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| World Photos by Madeline Steege More than 200 people attended a rally held at the Coos Bay Boardwalk on Monday afternoon. The rally was held in support of displaced salmon fishermen and to circulate petitions asking the federal government for federal assistance to fishermen during this blocked season. The crowd was addressed by several speakers during the rally. |
Under an unsettled sky Monday, salmon industry supporters
rallied around a clear message: Fishermen need help and the Klamath River
needs long-term support.
U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio and Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., organized the event
that brought about 250 people to the Boardwalk in Coos Bay - more than the
80 or so that gathered in Newport Monday morning. Many carried signs. Some
of those signs carried messages against farmed fish, many pleaded for help
for fishermen. Some of the supporters waved American flags as cars drove by
and honked.
“Our fisheries deserve more,” DeFazio said during his opening comments.
“They deserve better.”
Oregon commercial fishermen between Florence and the California border are
left without a season this year after the Pacific Fishery Management Council
voted last week to forgo a season to protect Klamath River fall Chinook. The
decision came after the National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal
agency that must ultimately approve the council's recommendations, announced
prior to the meeting that it would approve only a season that allowed for
bare minimum impacts on Klamath River fish.
It was that guidance that clearly irked state Sen. Joanne Verger, D-Coos
Bay.
The NMFS guidance letter came after a March fishery council meeting in which
three options were proposed. Two of the options allowed for limited fishing;
the third option was closure. Though fishermen at a public hearing in Coos
Bay supported the fishing options, the federal agency urged the council to
more closely examine the no-fishing option.
It appeared as if the decision was made before public
input, Verger said.
“Why did I bother to write letters?” Verger said. “Why did I make
phone calls?”
It's just plain arrogance on the part of the federal government to assume a
season - or in this case, no season - before hearing from its constituents,
she remarked.
“We must continue our fight against this kind of arrogance,” Verger
said.
And the crowd responded with applause.
The Klamath situation is murky, though not to the participants at the rally.
Much of the water is diverted to farms and for power, some of the water from
its tributaries also is used for power generation in Central California. A
drought for several years exacerbated the problem. Fish died as the water
level dropped, leaving them vulnerable to increasing populations of
parasites and more disease.
The result, three and four years later, is restricted fishing for much of
Oregon and no commercial season for fishermen from Brookings to Winchester
Bay.
DeFazio said he believed, personally, that there was sufficient information
and fish to allow fishing this year, but it was a decision made at NMFS
headquarters in Washington, D.C., that prevented that option.
It was also the U.S. Department of Commerce, the parent agency of the
fisheries service, that decided it would not declare the fishery a failure
last year.
And that should change this year, DeFazio said.
“We need a disaster declaration this year. Pronto,” DeFazio said. “And
it should be followed by real money.”
Again, the crowd applauded.
Fishermen have repeatedly argued in favor of direct payments, something that
traditionally hasn't been done. Federal relief funding often takes the form
of retraining programs or alternative jobs programs.
DeFazio said after the rally that Alaska, though, set a precedent. It wasn't
long ago that fishermen were paid directly after the Department of Commerce
declared one of Alaska's fisheries an economic failure.
“We're using that as a framework,” DeFazio said.
Members of the congressional delegations from Oregon and California are
prepared to submit a request for funding in a supplemental appropriations
bill currently in the Senate. It would have happened last week, but Congress
adjourned early, DeFazio said, noting that on the Senate side, Democrats Ron
Wyden, from Oregon, and Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, from California,
are on board with the plan.
The initial plan calls for immediate relief for the fishing industry.
Long-term goals include help for the Klamath River.
Port Orford fisherman Aaron Longton, wearing a “Mad Cow, Happy Fish”
T-shirt, urged the crowd to support the federal relief efforts.
“We need help getting through the hard times,” he said.
The no-salmon season already is affecting the community.
Hallmark Fisheries production manager Scott Adams said he has a storage room
full of boxes for packing wild Chinook salmon - a marketing program the
company set up years ago to capitalize on the high-quality fish. The company
pays fishermen thousands of dollars in Port Orford alone for their wild king
salmon and more in Coos Bay, Winchester Bay and Brookings.
“What am I going to do with all those boxes?” he said.
Suppliers, too, have seen a drop in business. As trollers get ready for the
season that usually starts in the spring, businesses such as Basin Tackle,
Englund Marine Supply and George's Marine Electronics see an upswing in
preparations. Waiting lists to get into shipyards to do maintenance work are
the norm.
But not this year.
“We've been going for days without any activity in our till at all,”
George's Marine Electronics' Brenda Kerkman said at the rally. “We're not
able to sell electronics or do repairs.”