SEASIDE — Otis Hunsinger, a fourth-generation commercial fisherman of Astoria and provider for a family of five, stood in front of a joint Oregon and Washington Fish and Wildlife work group meeting Thursday holding his newborn child and described what was at stake if gillnetting is banned on the Columbia River.
"You know if you keep pushing this, maybe you can take the bottle right out of my kid's mouth," he said, while attacking a proposal that would limit nontribal commercial gillnet fishing on the main stem of the lower Columbia.
The proposal was also met Thursday with the release of a resolution by the Association of Oregon Counties (all the county commissioners in Oregon), which asked the Fish and Wildlife commissions to slow the process of assessing commercial fishing on the Columbia and to take more public input.
It came as staff members from Oregon and Washington Fish and Wildlife departments, as well as fishing industry advisers, met in Seaside to help finalize the proposal that is a cooperative effort between neighboring state agencies. The proposal is a response to Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber's August letter to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission asking for a re-evaluation of fishery management on the lower Columbia. His request came when Measure 81, which would have banned the use of gillnets on the main stem entirely, was on the November election ballot. Groups in favor of Measure 81 stopped campaigning after the governor's intervention. The measure subsequently failed by a 66 percent margin in Oregon and by 86 percent in Clatsop County.
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Callifornia crabbing: Here's a fun video shot on the decks of the Majestik while catching Dungeness crab off the coast of northern California.
Over 500 lots of seafood processing equipment formerly owned by Adak Seafood will be sold at auction on Tuesday, June 18, starting at 10 a.m. Hawaiian-Aleutian Daylight Time at the Hilton Garden Inn in Anchorage Alaska.
The equipment is located in a recently updated 250,000 square foot state-of-the-art processing facility in Adak, Alaska. Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Hilco Industrial, which conducts 75 machinery and equipment auctions in a wide range of industries annually, will conduct the auction.
Adak Seafood opened originally as Ada Fisheries in Anchorage in 1986. The facility, updated in 2005, is located on the island of Adak, the southernmost city in Alaska near the western end of the Aleutian Islands. The facility processed cod primarily, as well as halibut, blackcod, crab and pollock, Hilco says.
Alaska fisherman and commercial fisheries activist Kevin Adams was elected chairman at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors meeting on May 9 in Anchorage.
The governor-appointed board consists of seven members: five seafood processors and two industry representatives actively engaged in commercial fishing. Adams was appointed to fill a harvester seat by Gov. Frank Murkowski in 2004.
With 38 years of fishing experience in Bristol Bay, Adams has long been an active member in the Alaska fishing industry, ASMI says. He has worked for both the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation and the Bering Sea Fisherman's Association, and represents Alaska fishermen on numerous boards.
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