KPLU Local News
(2010-03-12)
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Photo courtesy treehugger.com
For the past two years, the collapse of the Sacramento River salmon fishery has idled commercial fishermen along the Oregon and California coasts. Washington fishermen have been somewhat better off. The projected increase in returning salmon this year could lead to more fishing opportunities. But independent fishermen aren't likely to see a big turnaround anytime soon. Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations says the fishing equivalent of the family farmer has been struggling for years.
"We have lost thousands, if not tens of thousands of jobs," Spain says. "We've lost nearly a billion dollars in economic benefits from the salmon fishery up and down the coast in the last 20 years. And it's still a declining trend."
And it's not just the fishermen themselves. Their income supports a web of suppliers, retailers and services in their communities.
"It's a whole chain of multiple businesses that we support," Spain says. "And all of that disappears if we can't fish."
Since the total shut-down of much of the West Coast salmon fishery in 2008, $170 million in federal disaster funds have helped keep many fishing-dependent communities afloat.
Most fishermen realize that the glory days are gone, that they're not likely to see the fishery return to the levels of decades past. But many still hang on, hoping that efforts to restore salmon runs will bring back the fish and their livelihoods.
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