,
flea-bitten, undersize halibut came up to
If you are lonely at home while your
spouse is at sea, stay strong. Try something new! Join a gym, start a book, or
take a class. Make a new friend or volunteer at your children’s school. Try a
new recipe. Sometimes your effort will
work out and sometimes it won’t… just
like the fishing.
THE LONG HAUL
the surface and the man at
the roller sang out, ‘We’re
on ’em now, boys!’”
Optimism. There was a
lot of that. You can’t go
fishing without it. Okay,
now I’m reading from the
second issue. I have the
cover story in this one,
“The Raising of the St.
Peter” off Salmo Point
in Prince William Sound.
Took three tanker cars to
lift her up. The article lat-
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15
THE LONG HAUL
er ran in National Fisherman, the “other”
fishing newspaper.
Next came a long article by Bob
Speed: “U.S. Borax Mining Road Challenged by Fishermen” taking on a chemical company’s proposed construction of
a molybdenum mine in the Misty Fiords
Wilderness Area. Salmon habitat, stay
off! Opposed by environmental groups,
the Ketchikan Native Corporation and
commercial fishing groups. Contrary to
public opinion (I should say uninformed
public opinion), Alaska fishermen have
always been fierce guardians and defenders of the environment to this day
(the Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay watershed). It’s their livelihood.
Leaky Boot says it’s all about money:
“Speaking of having a little money, they
asked a fisherman who had made a million dollars what he planned to do with
it: ‘Keep on fishing until it’s all gone.’”
Leaky Boot is John Pappenheimer,
owner, editor and publisher of the Alaska Fisherman’s Journal. What to say about
Leaky? Ivy League, old Boston family,
an excellent cello player, carpenter, gift-
ed writer (just came out with a novel
called “Fast Hands,” about a young boy
who goes halibut fishing in Alaska) and
so on. That’s half the story.
In appearance, Leaky looked like
someone who had just got off a boat;
he did. Or jumped off a boxcar in Seattle; he did that, too. Or worked for a
major newspaper like the Baltimore Sun
walking around the office with a pencil behind his ear, that too, having once
volunteered to do time in Massachusetts’
Walpole Prison to investigate a series of
in-prison murders. So when he told me
to go up to Alaska and get some salt in
my writing, I knew I was in for a ride.
You could say that our “office” was
anywhere in the North Pacific at any
given time, from crabbing off the Aleutians, longlining cod in the Bering Sea
or salmon trolling in Southeast — wherever it was happening — but we did
have an actual office building in Ballard (on Leary Avenue) which, among
other things, was a shelter for fishermen
wandering in to check out the classifieds
before they came out or had one to put
can be
hostile.
Hazards
abound.
Disaster
and
risk of
injury
are
never
far
away.
16
in or a picture they wanted published
or a poem (Leaky never turned down a
poem if it was written by a fisherman —
and paid them for it as well) or just came
in for a place to stay warm.
Fishermen were always welcome (and
an occasional bum as well), lots of chatter, the faint smell of diesel, sounds of
hammering typewriters, busy as hell,
but Leaky always had time to greet any
fisherman that stopped by, and when he
left, he always said the same thing: “A
prince of a fellow!”
The Journal was like a family, as was
the fishery itself, and as it is today —
bigger boats, safer boats, but the same
core values of hospitality, hard work,
respect for the environment and a good
yarn. The Journal epitomized much of
that. Yes, they were the good ol’ days,
and so are these. A small boat history
and a big boat future, but one securely
anchored in the past.
MAKING THE RULES
The pitfalls
of ballot-box
management
Julianne Curry is the
executive director of
the United Fishermen of
Alaska in Juneau.
Fremont Maritime has been providing high-quality safety and survival
training to the fishing industry for over 20 years.
By JULIANNE CURRY
We are proud to help professional fishermen do a difficult job well,
reduce their risk of on-the-job accidents and injuries, and help them
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A
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Fishermen’s Terminal
Seattle, Washington
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s I write this, I’m on the plane
heading back to Anchorage to
listen in on deliberations at the Alaska
Board of Fisheries Upper Cook Inlet
meeting. This meeting is known as
the most brutal fisheries management
meeting in Alaska where hard-working
fishing families go toe to toe with the
powerful guided sportfish industry. The
Alaska Department of Fish & Game is
charged with managing state fisheries,
while the BOF is responsible for the
conservation and development of Alaska’s fishery resources. The BOF sets
seasons, bag limits, methods and means
for the state’s subsistence, commercial,
sport, guided sport, and personal use
MAKING THE RULES
fisheries. ADF&G is then responsible
for implementing those decisions and
managing the state’s fisheries resources.
The BOF Upper Cook Inlet meeting this cycle is further complicated by
the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance’s efforts to ban salmon setnet fishing gear in “urban areas” of Alaska (see
www.akfisheries.org for full details). Lt.
Gov. Mead Treadwell, who is the administrator of the citizens’ initiative process, recently denied the alliance’s ballot
initiative, but that does not mean this
issue is put to rest. The alliance filed a
lawsuit in Alaska’s Superior Court challenging the lieutenant governor’s decision, despite a 1996 precedent-setting
ruling in the Alaska Supreme Court that
concluded Alaska’s fish resources may
not be allocated by ballot initiative. Founded by a powerful and wealthy
guided sportfish advocate, the alliance
claims to be formed “to protect fish species in non-subsistence areas of Alaska
that are threatened by overfishing, bycatch or other dangers.” However, their
ballot initiative to ban salmon setnet
fishing gear indicates that their answer
to conservation is really reallocation.
