North Pacific Focus 2019 Summer Edition

ASMI UPDATE / BIVALVE BREEDER / TROLLER REVIVAL SUMMER 2019

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Fishermen’s Terminal keeps focus on the fleets

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DON WILSON

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COLUMNS

FEATURES

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ON THE HORIZON Oyster seed is key to Alaska mariculture growth.

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PETER MARSH

PORT TOWNSEND SHIPWRIGHTS GROUP

Summer 2019

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26 DEPARTMENTS DEPARTMENTS 22 PILOTHOUSE PILOTHOUSELOG LOG 44 TIDINGS TIDINGS 64 INDUSTRY WAYPOINTS CALENDAR 86 PEBBLE VOICES INDUSTRY WAYPOINTS 107 FISHERPOETS BOOK REVIEW 128 ON THE MARKET GALLEY WATCH 9 FISHERPOETS ALSO

10 AD SEASON 35 INDEXFORECASTS 12 INOUR YARD 36 FOCUS ALSO

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AD INDEX

PORT OF SEATTLE Marking moments in history at Fishermen’s Terminal.

OUR YARD

A dozen craftsmen at the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op fix the fleet.

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KILLER QUOTAS

Consolidation and quotas limit opportunities for diversification.

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BOATBUILDING: F/V SHARON A West Coast wooden troller is ready for its second century.

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GEAR SHIFTS

Near disaster inspired the Deflector Rudder.

Cover: The Port of Seattle celebrates its commitment to commercial fishing fleets.

Don Wilson / Port of Seattle photo.

IN FOCUS SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

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PILOTHOUSE LOG

MINDING THE MINE C

all it what you like — climate change, natural cycles of the planet, The Inevitable. Even if you believe there’s nothing we can do about the more frequent weather extremes that are affecting our fisheries on all coasts, can we at least agree to do what we can not to make things worse?

We like to think that humans are adaptable, so we can just continue to innovate our way out of our problems. But it sure seems like we’re running up against some hard stops on our ability to both innovate and overpopulate without dire consequences.

For example, if we can only sustain our nutritional needs by expanding feedlot-style protein production into fisheries while sacrificing wild, sustainable fisheries, then we must be doing something wrong. That’s why we have to do all we can to protect our wild fish habitats, especially those robust enough to feed the rest of the globe.

I talk a lot about Bristol Bay (I’m sure some would say too much). It is, indeed, tempting to pick the ripest fruit, and Bristol Bay keeps hitting those highs and lows — record returns, high prices, high water temperatures, a development threat, and now wildfi res following record summer heat.

What’s happening in Bristol Bay should be eyed as the canary in the coal mine. And as someone who reports on this industry, I’d be remiss to wander too far away from this story.

Now that the EPA has again withdrawn Obama-era protections for Bristol Bay’s salmon habitat established under the Clean Water Act — despite the agency’s own sharply critical review of the Army Corps’ draft environmental impact statement for the Pebble Mine

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Bob Callahan Jessica Hathaway Kirk Moore Paul Molyneaux Doug Stewart

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proposal — it is our duty as citizens and stakeholders to insist that any changes to the status of this region be founded in good data and sound science.

As many industry watchdogs have noted, there is no official oversight for the Army Corps’ draft EIS. One purpose of the public comment period is to allow the scientific JESSICA HATHAWAY Editor in chief community to review and offer feedback on the quality of the data used to make the assessments. This is why the industry pushed for and was granted a 60-day extension of the comment period from the original 30 days. A 1,500-page document takes time to review, analyze and provide informed feedback.

We’ll be following up our extensive coverage of this story (including voices of the industry on page 8) with a Future of Bristol Bay session at Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle this November. Registration goes live in early September, so get in early to secure your seat in our conference program and a free pass for the exhibit floor.

I look forward to seeing you in Seattle!

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North Pacific Focus, Summer 2019, Vol. 6, No. 3, is published quarterly by Diversified Business Communications, 121 Free St., P.O. Box 7438, Portland, ME 04112-7438. READERS: All editorial correspondence should be mailed to: National Fisherman, P.O. Box 7438, Portland, ME 04112-7438.

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TIDINGS BANNER YEAR FOR BRISTOL BAY Salmon astray: Wayward chums keep Alaska trollers at bay

EMMA FORSBERG

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Bristol Bay gillnetters near Naknek, Alaska, helped haul in a near-record harvest.

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he Bristol Bay 2019 sockeye season appears to nearly match the recordsetting 1995 harvest, with 43 million fish landed as of Aug. 4, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game preliminary reports.

The high volume underlined the fishery’s vital economy, even as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suddenly reversed course on the proposed Pebble Mine, pulling back its own Clean Water Act objections to the project on July 30.

The Alaska department’s Blue Sheet fishery report showed a statewide total salmon tally of 105.4 million fish, including 53 million sockeyes, just fewer than 41 million pinks, and 10,364 chums, 822,000 silvers, and 211,000 kings.

That’s falling short of the overall forecast for a 213 million fish harvest, but sockeye outperformed those projections too, tracking to beat the 2018 harvest of 50.5 million fish. The sockeye landings had been predicted to drop to 41.7 million fish during this year’s season.

Kings were down from 241,000 fish during 2018, while pinks fell far short of a projected 137.8 million target.

At Bristol Bay, Icicle Seafoods was the first buyer to post base prices for sockeye at $1.35 a pound, up from the average $1.26 last year.

KDLG in Dillingham reported that Icicle also paid 15-cent bonuses for iced 4

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

or RSW fish for both drift and setnetters, plus 8 cents more for chilled/bled, and a 5-cent premium for floated fish.

All told, that’s potentially $1.63 per pound for sockeyes at Bristol Bay. Alaska General Seafoods, North Pacific Seafoods and Peter Pan Seafoods at Bristol Bay also have posted a sockeye base of $1.35.

Kodiak base prices have taken a dip with reports of $1.45 for sockeyes, $0.27 for pinks and $0.25 for chums.That compares to last year’s averages of $1.56, $0.39 and $0.51.

At Cook Inlet, sockeye prices were reported at $1.70, down from $2.27.

Southeast Alaska trollers were averaging $5.13 a pound for kings, $1.56 for silvers and $0.61 for chums, according to fish tickets. Prices for seine and gillnet salmon were reported at $0.55 for chums, down from $0.90; sockeyes at $1.90, a drop of six cents, and $0.30 for pinks, down from $0.38 per pound on average last year.

At Norton Sound, chum prices at $0.50 were down from $0.80, and silver at $1.40 was the same as last year.

For all the sockeye success, the pink salmon harvest was running a full third lower than in 2017, and chum were tracking 20 percent behind 2018 landings, according to an early August report from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

— Laine Welch

outheast Alaska salmon trollers saw the greener grass on the other side of the fence but weren’t allow to taste it. In early August, a mass return of hatchery chums milled in the waters of West Crawfish Inlet, south of Sitka, in closed waters.

For the second consecutive year, the chums congregated in waters that are closed each year as part of a silver salmon management plan. This year, the management plan called for an eight-day closure to ensure silvers make it from the depths of the outside waters to terminal areas where they spawn.

The chums, on the other hand, don’t even spawn in West Crawfish Inlet but at the head of the larger Crawfish Inlet, miles away. The chums had been released from a hatchery in Crawfish, but the lure of fresh water surging from streams inside of West Crawfish apparently lured them off course.

“There are high mountains in West Crawfish with snowfields that supply sufficient fresh water,” says Steve Reifenstuhl, general manager of Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association, in Sitka. “The fish hold deep until they’re ready to come in.”

Crawfish Inlet, meanwhile, lacks the snowy watershed and has been experiencing seasonal drought; hence its streams were running at a trickle in August.

“There’s not an adequate volume of fresh water to draw them in,” says National Fisherman Highliner Eric Jordan,

owner and operator of the F/V I Gotta.

Reifenstuhl adds that this year’s conditions are nearly a repeat of last year’s.

Trollers have been tied up for as long as three days as part of the silver salmon plan in years past.

The forecast is for a return of 3.5 million Crawfish Inlet chums.

“They’ll eventually get to Crawfish,” says Jordan, who is waiting out the closure with about 60 other trollers. “In the meantime, there’s hundreds of thousands of chums down there.” — Charlie Ess

University of Alaska fisheries studies in budget crosshairs

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he College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks is the training ground has sent more than half of its 1,000 graduates on to work in their home state.

Now everyone at the college is awaiting fallout from Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s evisceration of the larger university budget. The College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, which has a staff and faculty of about 140, also operates campuses in Juneau and Kodiak, and its collaboration with Alaska Sea Grant extends its reach to a dozen more locations.

$2.2 million fine for tug’s British Columbia fuel spill

UAF/ VAL IHDE

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The research vessel Sikuliaq is operated by the University of Alaska.

Canadian court has fined Houston -based Kirby Offshore Marine Corp. $2.9 million (US $2.2 million) for the October 2016 grounding and fuel spill of the tugboat Nathan E. Stewart in British Columbia’s Inside Passage.

Some 29,000 gallons of diesel and lubricants spilled in the accident, which happened when the second mate piloting the articulated tug-barge unit fell asleep while on watch and missed a planned course change, according to Canadian and U.S. investigators.

Kirby, the largest U.S. tank barge operator, has a major presence in the Northwest delivering fuels between Seattle and Alaska. The Nathan E. Stewart was pushing an empty barge to the Port of Vancouver when the grounding happened in the early morning hours of Oct. 13, 2016.

The barge was decoupled and recovered, but the tug sank and remained there for weeks.

The spill fouled fishing grounds of the indigenous Heiltsuk Nation, forcing a shutdown of commercial clamming, finfish harvest and local subsistence fisheries. The accident brought more pressure on the Canadian government from First Nation and environmental groups to do more to prevent maritime accidents and spills, and pre-position resources for faster spill response.

HEILTSUK NATION/ TAVISH CAMPBELL

ERIC JORDAN

Karl Jordan on the F/V Samara is a member of Southeast Alaska’s troll fleet waiting to target hatchery chums.

Nothing is safe, said Brad Moran, the college dean.

