Making sure fishermen fish  

November 13, 2009

H&N photo by Lee Juillerat  Glen Spain, northwest regional director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, does the kind of office work that lets fishermen fish

  Glen Spain isn’t a fisherman. He’s a person who helps make sure the fishermen fish.  

   “I’m defending the food chain,” said Spain, northwest regional director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “Somebody has to do what I do so my guys can go out and make a living.”

   Spain, 59, who lives in Eugene, has been working for the federation since 1982. The group consists of more than a 1,000 mostly small, family fishing operations home-based along the Pacific Coast from California to Washington.

   Klamath River Basin

   He’s been involved in Kla math River Basin issues since the early 1990s. That’s because issues affecting the Klamath River, especially those related to salmon, have and continue to affect commercial fishermen from San Francisco to the Columbia River.  

   The Klamath once supported the nation’s third largest salmon ru ns, but Spain said the current runs are 10 percent of the historic highs. He said those decreases have resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs to commercial fishermen.  

   “Everything in the Klamath is our concern. Some very good people are trapped in a bad system,” he said.

   Because of those concerns, Spain represented the federation during negotiations on the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.

   “We’re business people. We need water certainty, just like the farmers,” Spain said.

   He compares the plight of farmers during the 2001 Klamath Basin water crisis with massive cutbacks, and even a total ban on salmon fishing, along most of the West Coast in succeeding years.

   The KBRA

   Spain supports the KBRA. Along with asking questions about what’s in the agreement, he believes questions should focus on “what are the alternatives … The agreement is a partnership that sets a process of mutual relationships.”

   During KBRA negotiations, he believes farmers and commercial fishermen — who had sometimes seen themselves as enemies — established a relationship based on common problems, including the need for certainty on water supplies.  

   He believes the agreement sets procedures for evolving issues, including fisheries management and resolving future disputes.

   “Reasonable people,” Spain said, “can disagree about the risk and the outcomes.”