Taking a page from the playbook of
the Coastal Conservation Association,
which also works to reallocate fish stocks
under the guise of conservation, the alliance’s initiative points to the success
of setnet bans in other states: “Texas,
Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, New York
and California have all banned setnets.
Washington and Oregon have severely
restricted commercial setnets. In the 25
years since the first state took this step,
no setnets have been allowed to return.
Not one fish processor in these states
went out of business after setnets were
banned.” Although this statement is
likely untrue, it also refuses to acknowledge the countless commercial fishermen who were forced out of business
by the politics of reallocation. Although
the BOF process in Alaska isn’t perfect,
it is the appropriate place for allocation
decisions and other fisheries management issues in the state. If the alliance
is successful in the court process, they
will be setting a dangerous precedent in
Alaska that will result in a vicious ballot
battle where opposing user groups will
attempt to reallocate fish stocks away
from commercial, sport, personal use or
subsistence users. It is likely that other
resources besides seafood may also be
managed by any organization that has
the time, money and resources to run a
ballot initiative based on misinformation
that leads voters to make a poor decision. Both in Alaska and countrywide, the
commercial fishing industry faces reallocation attacks either in the regulatory
arena or through other channels that
ignore the value of the regulatory process. Also ignored is the average con-
If the Alaska
Fisheries Conservation
Alliance is successful,
they will be setting a
dangerous precedent.
sumer whose primary access to seafood
is through the commercial fishing industry because they don’t have the time,
money, resources or inclination to hire
a guided sport charter. The bottom line
is that the commercial fishing industry
is losing ground because some want
to take away the ability of the majority of Americans to access the resource
through commercial fishermen in favor
of a sport-only harvest. Although the fish wars will never go
away, the commercial fishing industry
will continue to lose ground without
a change in messaging. In cases where
commercial fishing is being edged out
by the sportfishing lobby, there is likely
room for both commercial and sport
harvest. The commercial fishing and the
sportfishing industries both provide the
public with access to seafood. Commercial fishing brings the fish to the people,
and sportfishing brings the people to the
fish. Both sectors have value, and both
should care about the sustainability of
the resource above anything else.
If you want to continue to see local,
American-caught seafood on menus and
at seafood counters, then help spread the
word about where that fish comes from.
Use social media, talk to your friends
and neighbors, get on the radio, take out
an ad in your local paper, and always ask
for local and American seafood at your
grocery store and in restaurants. Open
your pocketbook and join an organization that represents your interests. Unified voices can help educate the public
about how seafood makes it to their
plate, and that same voice can benefit
you in the regulatory process.
Help keep allocation battles out of
the ballot box by fighting to protect the
fisheries regulatory process. It may not
be perfect, but it is better than allowing
opportunity for a well-funded misinformation campaign that disguises reallocation as conservation.
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GEAR SHIFTS / OILSKINS
First
BIBS
The evolution of oilskins leads to
gear that smells better, looks
better and is even tougher
By MICHAEL CROWLEY
Y
ou roll out of the rack after about four
hours of sleep, stumble up on deck and
pull on your oilskins.
Most fishermen call them oilskins, but
the bib trousers and jackets are a long way from the
original oilskins of the 1800s, which were a big improvement over the protective gear worn by earlier
fishermen: a stout leather apron that covered the
front of the fisherman from the waist down, above
that, a heavy wool coat — referred to as a monkey
jacket.
Made with cotton and saturated with linseed oil,
the oilskins of the 1800s and 1900s had their drawbacks: they could be extremely stiff, freeze on you,
smell and maybe self-ignite when wrapped up in
storage, but they did protect fishermen from rain,
spray and a boarding sea.
On the West Coast, a lot of Seattle fishermen
made their own oilskins in the off-season. “The
early halibut fisherman made the oilskins from
wool and cotton and soaked them in linseed
Atlantic Fisherman
Cape Ann Museum
Fishermen are wearing both yellow
and black oilskins while sorting the
catch on a Gloucester schooner.
18
oil,” says Thomas Samuelsen. Once
the material had dried out, the pants
and trousers were rolled up in bundles,
tied with twine and then packed away
until fishing started up again.
“They were heavy and stiff. The
stuff was almost like armor,” Samuelsen says. He remembers seeing bundles of oil skins in garages on Seattle’s
Queen Ann hill that his grandfather,
Strong Back Alex (his name was Adolf, but he hated that name) used for
gear lockers starting in the early 1900s.
When he was about 14, Phil “Jake”
Jacobsen made a trip in 1944 on his
father’s 87-foot halibut schooner, the
Paragon. The oilskins “were waterproof and didn’t stand up real well,
but they got the job done,” he says.
Jacobsen remembers a suit of oilskins
lasting about two trips.
Oilskins didn’t have
hoods. “You wore a
sou’wester. In good weather
you wore a Ballard Stetson,”
a low, white hat named after
a Seattle neighborhood.