“There’s not any faculty, staff, student or location that will not be impacted should the veto for the university budget not be overridden,” he said. “That has to be crystal clear.There is nothing that will be left untouched.”

With the dollars that come into Alaska driven by the university, Moran said he just doesn’t get it.

“It’s been shown that for every dollar the state spends, we’re bringing in about $6 university-wide to the state. I don’t see how you cannot say that’s a great return on investment,” said Moran.

Moran pointed to the college-operated research icebreaker Sikuliaq, home ported at Seward, as an example.

“We are entrusted to operate a $200 million federal asset in that vessel, which is owned and paid for by the National Science Foundation. All of the funding for that ship is externally coming into the state. That’s only one example of state dollars driven by the university,” Moran said.

He added that Alaska’s university teachers and researchers are at the forefront in the world in terms of rapidly changing ocean and Arctic conditions.

“All require basic research and those investments from the federal government are leveraged by the state 1 dollar on 6” dollars, he emphasized.

“You can always look for economies of scale and improvements in cost efficiency,” Moran added. “What you cannot do is drop the hammer overnight to this extent and expect an organization to deliver the same kind of value to the state. But we will do our very best.”

— Laine Welch

The tug Nathan E. Stewart grounded in British Columbia, spilling 29,000 gallons of fuel and lubricants in October 2016.

“We both know this sentence does not represent true justice,” Heiltsuk Chief Marilyn Slett wrote in a public open letter to Kirby CEO David Grzebinski after the Tuesday sentencing. “True justice would mean paying for an environmental impact assessment, admitting civil liability, and working openly and honestly to address compensation and remediation for the harm caused by the spill.

“You should work with us to help reform antiquated marine pollution compensation laws, rather than hiding behind them.”

In a statement, Kirby officials said they have changed how they operate in the Pacific Northwest, following recommendations by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

“We sincerely regret this incident, and we have amended our operating procedures, training, auditing, promotion protocols and equipment to help reduce the potential for future accidents,” the company said.

– Kirk Moore SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

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INDUSTRY WAYPOINTS

Scott Kelley joined United Fishermen of Alaska as the group’s new executive administrator.

United Fishermen of Alaska, Alaska’s statewide commercial fishing trade association, announced Scott Kelley as its new executive administrator in June.

Kelley, a Juneau resident, brings vast experience in commercial fisheries as a former director of commercial fisheries with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

“Scott’s immense knowledge of commercial fisheries in Alaska is well-respected and his relationship with commercial fishermen is extremely valuable. We are very lucky to have him join our organization,” said Frances Leach, UFA’s executive director.

Kelley replaces Mark Vinsel, who retired from the association after working for 18 years in several capacities, including as executive director. The statewide commercial fishing umbrella association represents 35 member organizations from fisheries throughout Alaska and its offshore waters.

• Seward is the first Alaska community to work with the Alaska Ocean Cluster to jump and grow ocean-based businesses. A first cohort of four earlystage businesses that signed up with the cluster’s Blue Pipeline Incubator last October has so far attracted $1.6 million on an investment goal of $2.3 million, ten times more than anticipated.

“They include seafood manufacturing, ocean energy, mariculture and coastal tourism,” said Justin Sternberg, director

of the Blue Pipeline Incubator in Seward, which is a partnership with the cluster, the city and local Chamber of Commerce, the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ College of Fisheries and Ocean Science, and the Alaska Small Business Development Center.

One business also filed a provisional patent on a new technology that won the Invention of the Year award at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“It’s a technology that pulls hydrogen

out of ocean water that can then be stored as a battery for use later. It also deacidifies the water,” Sternberg said. “If it proves to be commercially viable, it would allow for a mass scale way to produce energy and at the same time reduce the carbon that is in the water creating acidification.”

Another Blue Pipeline company was a semifinalist at the first Alaska Angel Conference last month in Anchorage, which brings investors and business startups together.

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Sternberg said the cohorts receive mentoring and “MBA-level training” that helps them “with the whole suite of starting a business, from the idea all the way to the implementation to selling it down the road.”

• In early August the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute named two new directors: Megan Rider as domestic marketing director, and Ashley Heimbigner as communications director.

“The staff at ASMI is incredibly talented. It’s with great pleasure to have Megan and Ashley step into their new roles,” said ASMI Executive Director Jeremy Woodrow.

Rider joined ASMI in 2013, working with the international program, and most recently served as the domestic marketing manager. Prior to joining ASMI, the lifelong Alaskan worked in the state governor’s office and for a lobbying firm. The domestic marketing program is responsible for executing stra-

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seafood industry,” said Rider.

Heimbigner joined ASMIALASKA’S in JanuaryPREMIER FUEL AND LUBRICANT SUPPLIER 2018 as international marketing specialALASKA’S PREMIERFUEL FUELAND AND LUBRICANT LUBRICANT SUPPLIER ALASKA’S PREMIER SUPPLIER PREMIER FUEL AND LUBRICANT SUPPLIER ist, after working as tourism and sales ALASKA’S Statewide:1-800-276-2688 1-800-276-2688 Statewide: manager at Visit Anchorage, and holding Statewide: 1-800-276-2688 the position of communications manager position at Alaskan Brewing Co. in Juneau. As communications director,PREMIER FUEL AND LUBRICANT SUPPLIER ALASKA’S ALASKA’S PREMIER FUEL AND Harbor Heimbigner will oversee the brand and Dutch 1577Harbor E. Point Rd Dutch Harbor, messaging priorities of the whole orga-1577Dutch E. Point RdAK Dutch Harbor Dutch907-581-1295 Harbor, AK Dutch Harbor nization, act as a spokeswoman to press 907-581-1295 1577 E. Point Rd E. Point RdDutch Harbor, AK and trade media, and1577 manage ASMI’s Dutch Harbor, AK 907-581-1295 domestic consumer public relations, inNaknek 907-581-1295 Mile 0 Peninsula Hwy state and fleet communications.

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tegic Alaska Seafood promotions with foodservice and retail partners across the United States. Rider was named interim domestic marketing program director in November 2018.

“It is a great honor and privilege to continue to work on behalf of the Alaska

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Ashley Heimbigner

• The Association of Alaska Pollock Producers Anna Carpenter as its communications and membership coordinator on July 1.

In that newly created position, Carpenter will help craft GAPP’s marketing narrative for wild Alaska pollock and be the group’s voice on social media.

Craig Morris, the association’s CEO, said Carpenter “will be a great addition to GAPP’s small but mighty staff and a great new member of Team Wild Alaska Pollock.”

Carpenter hails from South Bend, Ind., and is a recent graduate of Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind. •

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PEBBLE MINE

In defense of Bristol Bay Advocates of the wild salmon fishery and pristine habitat of Alaska’s Bristol Bay speak out against the proposed Pebble Mine LINDSEY BLOOM Fisherman; Program Manager, Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay; Campaign Specialist, SalmonState

ALANNAH HURLEY Fisherman; Executive Director, United Tribes of Bristol Bay

The people of Bristol Bay have been steadfast in our dedication to protecting Bristol Bay from the Pebble Mine for over a decade, and we’ve weathered hostile administrations at the state and federal level in that time.

“Our opposition to this project has pushed international mining conglomerates like Anglo American, Mitsubishi, and most recently First Quantum Minerals to walk away from millions of dollars invested in this toxic project.

“We’re ending our salmon season and celebrating our second largest commercial harvest, over 42 million salmon, in recorded history. We know the science, facts and morality are on our side, and we will continue to do whatever it takes to protect Bristol Bay from the Pebble Mine.

“It is not realistic to expect the EPA or Army Corps to operate as objective or reliable agencies. They have made it clear their priority is to ignore the science, history, and will of the people and instead cater to the lobbying dollars of the Pebble Mine.

“Now more than ever we need our elected leaders, like Lisa Murkowski, who plays a key role in the Senate in funding decisions, to stop funding this façade of a process at the expense of Bristol Bay fisheries and this world-renowned resource.”

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DANIEL SCHINDLER, Professor, University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences; Principal Investigator, Alaska Salmon Program

“At the beginning of the fishing season, EPA officials met with a group of us in a Dillingham boatyard to discuss the Pebble Mine and the EPA’s Clean Water Act protections. Those officials looked us in the eye and claimed to be there without any agenda.

“Adding insult to injury, the Pebble Limited Partnership and its investors knew about the EPA’s reversal before anyone else, even though Bristol Bay’s fishermen are the ones whose jobs could be lost. So yeah, fishermen are disappointed, fatigued and feel totally betrayed by this process and the Trump administration.

“This administration has no intention of protecting Bristol Bay’s hard-working fishing families, and instead is sacrificing our way of life to benefit a few mining executives.

“We have long been promised decisions based on science and transparency, but instead it has all become a political circus. The pendulum will swing back, and the facts and the science are on our side. It’s like fishing in the bay. You can’t measure your success by the outcomes of just one season, you have to stay focused and diligent and measure your success over time.”

“The reality is that no one is paid to sit around and critique these things. If (a scientist) writes a paper that we want to publish, it goes out to peer review. And unless you can get a handful of scientists to say it’s legitimate, it never gets published. In the case of an environmental impact statement, there’s no formal peer review.

FRIEDA TAUB Professor Emeritus, University of Washington

“[The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the draft environmental impact statement] dismiss acid mine drainage as long as it’s underwater.

That may delay things, but it’s not a permanent solution.

“They mention in a couple places that there’s going to have to be monitoring and control in perpetuity,

PEBBLE MINE but I don’t see any mechanism for doing that. And we have reports that say once acid mine drainage starts, there’s no way to stop it.

“We’re going to do a 20-year mine, or maybe 50 or 70, and then we’re going to walk away? So many mines right now are public responsibility, and there’s no way to clean them up.”

NORM VAN VACTOR CEO, Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation

with political bias, that I’m absolutely convinced we will have our day in a court of law.

“There are so many specific incidences, so many actions or lack thereof, that have taken place here in the last couple months that have compromised our due process. We’re going to be able to litigate this thing to a successful conclusion.

“I’d much rather see our time and energy and money being spent in more positive ways, but this is so important to people in this region and to everyone who knows us and cares about us.”

