Jane Lubchenco, left, chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, chats with Ed Bowles, center, fish division administrator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Lincoln County Commissioner Terry Thompson at the Pacific Shrimp dock on the Newport Bayfront. They and other federal, state, and local officials gathered there on July 10 to celebrate a $699,000 NOAA grant to remove derelict crab pots and other fishing gear from Oregon’s ocean. (Photo by Terry Dillman)

NOAA grant aims to provide jobs and remove derelict fishing gear



A number of crabbers should soon launch a different sort of fishing expedition, with 10 chartered vessels embarking on a two-year effort to remove derelict crab pots and other fishing gear from ocean waters off Oregon’s shores.

Backed by a $699,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the collaborative effort involves, among others, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission, and four member companies of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association (WCSPA) - including Pacific Shrimp in Newport.

Federal, state, and local officials gathered at the Pacific Shrimp dock on July 10 to formally announce and celebrate the grant and the in-kind support that boosts overall backing to $830,000. Dubbed the Oregon Fishing Industry Restoration Partnership, the project is one of 50 in 22 states and two territories selected for a piece of the $167 million NOAA received for marine and coastal habitat restoration under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco - an internationally known marine researcher, Oregon State University faculty member since 1977, and the first woman to head the agency as an undersecretary of commerce in the Obama administration - returned to home port for the ceremony.

More than 814 proposals requesting $3 billion inundated agency technical reviewers, she said.

They winnowed it down to 109 for panel review, with 50 emerging from the final analysis based on their ability to generate or protect jobs, provide environmental restoration, being “shovel ready” (“dredge ready” in ocean terms), and creating lasting public value.

“We have a huge need out there,” Lubchenco noted. “What we are able to do is just the beginning of what we should do.”

Joining Lubchenco was Ed Bowles, ODFW fish division administrator; Nick Furman, executive director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission; Fritz Graham, field representative for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden; Jessica Hamilton, Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s natural resource policy advisor; Newport crab fisherman Bob Spelbrink; and Cyreis Schmitt, ODFW marine policy project leader, who wrote the grant proposal.

The result is funding for a two-season effort that will charter 10 boats and provide 48 jobs - 31 of them crab fishermen - to remove up to 4,000 derelict Dungeness crab pots and other lost fishing gear - in all, 150 to 180 metric tons of marine debris. Processors have volunteered dock space and personnel to store recovered crab pots, anticipating they can restore as many as two-thirds of them.

“This put to work the people who know the water best,” Lubchenco said.

Oregon officials hope the fishing industry can continue the effort after the stimulus money ebbs in 2010.

Bowles called it “a really rare opportunity” to boost the economy and enhance ocean health. It’s also an opportunity “for the fishing industry to step up and devise a way to keep this effort going long after this grant is gone.”

Furman, whose commission represents the state’s 433 commercial crab permit holders, agreed.

Dungeness crab is the state’s most valuable fishery, valued at $50 million annually. Caught mostly during the tempestuous winter months to fetch the best prices during the Christmas and New Year’s holiday seasons, the fishermen expose themselves to nature’s whims. Every season, crabbers lose an estimated 10 percent of the 150,000 pots they put out - 15,000 per year - to stormy weather, cut lines, kelp entanglement, or other mishaps.

They litter the ocean floor, creating a hazard to other fishing boats, swimmers, divers, and marine life.

“This has never been done before on this scale, at least on the Oregon coast,” Furman said of the retrieval project. “This could be the catalyst for an annual industry-driven effort.”

In fact, the project should enhance a related effort started in 2006 through Oregon Sea Grant, involving the crab commission and another NOAA grant.

Sea Grant officials helped write an application for that grant “to design and test new ways of finding and retrieving gear,” and assisted in coordinating a similar diverse group of fishermen, regulators, and agencies “to put the project in action.” Initially aimed at recovering trawl nets, the project took a different tack after public meetings identified crab pots as the main offshore marine debris problem. Commercial crabbers were subsequently caught in an ODFW decision to reduce the number of permitted crab pots for the winter 2006-2007 season to 150,000 - a 25-percent reduction from the previous year - and a maximum of 500 pots per boat, down from the 1,000-pot loads some boats carried before the rules changed.

Derelict gear was among the reasons behind ODFW’s decision.

Officials called the initial retrieval efforts in 2006 - backed by matching funds from the crab commission to help pay for two commercial vessels and crews experienced in crabbing and trawling to fish for lost gear, and assistance from other agencies like ODFW and the Oregon State Police “a resounding success.”

“The test was encouraging enough that many of the same players hoped to collaborate on further grant applications to help refine retrieval techniques,” noted a January 2007 Sea Grant report. “At the same time, efforts were in the works to provide incentives for fishermen and their boats to take part.”

Now they have the added incentive, and the timing couldn’t be better.

This season’s wicked weather led to worse losses than usual. Spelbrink said he lost 60 of the 500 pots he dropped. A fellow crabber is missing 90 out of 500. With shifting currents, Spelbrink said gear “has really moved up and down the coast - it’s no longer in the areas where we were fishing.”

This program should help recover a fraction of the derelict pots, and provide an opportunity to experiment with various methods of detection and recovery.

“What we learn in Oregon can translate to our colleagues in California and Washington,” Schmitt noted. “We can identify hot spots, and determine the best ways to remove gear.”

In the process, they can polish the public image of Oregon’s official state crustacean.



Terry Dillman is the assistant editor of the News-Times. Contact him at (541) 265-8571, ext 225, or terrydillman@newportnewstimes.com.



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