In New England, oilskins
were more apt to be the product of a small manufacturing
business. In 1869 Gloucester
had four companies producing oil clothing. By 1880, the
number had grown to six. At
the end of the decade, at least
one outfit, J.H. Rowe, billed
itself as “manufacturer of genuine Cape Ann oil clothing,”
and was sending its oilskins to
“all the seaport towns of Massachusetts and Maine.”
Oilskins were still being
made in the 1940s at Gloucester’s D.O. Frost & Co. In
1944, the company advertised
its “Frost Brand ‘Superior’
Oiled Clothing” in a January issue of Fishing Gazette. The late
Gloucester fisherman and writer
Peter K. Prybot, for a May 16,
2009, article in the Gloucester DaiIn 1954, the United States
Rubber Co. came out with
neoprene pants and jackets.
Herring fishermen, decked out in their
finest oilskins, display the day’s catch.
ly Times, interviewed Don McEachern,
who worked at D.O. Frost & Co. in the
1940s. Part of the article describes how
oilskins were made.
Once patterns were cut in the “heavygauge, tightly woven, unbleached
cotton-cloth fabric,” the pieces were
stitched together with the addition of
a light-cotton liner. They were then
dipped in “vats containing either yellow or black oil, run through ringers to
squeeze out surplus oil and then hung
off rows of lengthwise 2-by-4s in a special heated drying room.” Once the gar-
ments had dried they were coated by
hand, dried and then coated once more.
The oil mixture was boiled “linseed,
turpentine, drying agent and varnish.
The first three ingredients were mixed
together and used for the first two steps.
On the third and final step, varnish was
added to make the garment shine.”
Oilskins came in yellow or black. Yellow was the natural color that oil gave
the garments; they could be made black
by adding lampblack to the oil.
After World War II, fishermen had
other options, including rubber-coated
IT’S A MAN’S WORLD
A
n Alaska fisherman was walking the show floor at Seattle’s Pacific
Marine Expo about 15 years ago. Like most fishermen from Alaska,
she didn’t hesitate to speak up when she wasn’t pleased. That was
quickly obvious to those in the Guy Cotten booth. She told them there
were no bib trousers made with a good fit for women and wanted to
know why that was.
Guy Cotten, the company’s late president was there; he gave her a
piece of paper and asked her to, “design it.” She did, and two weeks
later he had shipped a prototype to her from France.
From the woman’s perspective, the problem with typical bib trousers
was that they were “too low in front, and the buckles were in the wrong
place,” says Guy Cotten’s Patrick Jaquet.
The new bib trousers sold fairly well in the beginning, but eventually
sales dropped off and Guy Cotten stopped making them, though Jaquet says they have a few left in stock.
He says the company’s X-Trapper bib trousers address the issues with
“a raised front and a cut, so it is not as baggy as before. With the XTrapper, it made [those oilskins] obsolete.”
Grundens doesn’t make oilskins specifically for women. Those, says
the company’s Mike Jackson, are “typically more tapered and form fitting, which is not conducive for moisture vapor evacuation.”
Grundens builds its garments with a “blousy” cut, which allows
trapped moisture to escape. — M.C.
fabric. In 1954 the United States Rubber Co. was advertising its U.S. Mariner
Suit as “built to fishermen’s specifications” in the May issue of Atlantic Fisherman. It featured a coating of neoprene
on the inside and outside of the pants
and jacket. The jacket had a fly front and
rust-resistant snaps.
In Seattle, Jacobsen — who spent
many years on the halibut schooner
Chelsea and also ran the halibut boat
Nordby — remembers a local company called Black Bear that built oilskins
with a rubber-like material in the 1950s.
“The pant legs were double [layered],
so if you got a rip, it didn’t go quite
through. They were heavy. They were
one of the best oilskins ever made.”
In Scandinavia, Helly Hansen, which
started making oilskins in 1877 and then
in 1950 had the first high-frequency
welded PVC jacket when it entered the
North American market in 1955.
Guy Cotten, the French company,
brought its jackets and pants to the States
in 1986. These were a composite construction with a layer of nylon between
two layers of PVC on the outside and
one layer of PVC on the inside.
In 1994 they introduced the X-Trapper bib pants to this country that featured a double layer of the rip-stop PVC
Nylpech fabric on the front with a triple
layer in the area of the chest. “It started
in the U.S., especially for the lobstermen
because of the wire traps they haul,” says
Guy Cotten’s Patrick Jaquet.
That was followed by jackets designed
to reduce condensation, a hood that
turned with your head so you weren’t
staring at fabric, and most recently jackets and bib trousers made with a combination of Guy Cotten’s Dremtech+ — a
CONTINUED ON PAGE 27
19
Atlantic Fisherman Collection Penobscot Marine Museum photos
credit
Oars braced against the schooner
keep the seine boat clear while
mackerel are brailed aboard.
BOATBUILDING
IS 49 THE
Naval architects debate whether new
Coast Guard rules improve safety
By MICHAEL CROWLEY
Y
ou want to build a 58-footer. Maybe you’ll
be salmon seining, maybe hauling cod pots
in the Bering Sea, maybe running Dungeness crab pots. Then again, you might be in
more than one fishery.
And why not? In Alaska and the Pacific Northwest,
58 feet has been kind of a go-to-length for a versatile
combination boat. It didn’t start out that way. In
the mid-1920s the Bureau of Commercial Fisher-
Fred Wahl Marine Construction
The Magnus Martens, a 58' x 26'
combination boat, was launched
at Fred Wahl Marine Construction
in 2013.
