By Joel Gallob
For the Gazette-Times

NEWPORT — Pledging support for fisherman who face economic hardship this summer, U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio and Darlene Hooley joined more than 100 fishermen and others at a rally Monday at the Yaquina Bay Yacht Club.

“We are here in support of our coastal communities, fishermen, deck hands, families, businesses and citizens who are being impacted by federal decisions,” Hooley told the crowd.

She and DeFazio also announced proposed legislation that would provide direct economic relief to fishermen impacted by the reduced salmon season, as well as funding research on the problems that have led to the reduction.

Fishermen who spoke at Monday’s rally made it clear the proposed season is only minimally more than a complete economic disaster.

Under the newly adopted regulations, fishermen will be able to take 600 fish per boat, said commercial troller Ray Monroe of Pacific City. If the average fish weighs 101/2 pounds and the fetches $3 per pound, “that’s $18,900 — max — total. What business can survive on that?”

Monroe, a member of the Oregon Salmon Commission, said the reduced season would be a hard hit for the 400 to 600 “small family-operated businesses” that constitute the coast’s commercial salmon fishing industry. It would also mean less work for dockworkers.

A press statement from the Pacific Fisheries Management Council indicated the 2006 season, even though it will involve “lowest ever” catch levels off California and Oregon, is intended “to provide for a catch of over 200,000 salmon in ocean recreational and commercial fisheries.”

But that’s a fraction of a normal season — about 5 percent of the 2005 season, according to Mark Newell, a Newport fisherman and small-business seafood processor. Even with the reduced catch driving up the price per pound, Newell said many salmon fishers will go crabbing instead.

Henry DeRonden-Pos, who has fished for salmon out of Newport for 30 years, called the season “a slap in the face. You cannot operate a $100,000 business on something like this. This is just one more humiliation. Those salmon in the Klamath River were our hopes and dreams, our kids’ education, our mortgages. We are wards of the state now, and every year, the Feds degrade us. We’re down to bare bones, we’re the last cowboys, the last voice for the salmon. When the government gets rid of us, they’ll have the ocean for themselves.”

DeFazio called the situation similar to farmers around Klamath Falls four years ago.

“The Klamath farmers in 2002 did a great job of rallying political support. They got themselves a big assistance package, and they got water diverted. You put food on the table, too,” DeFazio said.

“We know there are a lot of fish out there this year, and you can’t fish them. I asked them (the Pacific Fishery Management Council) for a full season this year, not because they have taken the steps that are needed, but because of the bounty of nature,” which is set to provide good numbers of salmon from the Sacramento and other salmon rivers.

“But we can’t wait for nature; we need to take action now,” DeFazio said.

Joel Gallob is a reporter for the News-Times in Newport. He can be reached at 265-8571, ext. 223, or joel.gallob@lee.net.