2008: A Year to Remember
By Ernie Koepf
It is springtime and fishermen cannot help but think upon the prospects for the coming year and how best to prepare for them. Spring is a time of hope, haul outs and this year a little retrospective glance over the shoulder at 2008. This has never been truer for Oregon and California salmon trollers: they didn’t drop a lead in the water for all of the summer of 2008, and don’t really know if they will this year either.
For the first time ever, in 2008 there was no salmon season below Cape Falcon, Oregon, due to a low return of fall Chinooks in the Sacramento River system. This is the fish that defines the commercial and recreational fishery of the West Coast in these modern times of dams, water diversion, and almost perennial drought. Expecting close to 500,000 returning fish in 2007, California Department of Fish and Game counted 90,000 returning Chinook in 2007, and the PFMC declared it to be a distressed fishery.
Distressed? That is understating the predicament. Returns this year were down some 27% from the year before, underscoring the severity of the collapse.
As we used to say in the sixties, “We’re down to stems and seeds”.
Old-timers shake their heads, young hands worry where it is all headed and the tourists keep asking, “What time do the salmon boats come in?”
It’s just too painful to explain that the boats never went out.
But savvy fishermen paying attention to detail note with hope that 22 million smolts were released in the spring of 2008. These fishermen await the arrival of the 2-year-old jacks in the fall of 2010 to be followed by the return of Sacramento three-year-old salmon the following year. Despite this hope, uncertainty clouds this prospect as the California drought continues and agricultural and municipal water diversions siphon off precious water from the returning fishes habitat. Most fishermen have no problem keeping hope alive from one season to the next, but hoping for an event that may or may not occur in two years is another matter amidst this drought and a proposition that tries even the hardiest optimist in the group.
Switching to Plan B
For some trollers in 2008, “what to do” was a no-brainer: it was albacore off the Oregon coast. In June, fishermen there were confronted with high fuel prices and cold water inshore. But when the warm water moved in, everybody did well. Thirty-to-sixty ton seasons were not uncommon, and at $2,800 a ton for blast frozen, $2,350 a ton for bled, and a straight cannery price of $2,000 a ton, the high cost of fuel was blunted. By the full moon in September 2008, however, it was greatly diminished and a late season seemed iffy as the boats scratched between arriving cold fronts.
During the summer of 2008, the Dungeness crabbing went right to the bitter end. In Central California the gear stayed in the water until June 30, and until July 30 in Northern California. One to two crabs to the trap at four dollars a pound was a welcome weekly paycheck, times being what they were. Many crabbers added to this the open access black cod, and got their 300 pounds a week at three dollars pound. This provided another source of wages for the out of work salmon trollers.
In a bold and decisive stroke, some trollers bought a Southeast Alaska troll permit and joined the growing number of CA-Oregon refugees there. They were rewarded with a large price for Cohos, and a whopping price for Kings: 6-7 dollars a pound! Cohos weren’t too shabby at $2-$2.50 a pound, and these intrepid newbie trollers got their share. Frank Inferrera traveled 15 days up from Santa Cruz, CA in the 36-foot Ann R for his first season in Southeast. He got more than his share and hopes for a repeat this summer
Slime eels? That’s right, these creatures were once harvested for resale to Korea for the manufacture of eel-skin wallets and such. Now they are finding favor as a valuable food commodity in that same country. Fred Arnalde of Morro Bay is fishing them. Steve and Tony Enelo of Bodega Bay tried it, and off Oregon there is modest effort also. The price varies between $.65 and a dollar a pound, and success rates vary in this spotty fishery. Apparently the same problem is occurring now that occurred when boats fished them in the eighties: it’s easy to fish a spot out and you have to constantly move the gear to fresh grounds. But those fishermen that hustle are the talk of the town, earning a handsome wage for their efforts and attracting interest among out of work trollers.
In San Francisco, only a few boats were ever missing from their berth last summer. But one boat, the Josephine, was always out fishing 5-6 days a week: that boat would belong to owner Rich Fitzpatrick, aka “Skeets”, of San Francisco. He was fishing for halibut in San Francisco Bay and he put it this way;
“If you got nothing else to do, once in a while you have a good day. You need a lot of patience. It keeps me from going to the bank for money, but I’m not putting anything in the bank either.” Skeets said as he rolled a fat and tight Bugler in his strong, weathered, sausage-like fingers. It was no bonanza as a commercial endeavor, even at $4 a pound.
“My best week was 400 pounds”, confided Rich of the Josephine, “the fish are small and there’s no weight”.
Last but by far the least, Mike Hudson of The Small Boat Salmon Fishermen’s Association and Lori French of the Central Coast Women in Fisheries of Morro Bay had their own summer alternative; they tapped into their reservoir of activism and went on the road promoting commercial fishermen of California and the salmon they harvest. Both operating with grants from The Central California Joint Cable/Fisheries Liaison Committee, Mike promoted the Salmon Aid concert in Oakland and Lori attended various summer festivals with her Faces of California Fishing booth. Both efforts were acclaimed.
Feds To The Rescue
But the saving stroke of mercy for many in 2008 was contained within the 5 billion dollar Farm Bill that passed in June. In the bill, that Congress approved, there was 170 million dollars for out of work salmon trollers in the form of salmon disaster relief money. It passed against the wishes of partisans complaining about “earmarks” and “pork”. It definitely lifted the spirits of more than a few in the coastal communities, and saved the bacon outright for many. This was the second year in a row that disaster money came to the rescue and it was generous. In 2007 it was $1.85 a pound based on your best poundage year, but in 2008 it was increased to $3.00 a pound. For the average troller who gets his 20,000 pounds or more a season, $60k has the ability to buy a little piece of mind, or more! Charter boats, processors, river guides, gear stores, marine businesses and all infrastructure related to the salmon industry were eligible to apply for the fund which capped out at $225,000 per claim. For some troller-crabber combo vessels, this comes on top of money received from insurance carrier Hudson Marine, settling claims for the damage of the Cosco Busan oil spill to the Central California crab season in 2007. This amount, totaling 11 million dollars as of July 2008, continued to grow and recipient troller-crabber combo vessels found themselves recipients of a tidy sum of cash.
California Daydream
I’m a troller and what did I do in 2008? I breathed a lot of fiberglass dust and gelcoat from 20 years of deferred maintenance and daydreamed of that fresh breeze off the Pt. Reyes bluffs, a breeze blowing across a checker of king salmon as I listened to the rise and fall of the engine rpm’s as the swells passed under the stern. This was the stuff of my 2008 daydream as I worked on the boat last year for a future troll season.
I’m hoping still.
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