20
“
”
21
File photo
ies came up with a length limit on boats
working in Alaska’s seine fishery. The
limit was 58 feet and became known as
the “Alaska limit.”
It was an arbitrary length but reflected concern over excessive fish catching efficiency in the seine fleet and not
wanting larger boats seining in the tight
quarters of small bays and thus avoiding
the risk of collisions.
Over the years, naval architects struggled to work within the confines of a
boat no longer than 58 feet. They got
wider — a seiner was recently sponsoned from 24 to 32 feet — but the designs also evolved into extremely attractive, seakindly hulls, capable of working multiple fisheries, not just salmon
seining. While some work the relatively
quiet waters of the Gulf of Alaska or
Southeast Alaska in the spring, summer
and early fall, others are fishing out of
Dutch Harbor in January and February.
“The 58-foot rule has largely been
successful. Everyone is in tune with it The Viking Maid, a 57' x 17' seiner built in 1952 at Harold Hansen Boat Co. in
and knows what the limitations are,” Seattle (now Hansen Boat Co. in Marysville), was typical of seiners of that time.
says Hal Hockema of Hockema &
“We submit a design to the classifisuccessful design.
Whalen Associates in Seattle.
The idea hasn’t been very popular. cation society for their approval,” says
Well, not everyone thinks it’s such a
success. The Coast Guard Authoriza- For one thing, it adds substantial costs Hockema. “They will review it and
tion Act of 2010 has a requirement for to the designing and building of a new approve it or suggest changes. Then
there are revisions. We
the “survey and clasupdate it and return it
sification of a fishwith a cover letter and
ing vessel that is at
The 58-foot rule has largely been successful.
discuss it with them.”
least 50 feet overall
Everyone is in tune with it and knows what the
That, he notes, can go
in length, built after
on for some time.
July 1, 2012 [the date
limitations are.
When the boat is
was changed to July
being built, the boat
1, 2013], and operowner pays to have
ates beyond three
— Hal Hockema
an inspector from the
nautical miles.”
Hockema & Whalen Associates
classification
society
Thus, a relativetravel to the boatyard
ly simple process
of building a boat to a design that has boat. Hockema thinks it might add as to inspect the work and make sure it
proven itself since the first half of the much as $75,000 to the work done by matches the architect’s plans. “They
20th century has been eliminated in fa- his office. Much of that is eaten up with might have changes,” says Hockema.
vor of bringing classification societies the back-and-forth communication of Then it’s more “written and oral correinto the mix and giving them the ul- getting the classification society to ap- spondence. It’s a lot of back and forth.”
Even if the boat is a so-called “sistertimate decision as to the seaworthiness prove a boat’s design and then working
ship design” you won’t avoid additional
and safety of what had generally been a with it as the boat is being built.
BOATBUILDING
Hockema & Whalen Associates
For those staying with
a boat over 50 feet,
Hockema & Whalen
Associates offers this 58' x
27' design.
expenses, because as everyone knows,
fishermen have their own ideas of what
they want to put in a boat and how
things should be arranged. That involves communicating with the classification society, which, again, translates
into money: the boat owner’s money.
“The cost increases for a 58-footer
will be 30 to 40 percent under the new
regulations,” says Howard Moe at Little
Hoquiam Shipyard in Hoquiam, Wash.
Mike Lee at Giddings Boat Works
in Charleston, Ore., says, “We’ve tried
to guess what the cost would be, and
it’s always been around $200,000 to
$250,000.”
Eric Blumhagen at Jensen Maritime
Consultants in Seattle says, “You can
put about any number you want to the
cost. A class society that was being reasonable as far as the requirements and
scaling the rules down to that size boat,
you’d probably be looking at $100,000
extra cost.”
17-19, 2014
22
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The rule for classing boats 50 feet and over led to Fred Wahl
Marine Construction developing this 49-foot 6-inch design.
On the other hand, things could get a lot more expensive
and complicated if a fisherman ended up with a classification
society that wasn’t interested in working with him, and the
shipyard and classification society did not get along.
“We don’t really know how much classing a boat will cost
because no one has done it yet,” says Hockema. Whatever the
final figure for designing and building a 58-footer, it seems
obvious that under the Coast Guard’s new authorization act it
will go up — appreciably.
That’s why some fishermen are talking about going just
under that 50-foot limit, basically making a 49-footer the replacement for the 58-footer. “As soon as I heard about the
new class regulations, we designed a new combination boat,”
says Fred Wahl at Fred Wahl Marine Construction in Reedsport, Ore. “It’s 49' 6" x 22'. We haven’t built it yet because
we are still building keels [for 58-footers not covered by the
new regulations] that we’ve got.”
“I think 49 will be the standard length,” says Moe. “I think
that’s definitely going to be the case. There are companies
building a 49-foot mold. That’s what it’s going to be, I guess.”
Lee says he’s had a couple of customers that want to replace
their existing 58-footers with new boats of the same length,
“
As soon as I heard about the new
class regulations, we designed a new
”
combination boat.
— Fred Wahl
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23
BOATBUILDING
but are nervous about the cost increase
under the new regulations. “They are
trying to decide whether to go down
to 49 feet 6 inches to stay underneath
the new regulations. The primary
benefit would be financial.”