ELMA BURNHAM Setnetter, Ughashik District; Program Manager, Bellingham SeaFeast; Founder, Strength of the Tides

“I’m not so full of doom and gloom.

I see this as just another bump in the road. It’s frustrating as hell that it had to happen this way. But the flip side is that the whole process that we’re observing is so flawed, so fraught

“I almost think we’re distracting ourselves by focusing on Pebble. If we didn’t have Pebble Mine, would Bristol Bay be rallying better for climate change?

“I feel like everyone came home this summer and was like: Dang, it’s hot up there. And not that climate change is just about hot Alaska summers, but I feel like in my decade of fishing, the issue that I’ve been hearing about has been almost exclusively Pebble, which has been a huge, important thing for us to focus on, but I don’t know as much about how climate change is going to affect Bristol Bay. “If we had the opportunity to worry about issues other than Pebble Mine, would we be farther ahead in developing our own clean energy? If the native corporations, community organizations, etc., weren’t spending all their money rallying against these huge mining companies, would we have put more effort towards green energy?

I like to think so, that at least we’d be farther ahead than we are right now.”

JOIN US AT PACIFIC MARINE EXPO 2019!

Join Editor Jessica Hathaway, Dr. Daniel Schindler and other stakeholders in a discussion of Pebble Mine and the future of Bristol Bay at Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle this November 21-23 2019. Visit www.pacificmarineexpo.com for updates.

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Email dmagnuson@city.kodiak.ak.us or call 907-486-8080 Visit kodiakshipyard.com SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

9

FISHERPOETS

SEA CHANGE

BY PETER MUNRO

By day, Peter Munro counts fish in the Bering Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands. By night, Munro makes poems, some of which have been published.

Who places the body in the storm’s path is a damn fool, never mind vast crew shares.

High winds breathe but a whisper of God’s wrath. Pack ice answers curse and prayer.

The Bering Sea in winter, Zhemchug Canyon in January, the fleet top-heavy with ice, white-caps booming like cannon, Opilios scarcer than free money and suddenly the whole ocean stills to glass.

The barometer plummets.

Wraith-like wisps rise up, smoked from the water as the airmass chills. Buoylines ride oily in their grommets.

ADAM MCKIBBEN PHOTO

Listen to more from Peter Munro at www.munropoetry.com.

Munro also serves as the Poet Laureate, Pro Tem, of Kenmore Lanes. The management of Kenmore Lanes were too busy bowling to notice having awarded him this honor and, to this day, remain unaware. The position has no salary but the expense account is amazing.

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

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ON THE MARKET Jeremy Woodrow named executive director The ASMI board of directors selected Jeremy Woodrow as its new executive director. Woodrow has served as ASMI’s interim executive director since December 2018, and as communications director since 2017. “The ASMI board is proud to have a lifelong Alaskan with close ties to Alaska fishing industry lead Alaska seafood’s global marketing efforts. The Alaska Seafood brand is as strong as ever, and we are confident that Jeremy’s leadership will advance the direction and mission of the agency,” said Jack Schultheis, chairman of the ASMI board of directors.

Spring budget meeting The board of directors met April 23 in Juneau. The board approved an FY2020 marketing spend plan of $18.69 million.

The ASMI budget consists of the 0.5 percent voluntary industry assessment and federal grants. The spend plan is roughly $2.6 million more than the previous fiscal year, primarily because of the successful application of onetime Agricultural Trade Promotion federal funds, which offset the negative effects of international trade conflicts.

Culinary tour visits Naknek ASMI hosted 12 international chefs, domestic media and registered dieticians in June. The group flew to the Bristol Bay region, welcomed by Mayor Dan O’Hara. All five species of Alaska salmon were available for the chefs to cook and taste. The chefs visited a commercial setnet site and talked to fisherman Melanie Brown, toured a processing facility at Copper River Seafoods, and viewed a fishcounting tower. They rounded out their experience with halibut, sablefish, Pacific cod, pollock, pollock roe, king and snow crab, and scallops.

SUSTAINABILITY/ TECHNICAL Get your fish facts ASMI produced new technical fact sheets on Alaska king salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon, sablefish, pollock and surimi seafood to educate and inform the industry, market, trade and consumers on the technical aspects of Alaska’s seafood products. The sheets are part of a series covering multiple species and products, meant

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

to highlight the nutrition, sustainability, harvest procedures, utilization, biology, and culinary features of Alaska seafood.

The fact sheets are available online.

a dinner featuring an array of wild Alaska seafood and an introduction to what it means to be wild, natural and sustainable.

NYC highlights ASMI hosted a media tour in New York May 2-4. In the days leading up to the main event, Chef Carlyle Watt of Fire Island Bakery in Anchorage hosted a demonstration in the Vice Munchies test kitchen. The team did a few demos in the Bon Appétit test kitchen. Watt demoed his crab biscuits and cracked bairdi crab legs, while ASMI Executive Director Jeremy Woodrow broke down both Alaska halibut and salmon with Chef Brad Leone. Thirty-nine guests attended the event itself, sampling an array of wild Alaska salmon, whitefish and shellfish.

Restaurant group lauds Alaska

Live: Salmon handling ASMI produced a series of videos providing guidelines for handling salmon. The five videos cover general guidelines, as well as handling tips for various catch method/vessel types.

The videos are aimed at harvester and industry education, and are available on YouTube and on the ASMI website.

Hatcheries: Just the facts New outreach material on Alaska hatcheries is a resource for Alaska salmon buyers to explain how hatcheries work as an enhancement program. The pdf is available on the ASMI website.

DOMESTIC Recipes for canned pinks, pollock Working with four chefs from across the country, ASMI developed six new recipes featuring Alaska pollock, canned pink salmon and surimi.

Los Angeles buzz In Los Angeles, ASMI hosted 11 local food media and influencers for

ASMI provided salmon and pollock for the National Restaurant Association’s Bubble Party in Chicago. Featured recipes included wild Alaska pollock tartine with frites.

INTERNATIONAL Mission to Poland ASMI hosted a trade mission in Gdansk, Poland, in May. Nine participants from seven Alaska seafood companies and three ASMI representatives spent their first day in one-on-one meetings with 10 qualified buyers from Poland. On day two, the group toured seafood processing facilities, including three processing plants.

Chinese chefs compete ASMI China conducted a competition with 40 chefs from 20 Simao Group hotels, including Hyatt Regency, DoubleTree, Conrad and Hilton. Each hotel was represented by a two-person team that created two recipes — one featuring Alaska sablefish, and the other featuring Alaska yellowfin sole and/or snow crab legs. Wild Alaska pollock roe was also available. A behind-the-scenes video of the chefs in action is available online.

Quick bites Japan is ready to roe

Food bloggers flock to Juneau

May 5 marked the third-annual Kazunoko (Herring Roe) Day in Japan, which coincided with the end of a 10-day celebration of several national holidays, the coronation of the new emperor and the start of the new Reiwa, or harmony, era. The herring celebration included retail and HRI promotions, as well as a consumer event at the Chitose-Sapporo airport.

More than 22 million passengers passed through the celebrations at the airport, enjoying samples, cooking demonstrations and singing songs about Kazunoko.

ASMI was an elite sponsor of the International Food Blogger Conference in Juneau. The sponsorship included hosting the opening reception at the Alaska State Library and Museum, with seafood prepared for attendees by local Great American Seafood CookOff Winners Chefs Lionel Uddipa (2017) and Beau Schooler (2015).

ASMI dishes sustainability ASMI Northern Europe sponsored the Sustainable Business Award ceremony for the Cateys — known as the Oscars of the hospitality industry — in London, hosted by The Caterer.

ASMI has partnered with The Caterer on the Sustainable Futures campaign, featuring profiles on women across the fishing and hospitality industries. ASMI was invited to announce the winner.

Former Executive Director Alexa Tonkovich presented.

EVENTS Bristol Bay Fish Expo ASMI hosted a booth at the Bristol Bay Fish Expo June 9-10 in Naknek, with hundreds of fishermen and industry members in attendance. On June 9, Communications Specialist Arianna Elnes gave a Global Marketing Update.

SeaWeb Seafood Summit ASMI’s Sustainability Adviser Susan Marks moderated a panel at the SeaWeb Global Sustainability Summit in Bangkok, collaborating with Food Export USA.

ASMI Japan is cooking ASMI Japan participated in the Toho A-Price showcase in Kobe, Japan, serving breaded wild Alaska pollock.

More than 500 outlets attended the event hosted by the foodservice wholesaler A-Price. The group also hosted a series of cooking demos at the 2019 Hobby Show and Cooking Fair. The annual event attracted more than 200,000 attendees.

Madrid’s Salon de Gourmets ASMI supported two local Alaska seafood distributors at the Salon de Gourmets Fine Food and Beverages Fair in Madrid, Spain. It is the largest European event exclusively dedicated to delicatessen products. ASMI worked with Spanish seafood distributors Disconfa and Wild Alaska Salmon to conduct Alaska keta salmon tastings and provide information to visitors.

Seafood Expo Global ASMI hosted 18 Alaska seafood companies as co-exhibitors in the Alaska pavilion at the Seafood Expo Global in Brussels, Belgium. Increased demand for booth space in the Alaska pavilion led to a second story in the booth, which provided the industry with a private business lounge. The Alaska Food Truck drew attention to the pavilion and served more than 1,000 portions of Alaska pollock, salmon, sablefish, salmon roe and pollock roe on the first day of the show alone. Sales projections show more than $1 billion for the Alaska seafood industry, an overwhelming success for the show.

Cod on delivery ASMI worked with the meal delivery service Green Chef to feature Alaska cod during a spring promotion. Three meal kits were sent to more than 10,000 households.

PCC Markets ASMI partnered with Seattle retailer PCC Markets to feature Alaska sablefish during a sales event. Results showed a 488 percent increase in units sold from 11 participating stores. The promotion was amplified with paid social media promotions on Instagram and Pinterest.

Lenten Promotions Flip2Fish performs In partnership with Fexy Media, ASMI launched a Flip2Fish campaign for Lent.

