Tag Archives: Buck & Ann Fisheries
Despite average pay of between $50,000 and $150,000 a year, commercial fishing operations have trouble luring workers
John Corbin is the manager and partner at Buck & Ann Fisheries in Warrenton, where he’s worked for 29 years. The company operates three boats that fish black and pacific cod as well as shrimp. The company employs about 13 people. We spoke with Corbin — who is also chairman of the Oregon Crab Commission — about labor challenges in the fisheries industry. In December you spoke out about the labor shortage in the fisheries industry. Has there been any relief? No, there really hasn’t. In fact, the more people I talk to, it’s becoming more and more of an issue. >click to read<17:41
John Corbin, commercial fisherman and crabber, describes the challenges of the business
Delivering tasty crustaceans to crab lovers has been John Corbin’s life work. He’s been involved with fishing one way or another since he was a high school student in Astoria. In 1989, he and three friends started a commercial fishing business—Buck & Ann Fisheries—with crab as one of its main pursuits. Although Corbin spends most of his time in an office these days, he describes the typical scene on a crab boat. When the season starts in December or January, a boat drops 900 wire mesh crab pots throughout the ocean. Each is marked with a buoy and tracked by GPS. “In the beginning of the season, we just kind of throw them out in different places,” he said. “You have your favorite spots, spots where you did well last year or think you might do well this year. Then, as you start picking them up, you find you’re totally wrong. You move to where you’re doing well, or you just go to another beach somewhere and lay them out.” Read the story here 16:01