There are construction requirements for boats under 50 feet in length
in the Authorization Act. It’s a recreational-boat standard. “It’s not that big
of a deal,” says Hockema, “but there
are some formal requirements there,
and builders and designers need to pay
attention to those.”
What does a fisherman get in the
trade-off by going from 58 feet to just
below 50 feet? He will save money to
build the boat — that’s a given. But
he might not do so well in other areas.
To get decent carrying capacity, the
boat will have to be deeper than usual.
And “an ultra-deep, short boat is not a
good sea boat. It just isn’t,” emphasizes
Hockema.
“They tend to be ‘corky,’ meaning
“
You can put about any number you want to the cost.
A class society that was being reasonable as far as the
requirements and scaling the rules down to that size boat,
”
you’d probably be looking at $100,000 extra cost.
— Eric Blumhagen
Jensen Maritime Consultants
they roll more and yaw more. They
have trouble keeping a course. If you
are in a quartering head-sea the autopilot will work really hard.” Whereas
a larger boat that’s not so deep relative
to its length is much more directionally
stable and handles better, he says.
Then there’s the issue of carrying capacity. A 49-footer loses a lot of fishhold space, says Blumhagen. “Most
of the length has to come out of the
hold space. The engine space can’t get
a whole lot smaller than it already is on
WE HAVE MORE OF
WHAT YOU NEED
a 58-footer. You lose a lot of volume.”
As he notes, that lost volume, “it’s basically money.”
Jensen Maritime Consultants did
have a client who built a boat smaller
than those boats it was fishing with, because the owner thought he would save
some money.
But Blumhagen says the boat’s owner
found out that “the costs of being small
were a lot more than the benefits of being small.”
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than Parrott notes that trying
to push the beam out on a
49-footer to get additional carrying capacity “really penalizes
the efficiency of the hull.”
Basically it comes down to a
choice, says Parrott: “You pay
up front to have all the classification work done and all the
certification of the equipment
and the steel, and you get a
boat that’s efficient to operate,
or do you minimize the capital costs up front and minimize
the efficiencies for the next 20
years?”
The justification for much of what
is in the Authorization Act is to design and build a safer fishing boat. But
many question that rationale. “There’s
no reason for class rules. There’s a good
track record for the boats being built
now,” says Wahl.
By greatly increasing the cost of
building a boat over 50 feet, Wahl also
wonders if, ironically, the Authorization Act doesn’t keep fishermen in
boats that aren’t safe. “It means the
designed this 58' x 19'
seiner that is now a research
boat for the University of
Washington.
older, worn-out and dangerous boats
will be kept in service longer,” says
Wahl. Or the Authorization Act puts
a fisherman in a new 49-footer so he
can save construction costs, but then
he takes it where the boat shouldn’t
be. “Sending someone to the Bering
Sea in a 49-foot boat instead of a 58foot boat is not the right direction for
safety.”
Assuming that a fisherman does decide to go with a boat that falls under
the Coast Guard Authorization Act,
Blumhagen cautions that “this will be
a real challenge for the owner.” Most
likely it’s not something he has ever
had to think about before. It’s important that he “shops class societies interested in working with a small fishing
boat,” and he’ll want a yard interested
in working with the class society.
Michael Crowley is the Boats & Gear editor
for North Pacific Focus.
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OUR TOWN
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10
One event that has raised the Santa
Barbara fleet’s profile is the city’s annual Harbor and Seafood Festival, held
in October. Featuring pots of boiling
lobsters and crabs, hundreds of pounds
of barbecued albacore tuna and sales of
uni at the pier, Kronman says the festival
attracts upward of 14,000 visitors.
Likewise, the long-running Saturday
morning fishermen’s market held at the
city’s navy pier allows consumers to buy
fish fresh off the boat. Santa Barbara was
one of the first California ports to spon-
Leonard Taormina
fishermen. Its mix of urchin divers, day
trawlers, lobster and rock crab harvesters,
and gillnetters is stable and sustainable,
Kronman says.
A California Department of Fish and
Wildlife report on Santa Barbara’s landings and trends published in January
shows that over the last decade landings
have ranged between nearly 6 million
and 8 million pounds. The port’s total 2012 landings of 6.6 million pounds
were worth $10.5 million.
Mike Taormina is about to harpoon a
swordfish on the Coquetta, circa 1971.
sor a fishermen’s market.
It’s a good deal for consumers, who
are increasingly seeking fresh, local seafood. They can take their purchases to
a nearby seafood market that will clean
and fillet their fish for free.
It’s a good deal for fishermen, too.
They’re able to make a higher profit off
the direct sales. But the benefits to fishermen from these events extend beyond
profit.
“It’s another way to make seafood
more accessible to the community,”
says Mutz, “It’s a prime time to educate
people. They’re listening and asking us
lots of questions. What we do is out on
the ocean, and people don’t grasp what
we do. Answering those questions is no
problem.”
The face-to-face connections fishermen make with their customers suggest
a sustainable future lies ahead for Santa
Barbara’s commercial fishermen.
“I’d say right now we have some
pretty good renewable sustainable fisheries here. As long as we retain access to
the fish, we’ll be fine,” McCorkle says.
“I think there’s not as many fishermen
now, but the ones that are left are smart
enough to figure out how to survive.”
Linc Bedrosian is senior editor for North
Pacific Focus.
26
GEAR SHIFTS / OILSKINS
and “Wicked Tuna.”