Six top-performing chicken recipes from Serious Eats were flipped to feature fish in the same recipe — replaced by Alaska pollock, sole and surimi. Top-performing recipes were the Alaska sole piccata and wild Alaska pollock enchiladas.

Rosauers Supermarket Rosauers promoted Alaska salmon, cod, halibut, crab, rockfish, sablefish and sole in 22 stores in the Pacific Northwest and Rockies. Stores were outfitted with an Alaska seafood section, which led to a 25 percent year-over-year increase.

Gordon Food Stores Gordon Food Stores showcased Alaska sockeye, keta and pink salmon, and pollock in 175 stores in the Midwest and Florida. The retailer used an endcap bunker freezer and saw a 191 percent year-over-year increase in total sales.

Harris Teeter Frozen and refreshed Alaska sockeye was the focus of a Lenten promotion at 235 Harris Teeter stores. ASMI partnered with Chefs USA, which executed 120 instore demos.

Ibotta ASMI ran its annual digital Ibotta offer, featuring 50 cents off Alaska pollock during Lent.

Hy-Vee Hy-Vee promoted wild Alaska pollock at 185 stores in the Midwest. A total 370 demos featured breaded and IQF Alaska pollock.

DeMoulas Market Basket A Lenten promotion featured frozen Alaska pollock at 78 stores in the northeastern United States with 40 instore demos.

SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

13

OUR YARD

PORT TOWNSEND SHIPWRIGHTS CO-OP From very sparse beginnings, the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op has expanded into one of the larger facilities in Washington.

BY MICHAEL CROWLEY

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

PORT TOWNSEND SHIPWRIGHTS GROUP PHOTOS

T

he Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op has been repairing boats since 1981. It started out working on just a few boats a year. And now, almost four decades later, the yard’s facilities turned out maintenance on 40 to 50 boats in 2018. Most of those are West Coast and Alaska fishing boats, but not all. Sailing and motor yachts have become steady customers.

Whether it’s fishing boats or pleasure boats being hauled into the yard, there’s one thing that makes Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op different from probably every other boatyard in the country. That is — as you’ve probably guessed — the word “co-op.”

The Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op is composed of 12 members, each one an owner. No one person has more power than anyone else or makes more money. The skill sets among the owners differ depending on the individual.

Facilities at Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op were limited in its startup days of the early 1980s.

OUR YARD

BING MAPS

QUICK LOOK at Pt. Townsend Shipwrights Co-op

LOCATION: Port Townsend, Wash.

The Kariel, a 65-foot salmon tender was extended 5 feet and got a bulbous bow.

It might be engines, electrical installations, sailboat rigging, woodworking, mechanical systems, caulking, welding, structures or something else.

Some have been commercial fishermen and a few have logged a lot of miles on offshore sailing boats.

The number 12 is not a magic number. There have been more owners and fewer. But currently, “12 is what works for us,” says Pete Rust, one of the owners who joined the co-op in 2005 and specializes in structural and fi ne woodwork,. “It fits the volume of work we can accommodate in the port.”

With more owners, decision-making would take a lot more time, be more difficult and suffer from redundancy. Fewer than 12 might result in “too much stress for running projects.”

Ownership is not a job you can apply for or buy into.

“It’s an invitation from existing members to strengthen the skill sets of the group,” says Rust. Whatever expertise an individual brings to Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op, one thing is certain: There is no boss. “We are all equal,” Rust says.

The founding owners numbered eight in 1981. (The last of that founding eight, Jim Lyons, retired in 2017.)

Then Port Townsend Boatworks was the only boatyard in town.

“Some of the guys working there wanted to start their own thing,” says Rust. “The idea of being a co-op was

to create a fair working environment.

It was a team effort by the original group. Not one boss starting a business.”

In the beginning, repairing wooden fishing boats was the focus. There wasn’t a large building where boats could be worked on. Much of it was outside work. Come summertime those fishing boats that had been in for repairs were back in the water and working the West Coast and Alaska; more than likely some of the co-op’s owners would be part of those fishing crews, returning to the boatyard once the season was over.

Gradually more boats were coming in for repairs, and the co-op found itself moving beyond the needs of a boat yard that only worked on wooden fishing boats. Aluminum fishing boats began showing up in the 1990s, and by the year 2000 sailing yachts started to make an appearance, though the early ones were mostly wood. By 2003, boats requiring fiberglass and steel work were becoming the norm, and there was an effort “to diversify the skill sets and become more of a full service boatyard,” says Rust.

That diversification resulted in the addition of co-op owners with the knowledge to deal with the repairs, maintenance and materials the new boats were bringing with them. Even so, as skilled as the owners might be, the workload was getting to be more than 12 owners could handle, so

OWNERS: Christopher Sanok, Arren Day, Jeff Galey, Todd Lee, Matt Henderson, Dave Griswold, Pete Rust, Chris Brignoli, Ric Brenden, Tim Lee, Tim Hoffman, Anders Kulin YEARS IN BUSINESS: 38 NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 30 NUMBER OF BOATS MAINTAINED: 40 to 50 in 2018 NOTABLE BOATS: Western Flyer TYPES OF FISHING BOATS: Crabbers, seiners, tenders, longliners SERVICES OUTSIDE OF BOATYARD: Will travel to other ports for repair work.

“They are two of the

only spaces on the West Coast where a 300-ton lift can drive into the

”

building.

— Pete Rust, PORT TOWNSEND SHIPWRIGHTS CO-OP OWNER SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

15

OUR YARD

Left to right: Matt Henderson, Todd Lee, Jeff Galey, Chris Brignoli, Pete Rust, Anders Kulin, Arren Day, Brad Seamans. Sitting: Tim Lee, Tim Hoffmann. Not pictured: Chris Sanok and Dave Griswold.

around 2005 the group started hiring employees. Today there are 30.

As more people were required, so too were larger buildings that provided some protection from the weather.

Initially that meant an open-air structure with a roof, followed by a metal building that would hold two boats.

Then about 3 1/2 years ago the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op bought

The 65-foot longliner St. John II is an annual customer at Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op.

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

a facility in the port that had been used for building and maintaining large fiberglass yachts. The purchase includes one 120-foot-long building and another 140-foot building. “They are two of the only spaces on the West Coast where a 300-ton lift can drive into the building,” says Rust. There are also a couple of smaller buildings, one which will accommodate a 110foot boat or six 40-footers. Add them up, and Rust figures that if you don’t count the dry dock area, which some shipyards have but the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op lacks, “we have one of the biggest facilities in Washington.”

A 200-kW solar array was recently added to one of the buildings. “At times it can provide all the electrical needs,” says Rust, who notes that the lighting in the larger buildings has been converted to LEDs, “so we have a massive reduction and a massive savings.”

About half of the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op’s business is for commercial fishing boats, and the boatyard’s wooden boat heritage hasn’t been left behind, as shown by three boats that were in this winter and spring. There was the wooden 65-foot longliner Evening Star, built in 1945, that received a new prop shaft, bearings and rudder shaft.

A boat that was launched in 1944

OUR YARD and shows up at Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op every year is the 65foot longliner St. John II that was in for planking and mechanical work.

“We did a pretty big refit on her 10 years ago,” Rust notes.

The 86-foot salmon tender Seven Seas, launched in 1942 was also in for planking work, as well as replumbing of the fuel system and structural work in the engine room.

The Reiver, a 65-foot steel cod, crab and salmon boat had hull plating replaced, and the Kariel, a 65-foot salmon tender and longliner, received a new bulbous bow and 5-foot stern extension.

But it’s the 1937-built sardine seiner Western Flyer, originally out of Monterey Bay, Calif., that garners the most attention, to the extent it’s become a bit of a tourist attraction. It’s all because of its role in the book “The Log from the Sea of Cortez,” written in 1951 by John Steinbeck.

TheLunde WesternMarine Flyer had sunk a couple of times, staying the bottom as long Electronics,onInc. as six months. Thus, Port Townsend 5415-24th Ave. N.W.is basically reShipwrights Co-op Seattle, the WAWestern 98107Flyer, replacing building Ph:about 206.789.3011 just everything. When work is fi nished, she will be used as an educaor 800.275.3820 tional platform for marine research out Fax: 206.782.3188 of Monterey.

Sometimes the Port Townsend ShipWAgoes beyond the wrights Tacoma, Co-op work confi nes of Port Townsend and even 1928 Milwaukee Way the state of Washington.

The boatTacoma, WA 98421 yard’s owners and employees have Ph: 253.627.6968 made trips to Seward and Kodiak, Alaska, to work on fishing boats, as

Lund Electro 5415-24th A 5415 Seattle, Se W Ph: 206.7 Ph or 800.2 o Fax: 206.7 Fa

T ac as two notable stints in Hono- Rust is aware of. There’s been plenty 928 well Milwau 1928 work, including bulbous lulu. The Hawaii trip was to work on of fabrication the Admiral’s Barge, an older wooden bows, midbody and stern extensions, T acoma, W However, boat used for ceremonial purposes by and rebuilding bulwarks.

T ac the Navy. “It’s the only wooden boat not a new fishing boat. “But it’s on in the fleet,” says Rust, and 253.6 since the the list of things we might try to acPh: Ph shipyard where it is kept knows a lot complish. We have the facilities,” Rust The 82-year-old Western Flyer, originally a sardine carrier, is being rebuilt at Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op.

about steel but not much about wood, some outside help was needed.

After being flown out to do an estimate and then getting the job, Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op had four to six of their crew working on the barge for three months in Honolulu.

What Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op hasn’t done is build a commercial fishing boat, at least not that

says, and judging from the co-op’s history of successfully moving on to more complicated endeavors, don’t be surprised if one of these days, the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op doesn’t add a new commercial fishing boat to its list of accomplishments.

Dutch H D Ph: 907.5 Ph Fax: 907.5 Michael Crowley is the former F Boats & a

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SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

17

IN PROFILE

Killer quotas Commercial fishermen need more opportunities to diversify, but a new study shows quota management limits movement and stability

RICHARD BRENNER

By Jenny Seifert

18

Fishermen are more likely to have stable year-to-year incomes if they diversify their fishing portfolios. But quota management has limited movement between fisheries and consolidated fleets.

