Tag Archives: West Coast fishing industry
Commercial salmon fishers struggle with low prices
With the commercial salmon season coming to an end, 2024 is shaping up to be a lean year for commercial salmon fishers up and down the West Coast. That’s largely because prices for salmon that fishers receive at the dock are at an unusual low. Warren “Buck” Gibbons lives in Bellingham and has been fishing for sockeye in Bristol Bay, Alaska, since 1976. In a good year, Gibbons said, a Bristol Bay sockeye fisher can gross $300,000–400,000 (they take home less after expenses). But when prices are as low as they were this summer, they’ll gross about $100,000 (again, the take-home pay is less). For a fisher working on a smaller scale, including many tribal fishers, the situation is even grimmer. Dana Wilson of the Lummi Nation said that with prices so low, it hasn’t been worth selling salmon for the last couple years. He now keeps his entire catch to feed his own family and relies mostly on crab for income. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:25
Kotek calls for pause on offshore wind turbines
Gov. Tina Kotek is joining a chorus of voices, including tribes and commercial fishermen, urging the Biden administration to slow down its push for floating wind farms in the Pacific Ocean off the state’s southern coast. Regulators are now preparing a draft report outlining where in the areas turbines may be built safely while minimizing harm to fisheries and marine life. Members of the West Coast fishing industry, however, claim that the bureau is ignoring their concerns. They worry that floating offshore wind farms will displace boats from highly productive fishing grounds and could irreversibly damage the California Current ecosystem. >click to read< 09:20