Contemporary oilskins, besides having such conveniences as lightness, storm
flaps over snaps, buttons or a zipper closures on the jackets, along with elastic
cuffs, have a couple of other advantages
over their predecessors: they stand up
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19
breathable, waterproof material — on
the back and Nylpech on the front.
Grundens, a Swedish manufacturer
of oilskins, started business in 1911. In
1930 the company introduced a rubberized fabric and went to PVC in the
early 1950s. Grundens brought its PVCcoated fabric to this country in the mid1970s. In 1991 two brothers, Mike and
Dave Jackson, got the distribution rights
for North America with headquarters in
Poulsbo, Wash.
Jackets and trousers for fishermen
come in several styles, including PVC
coated cotton or polyester, polyurethane
coated, or a PVC impregnated nylon.
That’s known as the Harvestor series.
“The Harvestor series is a play on
words,” says Mike Jackson. “It’s someone who harvests and who is an investor
in the resource. I was tired of fishermen
being vilified for what they do.”
A trend in oilskins he’s noticed over
the past few years is younger fishermen
favoring lighter weight fabrics that can
be both waterproof and breathable. For
Grundens, that’s their Gage Weather
Watch jackets and trousers. “They’ve
found great favor among commercial
fishermen,” Jackson says. That includes
TV time on both the “Deadliest Catch”
much better to abrasion, are more comfortable, don’t have that linseed oil and
varnish odor and last more than a couple
of trips.
Michael Crowley is the Boats & Gear editor
for North Pacific Focus.
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portseattle.org
Grand Opening, Fishermen’s Terminal, January 10, 1914.
27
Features / cover story
Salmon on a
silver platter
By SIERRA GOLDEN
T
his summer, Silver Bay Seafoods expects to be able to
process 2.4 million pounds
of sockeye per day at the
company’s newest processing plant
Bristol Bay, Coming in May 2014
Valdez, 2010
Silver Bay
Seafoods
locations
Flagship plant
Sitka, est. 2007
Craig, 2009
28
in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. Chris Hanson,
Bristol Bay fleet manager for Silver
Bay, explained to KDLG radio in Dillingham that two barges anchored in
the Naknek River would pump fish
to the 53,000-square-foot processing
plant. If all goes as planned, Silver
Bay should be ready to
Alaska’s Silver Bay
Seafoods’ meteoric rise
has some communities
scrambling to make way
for the processing
powerhouse
process up to 30 percent of the Togiak
herring harvest and 18 percent of the
salmon drift gillnet fishery in 2014.
Similar to Silver Bay’s other plants,
the main product will be frozen head
and gut fish and frozen fillets. Heads and
guts will be ground and sold for pet
food. Silver Bay Project
Manager Kevin Barry told KDLG that
“SBS presents its fishermen with the
ability to maximize their profits in this
industry by guaranteeing to meet or exceed the highest ex-vessel grounds price;
providing large volume, reliable and efficient tendering service; providing
fleet support services designed
to minimize lost fishing
time; and company profit sharing from
processing operations.”
It all began in the summer of 2006.
The Southeast seine fleet was aflutter
with gossip: At a time when ex-vessel
prices were at a historic low and processing capacities in Southeast were severely
limiting the seine catch, somebody was
starting a new company that was to be
fishermen owned. The company that
became known as Silver Bay
Seafoods promised new
markets, higher prices and greater processing capacity. Since then, the glamour and gossip surrounding Silver Bay
has increased exponentially. Dock talk
praises the company for its highliner
fleet, speedy tender service and large
dividend checks. At the same time, the
history of the company has carried a
tinge of mystery.
Former Southeast seiner Troy Denkinger spearheaded Silver Bay Seafoods
in 2006, acquiring a lease on facilities
at the Sawmill Cove Industrial Park in
Sitka, Alaska. In 2007, the company
implemented a plan to raise $7 million
from fishermen to design and build its
processing plant at the site of the existing facilities. Silver Bay sold company
shares that gave fishermen a voting
membership in the company and dividend earnings. While most business decisions are made by a majority vote
from a five-person board of
representatives, mem-
Boats in port in ANB, one
of Sitka’s five harbors.
Katherine Holmlund photo
Sierra Golden
Tenders tie up at Silver Bay’s
Sitka plant during the 2013
herring season in March.
29
ber fishermen use their votes to elect
two of the representatives. Each member fisherman vote is a percentage based
on the amount of ownership interest
(investment) in the company. Memberelected representatives serve two-year
terms.
Silver Bay fisherman Sven Stroosma
says, “We invested
in this company because we had faith
in the principals
that they would be
good at [buying,
selling and processing fish], so we put
our faith in them.”
As member-owners, fishermen also
receive dividends. “The board decides
how to allocate profits that won’t be
used for reconstruction,” Stroosma explains. “Like any company, when there’s
surplus profits to be distributed, those
can be allocated either toward price or
toward ownership dividends.” In 2013,
the company reported that more than
and sustained profitability of the company.” During its inception, Silver Bay
received additional financial support
from the city of Sitka, Alaska Pacific
Bank, and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. In its
first season of operation, the Sitka plant
processed more than 20 million pounds
of seafood.
The
company
The main thing is not to undermine targets a newly developed market for
what people in Sitka have worked so frozen pink salmon.