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

IN PROFILE

A

s any commercial fisherman knows, fishing is a risky business. Fluctuations in markets, regulations, fish populations and the weather — not to mention the climate’s growing volatility — can result in fluctuating income that can threaten a fisherman’s livelihood.

Buffering against these fluctuations might mean taking a page from another risky business: the stock market.

A growing body of research is showing that, in most cases, fishermen are more likely to have stable year-to-year incomes if they diversify their fishing portfolios, much like an investor would diversify a stock portfolio, giving them a safety net to weather whatever the year brings.

“It can really pay for fishermen to diversify,” said Anne Beaudreau, a fisheries professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

But there’s a surprising and troubling hitch to the promise of diversification. Alaskan fishermen are trending in a different direction — fewer people are fishing, and they are fishing fewer types of fish.

“Commercial fisheries are becoming more consolidated to fewer people, and fishermen may have fewer opportunities to diversify,” said Beaudreau.

Beaudreau is part of a research team organized by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis that has been working to get the big picture on these trends, particularly in one of

“Commercial fisheries are becoming more consolidated to fewer people, and fishermen may have fewer opportunities to

”

diversify.

— Anne Beaudreau UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS

the world’s most important and lucrative commercial fishing hubs, Alaska, which contributes more than $4 billion annually to the U.S. economy and reaps more fish than all other states combined.

Working with 30 years of data that trace the income and catch of individual commercial fishermen in Alaska, they found the number of permit holders statewide has declined by roughly 25 percent from the early 1990s to 2014. Falling in parallel is the number of commercial fishermen with more than one permit — 30 percent held multiple permits in 1988, while only 20 percent did so by 2014.

“These kinds of patterns are mirrored across the U.S. and other regions. It just happens that we have the best data in Alaska, so the trends are clearer,” said Eric Ward, another research team member and an ecologist with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

There are many contributing factors to consolidation, specialization and lack of diversification in the fishing industry, but one that stood out in the data is Alaska’s implementation of individual fishing quotas.

While intended to help stabilize fish populations, improve the safety of what was once a derby-style dash for fish and give every permit holder a piece of the fishery pie, the quota system seems to have incited a drop in the number of commercial fishermen.

For example, the Pacific halibut fishery in the Gulf of Alaska alone lost roughly half of its fishermen in the 20 years following the implementation of individual fishing quotas in 1995.

Statewide, the drop was a result in part because of the rise in permit price, leading many fishermen to either sell their permits or drop out of the business. The quotas are also allocated based on having a history of commercial fishing, which has made it difficult for anyone new to enter the industry.

“It matters that fewer people are fishing now than they used to, because it’s changing the face of our fishing communities across Alaska,” said Beaudreau, alluding to another trend — the graying of the fleet, as fewer young people are able to buy into the business.

“These kinds of

patterns are mirrored across the U.S. and other regions. It just happens that we have the best data in Alaska, so the trends

”

are clearer.

— Eric Ward NOAA’S NORTHWEST FISHERIES SCIENCE CENTER Despite the good intentions of individual fishing quotas, “there’s not really a consideration of what that means for individual fishers’ variability in income year to year,” said Ward, noting that fishermen don’t have risk-mitigation programs like crop insurance for farmers.

Indeed, in the latest version of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office report on income variability, 60 percent of the total U.S. population had stable incomes. The report defines a variable income as fluctuations in earnings by 25 percent or more from year to year.

Compare that to the numbers run

by Beaudreau, Ward and their colleagues for commercial fishermen, and the relative instability of the commercial fishing profession stands out: Only 34 percent of fishermen had stable incomes throughout the same timeframe.

“Most people would be uncomfortable with those levels of variability in income year to year,” Ward pointed out.

And therein lies the rub of increasing specialization among fishermen.

They are losing their buffer against business-disrupting, income-rollercoaster changes, which in Alaska happen at a relatively study pulse.

The history of fisheries in Alaska is riddled with disruptive events, from huge changes in the structure of fishSUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

19

IN PROFILE

RICHARD BRENNER

Alaska’s Prince William Sound fishermen have relied on state-managed salmon since the herring population crashed following the Exxon Valdez spill.

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

other non-fishing gigs.

And according to the research, it’s investing in a diverse portfolio of permits that seems to be the best bet for income stability.

“You may not make more money, but you’ll have less variability,” said Beaudreau.

For example, when low herring populations closed the fishery in Prince William Sound in 1993, fishermen with other permits were able to move on to other fish — most commonly, salmon — but those who had specialized in herring and were with-

out capital to invest in other permits left the business.

Climate change presents another cloud of uncertainty that could further prove the payoff of diversifying. Already, fishermen (and fish) are feeling its effects in Alaska’s high-latitude waters, and remaining adaptive to these changes would behoove at least fishermen.

“There’s potential good and bad news with climate change,” said Brenner.

A case in point is the warm blob.

From 2013 to 2015, a huge mass of

ALASKA SEAFOOD MARKETING INSTITUTE

eries management, such as the switch from federal to state management in 1960 and the implementation of the limited entry system in the early 1970s; to disasters, such as the great Alaska earthquake in 1964 and the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989; and to shifts in the supply and demand of wild fish.

“You can almost think of these disruptions as something that happens regularly. It’s just the flavor changes from year to year,” said Richard Brenner, a fish biologist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

In more recent history, there’s the unprecedented volatility of the Gulf of Alaska’s pink salmon population in Prince William Sound, where fishermen harvested historically high returns in 2013 and 2015 and then nearrecord lows in 2016. While the federal government just allocated $50 million to fishermen, processors, researchers and other stakeholders as compensation for the 2016 pink disaster, that took a complicated act of Congress, a multiyear process that doesn’t provide any real long-term (or short-term) insurance to fishermen.

The bright side is there are lots of ways fishermen could diversify their portfolios, including investing in different types of harvest permits, targeting assorted species, or picking up

Salmon is king for many small-scale fishermen in Alaska. But what happens if climatic shifts affect biomass and quota management inhibits flexibility?

IN PROFILE warm water formed and lingered in the Gulf of Alaska, disrupting continental weather patterns and denting some stocks of salmon, cod and other cold-water-loving fish, while also bringing new opportunities.

“There’s market squid all over Southeast Alaska now, and up until a few years ago, that was kind of unheard of,” said Beaudreau.

All that said, there are trend-bucking anomalies, when diversification may not necessarily be a boon to business.

In Alaska’s Bristol Bay, for example, where salmon populations are healthy and relatively stable — and its sockeye fishery reigns as the world’s largest — fishermen have been experiencing record returns on sockeye, perhaps thanks to climate-induced latitudinal shifts in the species’ range.

“You may not make

-25% The drop in the number of Alaska’s commercial permit holders over a 20-year period.

portfolios and be prepared to adapt to changes.

“There are a lot of examples of diversification in commercial, recreational and subsistence fisheries across the world,” said Beaudreau. “In other words, when given the opportunity, people will diversify.”

Jenny Seifert is the communications officer for the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

REGIONAL NEWS AND UPDATES

FOR THE COMMERCIAL FISHING INDUSTRY

more money, but you’ll

”

have less variability.

SIGN UP TODAY IT’S FREE & EASY!

— Anne Beaudreau UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS In fact, across the state, salmon appear to have become a safety-net fish.

Fishermen tend to turn to salmon when their primary catch is suffering, like the case of herring in Prince William Sound, resulting in more and more fishermen specializing in salmon.

Salmon also are not managed through the individual quota system, which makes it easier for fishermen to enter those fisheries.

The lure of salmon specialization simultaneously provides more impetus for protecting the state’s five species, which is perhaps a no-brainer to Alaskans, but also highlights the potential vulnerability of these fishermen. If salmon prices or populations were to decline, salmon fishermen could fi nd themselves in troubled waters.

A bottom line from the research is the need for more flexible regulations and management approaches that allow more fishermen to diversify their

WWW.NATIONALFISHERMAN.COM SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

21

ON THE HORIZON

Southeast seed supply Markos Scheer is a Seattle-area attorney and entrepreneur who has spent more than 30 years in the seafood industry. He is developing a 127-acre kelp and oyster farm near Craig, Alaska, and operates a law practice.

By MARKOS SCHEER

M

CINDY WYATT PHOTOS

arble Island is exactly what you’d expect of the rugged, green coastal environment that is Southeast Alaska.

About an hour’s boat ride from the nearest road system and the docks of Naukati, Marble Island is a bit larger than the state of Delaware and is situated in Sea Otter Sound, a large bay on the northwest side of Prince of Wales Island.

Eric and Cindy Wyatt chose this idyllic location to be their home, to raise their children and to be the base of their fishing and oyster operations. The area is home to a number of oyster farming operations, a community-owned nursery and an established flupsy operation (a floating upweller for raising juvenile oysters), including Eric Wyatt’s own newly launched Blue Starr Oyster Co. flupsy.

Eric Wyatt grew up in Wrangell and Port Angeles, Wash. After a stint in the Navy, he returned to fishing on the F/V Sundancer, longlining for halibut and blackcod off the Aleutian chain the year before the implementation of IFQs. He then returned to Southeast Alaska and went trolling.That year Cindy was running a salmon tender in Edna Bay, and they hit it off.They were soon fishing and starting a family together.

Eric later sold his first troller and purchased the Das Boot, a 43-foot Sunnfjord fiberglass power troller, which became the launch pad for fishing salmon and halibut and some dive fisheries. He began seriously looking at mariculture when salmon prices crashed after 2001. He was realizing that “without the fisherman, the business doesn’t have any value.” And if he got hurt, the revenue for the fishing business would dry up.

Mariculture stood out as a way to diversify his fishing business and build something that would have value when he retired.

Eric Wyatt worked with Crew Enterprises in Ketchikan to build this flupsy and expand Blue Starr’s seed production.

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

The Wyatt Clan: Cindy, April, Eric and Morgan

In 2004, Wyatt started the Blue Starr Oyster Co. Oyster farming seemed like an opportunity to “start a business with a positive environmental impact,” Wyatt observed. “There was nothing here, and we are creating wealth.” The majority of oyster farming in Alaska uses suspended culture, as opposed to intertidal culture operations, which dominate operations in Washington and California.