Once frozen, Silver
hard to protect and to build.
Bay’s salmon goes
to a variety of markets, many in Asia.
— Linda Behnken,
Most of the secondAlaska Longline Fishermen’s Association
ary markets reprothis vision statement: “Through sound cess and then resell the fish. Silver Bay
management, innovation, teamwork herring fleet manager Del Repnow
and vision, provide member fishermen explains, “By freezing all their fish and
and other strategic partners with the having the large fleet that they have,
‘Silver Bay experience’ that is predi- [Silver Bay] took a lot of fish away from
cated on exceptional and unparalleled the can lines.” Freezing pink salmon has
performance that is second to none; both opened a new market and reduced
simultaneously promoting the growth pressure on the traditional canned mar70 percent of the ownership is held by
125 member fishermen.
Troy Denkinger continues to represent the limited liability company as
president, while Richard Riggs serves
as CEO and Van E. Kramer as chief
financial officer. Together the board
and officers run a company guided by
“
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Leroy Johns, a Silver Bay Seafoods ownerfisherman, runs his seiner Confidence near
Chichagof Island, between Sitka and Juneau.
ket. “I think it’s helped every fisherman in the fishery,” Repnow says. “It’s
made stronger demand for the fish, and
I think that everybody in the business
has benefited from it.” Silver Bay also
buys and freezes Sitka sac roe herring.
In 2014, it plans to buy Togiak herring
for the first time.
fter the immediate success of the
company, Silver Bay quickly
turned to purchasing the property it was
leasing. Realizing that the city-owned
dock was badly deteriorated and unsafe, Silver Bay began negotiating a deal
with the city and borough of Sitka that
would allow the company to purchase
the dock and associated buildings, and
begin renovations. The Sitka Sentinel
describes a plan that “calls for ‘selling’
the property for $1 million to Silver
Bay Seafoods… but the money would
Sierra Golden
A
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for work needed to repair the 50-yearold pulp dock.” The city estimated that
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An uptick in salmon season activity, including
the new Silver Bay Seafoods bunkhouse and
processing plant, in Bristol Bay’s Naknek has the
city worried about sewage capacity.
Fred Pike
to Silver Bay for nothing. The original
lease was partially facilitated by then
City Public Works Chief Rich Riggs,
who eventually became the company’s
CEO.
Some Sitka citizens were upset about
many aspects of the sale. “It looks like
[Silver Bay] got their foot in the door
and are taking advantage of the city,”
Sitka resident Thad Poulson told the
Sentinel. “They’re getting a unique asset. It’s the only dock face for an oceangoing ship. It’s unique in Sitka. There’s
nothing like it anywhere else… and the
city’s not going to have it anymore.”
During city and borough assemblies
that decided the fate of the Sawmill
Cove Industrial Park facilities, Riggs
said, “The biggest criticism is that I was
overly thorough on most, if not all, aspects on the lease.” He also indicated
that Silver Bay originally had no shortterm interest in purchasing the property
and that the deterioration of the dock is
what forced it to consider the purchase
at such an early date.
A group of citizens continues to pursue legal action with the city, hoping to
ensure that residents will have a voice
in any future property deals worth more
than $1 million. Though many continue
to oppose the business decisions of Silver
Bay, even critics acknowledge that the
company has brought the city millions
of dollars of raw fish tax and many new
jobs. For example, after Silver Bay en-
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tered the sac roe fishery in 2008, Dave
Gordon, Alaska Department of Fish and
Game area management biologist, noted
that the amount of herring processed in
Sitka had seen a 25 to 30 percent jump,
affecting employment and raw fish tax
revenue. Also known as the Fisheries
Business Tax, the raw fish tax is Alaska’s
oldest tax. It was established in 1899 and
provides that cities and boroughs receive
taxes for every fish processed within certain geographical limits. In 2008, Sitka
received more than $900,000 in raw
fish tax. That year, the city awarded the
company its New Business of the Year
Award.
Silver Bay opened a second plant in
Craig in 2009 with $2.1 million in investments from fishermen and a $2.5
million grant from the city of Craig.
With the Craig plant fully operational,
Silver Bay became Southeast’s largest
processor and was able to raise fishermen
funds for a third time to purchase and
renovate a processing plant in Valdez.
Silver Bay again took heat from
Sitka locals when the company purchased Gulf of Alaska trawl-caught Pacific Ocean perch in 2012. Since 1998
the waters of Southeast Alaska have
been closed to trawling. No one suggested that the fish processed by Silver
Bay were illegal, but Linda Behnken,
executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and other
association board members suggested
that the purchase did undermine Sitka’s
community values concerning conservation and fisheries management. Opponents of trawl fisheries say that they can
damage fish habitat and typically lead to
a high percentage of bycatch — much
of which is thrown back into the ocean,
dead. Behnken worries that as the North
Pacific Fishery Management Council
works toward rationalizing Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries, continued trawl
deliveries in Southeast could set a dangerous precedent, potentially leading to
renewed trawl activity in Southeast.