Oyster rafts “are an island that wasn’t there, and we created a little ecosystem where it didn’t exist before.” Wyatt started raising oysters and managing the Sealaska flupsy. In 2016, he purchased that flupsy and continued raising mature Pacific oysters for sale and also raising seed from spat until they are large enough for other growers to grow to market size in their own suspended culture operations. Blue Starr has been growing oysters for more than a dozen years now, and Wyatt continues to expand its operations and the market for their oysters.

Wyatt has also been heavily involved in the advancement of the mariculture industry in Alaska. As early as 2008, he supported efforts to develop the industry. He has been on the board of directors of OceansAlaska, a nonprofit marine science and seed production company that owns a floating marine research and seed production facility. He also serves on the Alaska Mariculture Task Force, which was created in 2016 by then-Gov. Bill Walker. The task force has driven the advancement of Alaska’s mariculture industry, including economic analyses and the Alaska Mariculture Development Plan.

As Blue Starr and the industry expand, the demand for oyster seed continues to grow, taxing Wyatt’s capacity. Seeing this writing on the wall, Wyatt decided that Blue Starr’s seed production capacity needed to be materially expanded.

So in 2017, Wyatt started the design and construction of a new, highly efficient and high-capacity flupsy for his operation. At 56' x 26' and with more than 500 square feet of stainless-steel screen bin bottomer, this flupsy has the largest capacity of any in Alaska.

Blue Starr’s new flupsy had the advantage of Wyatt’s experience over the last decade. It was designed to maximize efficiency of operation and would more than triple seed production.

The new flupsy was built in Ketchikan by Crew Enterprises in 2018-19. Ben Crew, according to Wyatt, was an integral part of the concept and design. The structure’s aluminum

ON THE HORIZON catamaran design includes an ability to bolt on/bolt off the flupsy in sections to allow for overland transport. The 126 bins are 24" x 24" x 36", making them able to be handled by a single person.

When the structure is being cleaned, maintained or transported, its 6-foottall ballasted pontoons will be pumped out, and it will only draw 18 inches.

When operating, the pontoons are ballasted with seawater, and the flupsy will have 18 inches of freeboard, allowing for easy access on and off and making it very stable. The flupsy was launched in May and is currently operating at Wyatt’s Marble Island location.

Wyatt reports that it is working very well. Several million oysters are growing away in Alaska’s pristine nutrientand phytoplankton-rich waters.

Wyatt continues to fish and grow Blue Starr Oyster Co., and encourages others to look at diversifying their fishing operations to include a mariculture.

He also found principles in “The Lean Farm” by Ben Hartman to be instructive in maximizing the value, production and profit of Blue Starr. Also, new and smaller-scale farms can realize many advantages and savings by working together with other small farms to achieve efficiencies and value through cooperation.

Wyatt advises new entrants to start with a well thought out and developed business plan. He suggests that they “obtain practical, hands-on experience to inform their business plan.” In that plan, consider what infrastructure you have and what will be necessary. As in Wyatt’s case, fishing assets, like the Das Boot, are used in a variety of ways to support Blue Starr. New entrants must understand the required packaging, shipping, permits and certifications.

He describes how it is the owner’s task to know and understand what the customer wants. “What do they keep ordering?” Wyatt asks.

This flupsy represents a significant advancement in capacity and performance for Blue Starr and Alaska. The mariculture industry continues to advance in Alaska, and Wyatt is a wellestablished voice and representation of success supporting that development.

Wyatt’s long history and varied experiences are key in his success and the development of Blue Starr.

Way back with the Wyatts As one might expect, Eric and Cindy Wyatt’s journey did not start on Marble Island. Like many Alaskans, Eric Wyatt has a rich history, most of it on the water.

His great-grandparents Sam and Maggie Wyatt moved to Wrangell, Alaska, in the early 1900s, where they owned and operated a butcher shop and general store. His grandfather Chad Wyatt fished and ran tenders. His father, Russell, served in the Army and returned to Wrangell with his wife, Ursula.

Eric was born in Wrangell in 1965. One of his earliest memories was crossing the bar into the Alsek on his grandfather’s tender, the 65-foot Rolf II. It even carried a Blazo-box crib. Wyatt’s father worked at Wrangell Seafoods grading fish and running shrimp peeling machines. He later took up trolling. After the family moved to Port Angeles, Wash., they continued to fish in Alaska.

Wyatt’s connection to the ocean continued throughout his life. He graduated from Port Angeles high school in 1983, attended the Naval Academy for the next four years, and then served in the Navy for five years. He left the Navy as a lieutenant in 1993. Not knowing what he wanted to do then, he went fishing with his father. He obtained his engineer’s license and went longlining on the F/V Sundancer, fishing for halibut and blackcod off the Aleutian chain, way out west beyond Fox Island. This was the last year before IFQs were implemented.

Wyatt then returned to Southeast Alaska, bought a power troll permit and his first troller — the F/V Lanus, a classic 38-foot double-ended wooden boat.

Cindy was running a salmon tender in Edna Bay, and they hit it off. They went fishing together in 1995 and married the next year. In 1999, the Wyatts moved to Marble Island, and their son Morgan was born. Their daughter April followed in 2004, which was also the year the Blue Starr Oyster Co. was born. — M.S.

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SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

23

ON THE HOMEFRONT

Guys and dolls

of raising children while Ken was gone and years of worrying about Ken when he’s gone fishing, but she never will tell him.

She can make a dollar go further than many of her non-fishing friends because she has learned over the years that just because Lori French is the founder of Faces of California this season is a good season, next season can a complete failFishing in Morro Bay, Calif. ure. She comes with various hobbies and passions because she’s learned to have her own life, too. She has finally convinced her friends that yes, indeed, she is married, as they have finally seen her and Ken together in one place.They have learned that Ken is not a rumor. Barbie has an SUV a couple of years old but

BY LORI FRENCH with high mileage, as she has been known to drop everything to run parts to the boat or pick up Ken because the wind is ecently my niece gave me a Career Barbie as a joke.You blowing and he wants to see his own bed for a couple of days. may or may not know I have a small egg business, and Often Barbie is seen at meetings or sits on a fish politics board this Barbie is the Chicken Barbie. She came with an egg basket, like the Pacific Fishery Management Council. Barbie comes a coop, eggs and hens. She’s dressed in shorts with pink rubber with a credit card to purchase replacement coffee cups, sheets, boots. Yes, I happen to wear shorts every day, and yes, I have a towels, shop vac or anything else Ken was borrowed from the pair of pink rubber boots. What I do not have, however, is a house. She’s as strong as they come.

Side-Hustle Steve: Steve is just shape like Barbie. [Sad sigh.] like Ken, but he has a side hustle just Anyways, I got to thinking after I postbecause one full-time livelihood isn’t ed a picture of my Barbie that I could enough for this workaholic. Steve can create a line of Commercial Fishing weld, run cattle, raise avocados, be a maBarbies. And you know what? Based on feedback from my photo, I think there’s chinist or play the stock market. Steve’s a market. truck also carries the tools of his side DISCLAIMER: These doll models are hustle along with his fishing gear. Steve’s a random act of fiction from my brain with a collection of hats has a bit more varibit of truth. If you get offended, don’t worry; ety with inclusion of the local feed store giveaways. His CD collection of ’70s it’s not you I’m thinking of. If you like what you read; well then of course it’s you or one rock or country music is extra.

Meeting Matt: Meeting Matt is Ken’s of your friends. You can’t sue me because we’re still waiting on our 2015 crab disaster brother. He hits every meeting up and money. And if you talk to the Old Man of down the coast while trying to fish. His the Sea, I spend all the money he makes knowledge of commercial fishing is vast. on my chickens and books. This is all just He is the one who makes things happen. a bit of fun.

Matt comes with a large bottle of Tums.

Included with Matt’s truck is an assortWithout further ado, I present the 2019 Commercial Fishing Barbie Colment of note pads on his front seat for lection. ( I apologize, Mattel Toys.) notes from his phone calls. Matt always Commercial Fishing Ken: Ken has a pen with him. We could not fish if This Chicken Farmer Career Barbie has aged a little bit. He sports gray hair we didn’t have Matt fighting for us. Matt’s just may be the inspiration for a line of hotel bills from out-of-town meetings are and a beard. There may or may not be commercial fishing dolls. sold separately. a pair of reading glasses nearby. Ken Meeting Mikey: He is Matt’s son. Mikey wears skateboard has spent his life on the ocean, and his weathered face shows it.

If you take off his ball cap, he will have a strong tan line and a clothes or something with the word Cabela’s printed someblindingly white forehead. Ken is dressed in jeans, either Wran- where. Mikey knows how to work a smart phone and can glers or Levi’s — depending on what was on sale when his wife often be seen texting while taking phone calls. Mikey is our was shopping — a T-shirt or hoodie sweatshirt with a fishing future. He is quiet and extremely intelligent. Mikey loves what slogan of some kind. He comes with an assortment of ball caps he does, loves what his father taught him and is fighting for from the local marine store, his favorite engine or his favored the future.

Deckhand Dick: Dick is every Ken’s nightmare. Dick sports team. He drives a truck that’s a bit older with dents and rust. The bed of the truck always has some sort of fishing gear knows it all before he steps on the boat and won’t take direcrolling around in it. Ken comes complete with calluses on his tion. Dick stirs up trouble with his attitude and likes to tell Ken hands, and if he fishes crab, he never has all his fingernails in- how things should be done. Dick comes with his own special tact. Ken comes with two coffee cups. Sleep is sold separately, chip on his shoulder. Sold separately is Dick’s next boat job.

Deckhand Don: Don is the polar opposite of Deckhand as are vacations.

Commercial Fishing Wife Barbie: Like Ken, she’s a bit Dick. Don is worth his weight in gold. Don will learn all he older with her share of gray hair — well deserved from years can learn, make positive suggestions, has a great attitude, which LORI FRENCH

R

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

ON THE HOMEFRONT is infectious. Don will show up to the boat on time and work long hours. Don comes with ambition and a savings account, because he’s going to own his own boat soon.

Issues Ian: Ian does not come with a driver’s license or a clean drug test. However, he does come with a string of court dates, which he fails to disclose.

Badass Betty: Badass Betty is a commercial fisherwoman in her own right. She out-works many men, has her own boat with a crew that would die for her. She knows her stuff and has the respect of the fleet. Betty usually has a blond braid decorated with fish scales tucked underneath her ball cap. There may or may not be pink stuff on the boat. Betty has a hard time finding slickers that fit, but thanks to the Salmon Sisters, she has rocking XtraTufs with a design meant just for her. Betty also comes with arms that are the envy of all older women. No bat wings for Betty.

Bar Fly Babs: Babs likes to hang out with Dick or Marty.

She wears dangling earrings and bold makeup. Bar stools may be purchased separately.

Home Wife Hope: Hope is the wife of Mikey. She is a young commercial fishing wife with a brain of her own. She can handle infants with ease while she is ordering boat parts for Mikey. Hope is hard working and can handle her man being away for extended periods. Hope is often found working with her local fishermen’s wives group, heading up fundraisers and educational outreach. She’s tired from taking care of the kids, but she always has a smile on her face. A night out with

her friends should be purchased separately.

Hard Luck Hank: Hank is the fisherman with the broken down boat when the season is in full swing. Hank always seems to be one step behind the rest of the fleet. He comes with an empty checkbook.

Adios Jack: Jack is your single fisherman who loves the ladies. He lives on his boat and has a lady in every port. Jack will flirt with any woman just because he can. Occasionally he will have a fresh flower stuck in his ball cap. He has a happy go lucky personality and really doesn’t worry too much about the future. Life is always a party for Jack. Beer and party music can be purchased separately.

Tupperware Tim: Ah, Tim. Tim is really a sport fisherman with too much time and money. He owns a small trailer boat that has a higher price tag than all our boats together. Tim loves to fish, and he can often be seen down at the boat ramp.

Tim doesn’t attend meetings, fishes during tie-ups and loves his write-offs.Tim comes equipped with Yeti ice chests and the latest boat electronics.

Highliner Harvey: Harvey is easy to spot when he is seen, but he’s rarely seen because he is out fishing. He has a new truck that’s paid for, a nice big boat that’s paid for, a large house that’s paid for. He takes real vacations every year that don’t involve a boat. He’s rare, but he’s earned what he has by hard work. He’s not a bragger. We all want to be Harvey.

To view this limited collection of Commercial Fishing Barbies, please visit your local waterfront.

SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

25

HOME PORT

DON WILSON/PORT OF SEATTLE PHOTOS

CELEBRATING SEATTLE

By Mick Schultz

A

t Fishing Vessel Owners Marine Ways, in the shadow of the Ballard Bridge in Seattle, you can still find artisans who know how to fashion a 2-inch-thick, 30-foot-long, air-dried, Douglas-fir plank, bend it onto the hull of a 100-year-old halibut schooner, fasten it with brass screws, pound hemp

oakum and cotton into the gaps with a caulking iron and mallet, then seal it with putty and cement.

FVO (as we call it) celebrates its centennial this year. The co-op shipyard is the Port of Seattle’s oldest continuous tenant and one of the industrial businesses that anchors Fishermen’s Terminal and the entire commercial fishing and seafood industry in Seattle.

In 1912 the Puget Sound Purse Seine Fishermen’s Association asked the Port of Seattle, which had been established by a vote of King County residents the previous year, to build a home port for the local fishing fleet. In 1914, Fishermen’s Terminal became the port’s fi rst operational facility.

Five years later, the Hiram Chittenden Locks opened at the west end of the canal, creating a freshwater, tide-free, industrial waterway — and requiring the docks at Fishermen’s Terminal to be raised 14 feet. In the end, the inconvenience and expense of raising the docks proved a prudent investment.

About 400 boats call Fishermen’s Terminal home. They fish primarily in Alaska for salmon, halibut, cod, crab and a range of other species. Gear types include crabbers, gillnetters, longliners, purse seiners and trawlers.

Fishermen’s Terminal is located on the Lake Washington Ship Canal, a freshwater channel that connects Lake Washington and Lake Union to the saltwater of Puget Sound via the Hiram Chittenden Locks, the busiest locks in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 200 lock systems across the country.

Along both sides of the east-westrunning canal, and blocks inland from both shores, commercial fishing and

About 400 commercial fishing boats call Fishermen’s Terminal home.

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

26

HOME PORT maritime businesses thrive in one of the nation’s largest and most diverse maritime clusters. They include shipyards and boatyards; marine electronics, refrigeration, and hydraulics companies; fuel suppliers; seafood processors and more.

A few hundred yards west of Fishermen’s Terminal is the Maritime Industrial Center, site of a former U.S. Coast Guard light ship station. The port bought the center in the 1980s and turned it into a vessel maintenance and repair facility with heavy-duty floating concrete docks and a roster of uplands tenants who provide a wide range of services.

In addition, most of the U.S. North Pacific pollock and hake fleets moor at the port’s Terminal 91 on Elliott Bay. On the land side at Terminal 91, companies that manufacture trawl nets and fi rms that make onboard processing equipment stand just a few hundred yards from fish processing and distribution facilities.

Today, commercial fishing boats based at Port of Seattle facilities fish primarily in Alaska and other North Pacific waters, where they account for about 13 percent of the annual U.S. commercial fish harvest measured by dollar value.

erties generated another $189.7 million in business output.

Factoring in all segments of commercial fishing moorage and support services on port properties, business activity in 2017 was valued at more than $671 million.

Commercial fishing activity tied to port properties generates 7,200 direct jobs and another 4,000 indirect and induced jobs, with a total payroll of $543 million. FT_CommMoorageAd2019_V3_Print.pdf

All of that business activity results in more than $13 million in state and local tax revenues.

So if the idea of someone using old tools and techniques to repair a 100-year-old fishing boat brings to mind a sleepy coastal village, remember that the worker is part of an industry that has helped power Seattle’s economy for more than a century. And that industry is planning to be around for 1 6/28/19 1:46 PM the next century.

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“Commercial boats based at Port of Seattle facilities account for about 13 percent of the

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U.S. commercial fishing

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harvest.

Gross earnings of the vessels totaled $455 million-plus while fishing in Alaska — 44 percent of the fishery’s total gross earnings of $1 billion. The same vessels generated another $26.6 million fishing in Puget Sound and Washington coastal waters.

Support services, such as vessel maintenance and repair, seafood processing and cold storage located on port prop-

FISHERMEN WHO KNOW, KNOW FISHERMEN’S TERMINAL FOR MORE THAN 100 YEARS Freshwater Moorage Forklifts / Cranes / Electric Hoist Loading Docks Boatyard Gear Storage Net Repair Area Electricity, Water, Showers

Tell us what you need to be ready to fish! (206) 787-3395 SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

27

BOATBUILDING

SHARON’S CENTENNIAL A storied West Coast wooden troller gets new life — once more

BY PAUL MOLYNEAUX

I

solated between Eureka to the north and Trinidad to the south, Fort Bragg, Calif., offers a rare refuge along the rugged coast of northern California. The town of less than 8,000 has long supported a small fishing industry and boasts a processing plant, a gear shop, and a couple of boatyards, including Makela Boatworks on the Noyo River.

28

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

In the spring of 2019, I spotted an old wooden boat, what I would call an Eastern rig, lying against a wharf. She had her wheelhouse aft and a mast, with outriggers for trolling, set forward near the doghouse entrance to the fo’c’sle. I couldn’t pass up an opportunity for a closer look.

There was an older skinny guy on deck with some pieces of wood in his hands. “Is this your boat?” I asked.

PAUL MOLYNEAUX PHOTOS

“No. It’s his,” he said, nodding toward a 50-something man working up forward.

The older man climbed up and introduced himself as Howard Makela, owner of Makela Boat Works. “Makela is a Finnish name,” he said. “My father and uncle started this shop after the war.”

World War II still marks a big transition period in American fisheries, the beginning of the modern era. But the boat lying against the wharf, the F/V Sharon, is nearly 100 years old.

The Sharon was built in Gig Harbor, Wash., in 1925, when World War I was “the war.”

“My father and uncle mostly built Monk-designed trollers between 1942 and the early 60s,” said Makela. Ed Monk, a Washington-based naval architect, designed the classic deep-draft West Coast troller around 1941, and saw them built at numerous yards.

Following Makela into his shop, with its vintage machinery and worn wood floors, was like stepping into a functional museum, featuring a 36inch Crescent bandsaw from the 1940s, a 61-inch joiner from the same era.

“They bought a lot of this salvage when they were shutting down the yards in the Bay Area, the ones that built the Liberty ships,” said Makela.

“The table saw is from the 60s. We upgraded the planer. It’s from the 1940s. The old one was from the 20s.

But you know, wooden boats are so simple, the only thing I replace are hand tools.”

A homemade plaque hung on one wall with the names of many of the boats Makela’s father and uncle had built. It didn’t take long to realize that Makela, having grown up in this business has done about everything you could do a on wooden boat, from building them to fi xing them.

“I mostly do repairs now,” Makela said, nodding toward the Sharon. “I like to work with the owners.”

Makela introduced the new owner, Robert Wright, who had come into the shop. “I’ve been looking at this boat all my life,” said Wright, who grew up in Fort Bragg. “Now I fi nally own her.” Wright has a day job in the Bay Area and commutes four hours to

Howard Makela likes to call his equipment vintage. His father and uncle bought most of it from the yards that built Liberty Ships during World War II.

work on the boat. “But if you want talk to someone who really knows this boat,” Wright said, “talk to Wally Shattuck. He’s not around today, but you can call him.”

“They bought a lot of this salvage when they

were shutting down the yards in the Bay Area, the ones that built the Liberty

”

ships.

— Howard Makela, BOATBUILDER

“I had her for about 20 years,” Shattuck said over the phone later. “The guy I bought her from, John Lund, had had her since 1945. She’s a sweet old boat. I would call her user-friendly.

Everything is in the right place. ‘When they built this ship, men went to sea,’

John used to say.”

Like Wright, Shattuck grew up watching the Sharon. “I fi rst saw her in 1973, when John brought her down here.” According to Shattuck, Lund chased albacore all the way to Mexico, and fished up in Oregon and Washington as well.