After Silver Bay’s purchase of trawlcaught POP, ALFA drafted an open letter to the company explaining that as a
small community significantly supported
by hook-and-line fisheries, sportfishing
and subsistence fishing, Sitka hoped that
Silver Bay would, in the future, reject
trawl-caught fish. The letter was signed
by a broad cross-section of the com-
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munity, including members of the Sitka
Tribe, sport and commercial fishermen
and conservationists. Silver Bay CEO
Riggs apologized for the purchase in an
open letter and described the company’s
rationale behind the purchase: “The
simple objective was to expand our
processing to supplement our production, and see increases in employment,
ancillary multiplier dollars, and fish tax
dollars for Sitka… Make no mistake; Silver Bay is no proponent of trawling in
the waters of Southeast Alaska… Silver
Bay simply redirected the delivery of a
legally harvested natural resource from
Seward or Kodiak, to Sitka.” An anonymous Sitka fisherman notes that Silver
Bay’s business philosophy “goes against
all the small boat and conservation ethics
we’ve tried to instill and preserve.”
Behnken further notes, “I haven’t
seen [Silver Bay] very willing to back
local fishing organizations or get involved in supporting us in issues that are
really important to the local fleet and
fishing community… and that’s fine if
they don’t want to get involved… but
the main thing is not to undermine what
people here have worked so hard to
protect and to build.”
P
romises of outstanding processing
capacity, new frozen markets and
higher prices hold an understandable allure for Bristol Bay fisherman, yet plans
for the new plant have raised some concerns. Many locals are worried that the
WELCOME TO THE MATRIX
I
n the summer of 2013, after a plant breakdown in Craig, Silver Bay
Seafoods put its fishermen on limits for the first time. Using an innovative “matrix formula,” the company allowed top fishermen the
highest limits, and the caps cascaded down from there.
According to one Silver Bay fisherman, the difference between
high and low limits was supposed to be no more than 50 percent but
was actually more than 300 percent, with some fishermen limited to
around 30,000 pounds and others with up to 100,000 pounds. This
approach helps Silver Bay maximize processing, but it also favors larger boats, in turn hampering the little guy, and can create dissension
among member fishermen.
Though some expressed frustration at company management during critical points in the season, suggesting that Silver Bay may need
to listen more carefully to its member fishermen if the company is
going to maintain its influential position as the top processor in Southeast, others believe the company is dominated by a few top ownerfishermen and as such will not be receptive to changes in the limit
system.
While one anonymous Silver Bay fisherman said that rather than
voicing his opinions, he would fight the system by purchasing a larger
boat, another simply said, “Nobody ever likes to be told that they
have to stop fishing… certainly that created a fair bit of tension, but
that’s fishing. Sometimes we just can’t do good enough, and sometimes we do too well.”
— S.G.
municipal sewage system of Bristol Bay
Borough will not be able to handle the
additional load. With bunk houses being built at many processing plants and
with the arrival of Silver Bay, the bor-
ough has gone from handling a peak of
175,000 gallons of sewage per day to a
peak of 475,000 gallons per day. According to Mayor Daniel O’Hara, improving the septic system will be the
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borough’s next capital project priority. The borough has already invested
$435,000 in a pump and overland line
to ensure the septic system will not shut
down during the 2014 summer. The
borough expects to spend about $20
million in a three-phase project to upgrade the system and build new holding
lagoons. Silver Bay representatives have
been working closely with the borough
to develop a short-term plan ensuring
that the current system will work satisfactorily for both parties. Eventually, the
new or upgraded system should handle
the company’s waste with no problems.
Silver Bay Seafoods’ meteoric rise,
aggressive employee-owned business model, and constant expansions
— there are even rumors flying of the
company’s involvement in the California squid fishery — make it nearly
impossible to predict the future. Many
local fishermen hope it will continue its
innovative work in fisheries processing
while supporting the Alaskan mantra
of working in a sustainable fishery and
delivering delicious, healthful product.
As fisherman Jeff Farvour says, “There’s
nothing like [fishing]… It connects you.
You see things that no one else is going
to see, and they are connected to the
environment… you hope that would
instill a level of stewardship to go with
it.”
Sierra Golden is a seiner deckhand and freelance writer living in Seattle.
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Pacific Power Products........... 25
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Port of Seattle........................ 27
Fred Wahl Marine
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Fremont Maritime.................. 16
H & H Marine Inc.................... 31
Harris Electric Inc.................... 31
Kodiak Area Chamber of
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Seaview Boatyard Inc............. 30
Simrad Fisheries...................CV4
Vigor Industrial....................... 13
Washington Chain
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Kodiak Shipyard..................... 35
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IN FOCUS /ALASKA SCALLOPS
Crew members sift through weathervane scallops (Patinopecten caurinus) on the Arctic Hunter
in the Gulf of Alaska near Yakutat. The scallops were brought onboard by two New Bedfordstyle dredges, no wider than 15 feet, then shucked, rinsed, packed and fresh-frozen. They’re
harvested from the Gulf of Alaska, Shelikof Strait and the Bering Sea.
Because of the fishery’s limited entry, the Alaskan scallop fleet is small, comprising only a handful
of boats. When scalloping, the Arctic Hunter used a 12-man crew, with six on deck during 12hour rotating shifts, allowing the boat to operate 24 hours a day. The 102-foot vessel, which also
fished for Bering Sea king and snow crab, was wrapping up the red king crab fishery on Nov. 1,
2013, when it ran aground near Dutch Harbor. All six crew members onboard made it off without
injury, but the Arctic Hunter was declared a wreck and is still waiting to be salvaged.
PHOTO BY CHRIS MILLER / csmphotos.com
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