“I have 10 or 15 years of his old log books,” said Shattuck. I’d be blown into Eureka and I’d be wondering where John was back in 1962 or whenever, and I’d fi nd ‘Near miss with freighter in fog,’ or something like that. He never had a radar.”

The Sharon had been sitting idle for 9 years when Shattuck bought her.

“People told me I was crazy, and I questioned it. I wondered what I had gotten into. But I loved that boat, and I loved what I was doing.”

Shattuck worked on the Sharon steadily for four months trying to get her ready for the season. “Everything was frozen. I just got it all working again. She was so simple. Everything ran off the main. Everything was shaft and belt driven. The salmon gurdies were shaft driven. I had to get rid of them and install hydraulics. Of course there were no electronics, so I bought SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

29

BOATBUILDING

In keeping with its museum feel, Makela Boat Works displays this list of boats the Makela brothers built in the years after World War II, mostly Ed Monk trollers.

a bunch of used stuff and got that working.”

Shattuck later added an auxiliary engine and installed a hydraulic anchor winch. “Once I got her going, though, I never had to break a trip for five years.”

According to Shattuck, nobody knows who built the Sharon. But he says she has a sister ship, the Falcon.

“When I fi rst got the Sharon, a museum tried to buy her from me,” says Shattuck. “She is unique.”

Over the course of the 20 years he owned her, Shattuck did extensive work on the Sharon. “Howard [Makela] has done all of it,” he says.

“People told me I was crazy, and I questioned

it. I wondered what I had gotten into. But I loved that boat, and I loved what

”

I was doing.

— Wally Shattuck, FORMER OWNER, F/V SHARON

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“Wally refastened her,” said Makela. “I did all the topside work; we rebuilt the pilothouse and made it 3 feet longer, replaced all the decking around the cockpit and pilothouse.” Makela used mostly Douglas fi r for the decking and plank, and sourced white oak from Connecticut for the framing. “I used purple heart for the cap rails,” he said.

In 2010 Makela,

working with Shattuck, did extensive work on the foredeck and fo’c’sle.

“That was the year the salmon closed,” said Makela. “We reframed her, new deck beams, deck and bulwarks.”

The Sharon has an improvised refrigerated seawater system. According to Makela there are a number of plastic drums in the hold, all full of salt water with copper coil refrigeration to cool them. “It was designed for albacore,” he said. “They put the fish in the barrels, and it keeps them close to freezing.”

According to Shattuck, the boat still has the original chain and shaft steering. “John said, ‘If it’s been working, why fi x it?’” he said. John Lund put a Cat D-318 in the Sharon in 1958, and she’s still hammering. “We rebuilt it six years ago,” he said. “She needed it.”

At age 64, Shattuck claimed he had had enough.

“The regulators won,” he said.

“There’s so many rules, it became demeaning.” In the last five years, Shattuck admitted, he never made a dime.

“How long can you go like that? If it was any other business, you’d give up.

I’m glad she’s going to a good home,” he said.

Before he bought the Sharon, Shattuck had lost a boat far offshore.

“Three days in a raft,” he said. But he can’t shake fishing.

“I’d like to have another boat,” he said. “Maybe when I turn 65 and can collect social security. For now I’ll probably go with Robert [Wright] once he gets her going.”

Wright has been putting every hour he can into the Sharon.

“Thing is, I have to work,” he said.

“If I could put one more week into her, she’d be ready to go. It’s mostly cosmetic stuff, paint, oil the decks, things like that.” Wright plans to focus on salmon once he gets the boat going.

“I might try for blackcod and albacore, too,” he said.

If he can keep the Sharon going another six years, the venerable troller can celebrate its centennial fishing off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

Paul Molyneaux is the Boats & Gear editor for North Pacifi c Focus and author of “The Doryman’s Reflection.”

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GEAR SHIFTS

NEAR MISS FOR THE WIN A fateful swamping in Bristol Bay led Lowell Stambaugh to design the first Deflector Rudder, now celebrating 20 years of custom craft

By Peter Marsh

32

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

STOTAN IANKOV

I

t’s been 20 years since Lowell Stambaugh created his fi rst highlift flap rudder for his 32-foot gillnetter Spy. He had designed and built the boat at his aluminum boatbuilding operation in Astoria, Ore. That location had originally been known for its traditional wood construction, but Lowell was soon incorporating modern ideas. The Spy was one of the fi rst boats on Bristol Bay to use a wide “gullwing” chine in the hull. He launched more than 50 craft, mainly gillnetters, in 30 years, and by the late 1990s was hoping to expand his product line.

A breakthrough came from a completely unexpected event — the nearloss of the Spy in 1998 — that caused the change of direction in Stambaugh’s career. He was alone on the bay on the north line in the Egegik district when he figured there might be more fish closer to Coffee Point. He made a set in shallow water and was about to start hauling in some sockeye when the wind came up and began blowing the boat toward the shore.

He gunned the motor and tried to turn the boat seaward, but the rudder stalled out. He was driven onto the flats and ran aground in the breakers. The Spy was soon swamped, and Lowell was forced to wade ashore as his boat was submerged by the tide.

He headed east until he found some help, then returned the next morning by truck. He found the boat a mile down the beach and completely

Stotan IanKov, owner of the 100-foot trawler Michelle Renée, and his son Stefan pose with the vessel and its new Deflector Rudder at Dog Bay Boatyard in Kodiak.

“

When I really needed

it to get off the beach, that rudder was totally

”

useless.

— Lowell Stambaugh DEFLECTOR MARINE

wrapped up in the net. He spent the rest of the season salvaging the Spy, drying it out and planning to repair it.

That disastrous outing had taught him

a hard lesson: “When I really needed it to get off the beach, that rudder was totally useless,” he said later from his machine shop. “Sooner or later, every skipper is going to get in a situation where the basic, low-budget rudder will stop working,” he reckoned.

This realization made him appreciate how little attention anyone paid to their rudder, although it is really as important as the propeller or the engine, on which a great deal of money and effort is expended.

“We just attached a flat plate to a shaft and expected it to work like a hydrofoil — that’s simply not logical,” he pointed out. He began researching

ways to build a superior rudder, beginning with various foil cross-sections that have been tested and shown to develop more lift and are standard on the biggest fishing vessels and ships. But it was the high-lift rudder that really inspired him. It is based on a principle discovered by a German engineer in the 1930s and has been used for demanding operations like oil-rig supply and anchor handling. Lowell built his own version of the rudder with a balanced foil-shaped blade and a hinged flap that is operated by a slotted tiller bar and a pivot pin projecting from the stern overhang.

When he tested it on his new boat, the Northern Spy, he found he could keep a straight course in a seaway with just a touch of the helm, and with 10 degrees on the rudder blade, the slotted arm dramatically increased the angle of the flap relative to the blade, creating a powerful foil shape with enough power for an immediate response. By the end of the season, he was convinced that the new rudder design had double the power and delivered a huge improvement in steering in all conditions. He was now ready to set up the shop to manufacture custom flap rudders. In 2000, he had decided to close the boatyard and open a machine shop where he could develop the engineering and manufacture of an entirely new marine product — the Deflector high-lift rudder.

Every Deflector Rudder is custom designed for the boat. The entire rudder is built in-house, with Stambaugh supervising every aspect of the work.

The fi rst time I saw one of his rudders was more than a decade ago on a 64foot steel oyster dredge under construction in Astoria. All these boats have a flat bottom like a barge for working in the shallows over the oyster beds,

The foil cross-section is clearly visible before the skin is welded in place. The flange is strong enough to provide a solid joint with the upper rudder shaft.

which makes them extremely hard to steer. The owner of the new boat clearly realized he needed all the help he could get and the yard had suggested he have Stambaugh build a Deflector rudder to fit the very shallow draft.

His new machine shop is in Washington, across the Columbia River, which meant driving across the Astoria-Megler bridge. I always enjoy the view from the middle of the 4-mile span where it crosses sandbars dotted with old pilings. This is where stables once housed the horses that worked in the historic horse-seining fishery. On the north shore, a mile upstream, a turn onto a gravel road leads up a steep hillside where his workshop is nestled among the trees.

Lowell stopped work to give a tour of the shop, including his collection of heavily-built old lathes and milling machines dating back to World War II. He has spent the last 20 winters designing and building his rudders to fi ll a growing demand for improved steering for fishing vessels from gillnetters to factory trawlers more than 200 feet SUMMER 2019 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

33

GEAR SHIFTS

A Deflector Rudder installed on Global Seas’ trawler Northern Defender has made turning with the gear out so easy, the captain has to be careful not to oversteer.

long. Today, there are more than 200 fishing vessels equipped with Deflector rudders. They cover every type of fishing. Trawlers, which have traditionally struggled to turn while on the gear, have become good customers in the last few years.

Lowell continues to fish Bristol Bay every year, as he has since 1967. He has also exhibited at Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle for many years. His rudder-andhelm display always attracts attention!

There is always someone turning the steering wheel and watching the rudder change shape. At hard over, the flap is angled far more than the blade, almost to 90 degrees, which creates what Lowell calls the “stern-thruster effect.” This sounds impossible until you see it, but the effect is even more surprising when observed from a dock, where I’ve seen a jet of water projecting laterally from under the stern.

Stotan Iankov, a well-known Alaskan fisherman who owns the 100-foot 34

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

trawler F/V Michelle Renee, built in 1990, fitted a Deflector when he had the boat hauled out at the Dog Bay boatyard

in Kodiak in May 2017. With the kit of parts that come with the rudder, they were soon back in the water tendering in Prince William Sound, Captain Iankov reported. He found the boat easily held a straight course and gained 1.5 knots with the forward and center tanks full, and at least 0.5 knots or better fully tanked. When the boat began trawling for pollock in the fall, the skipper reported back.

“The new rudder made fishing a lot easier,” Iankov said. “Fishing strong current, and turning with the gear down is suddenly no concern.” His son was also impressed, saying: “Looking back, we should have done this years ago!”

Factory trawlers with their high windage have a particularly hard time turning on the gear, so many fleet owners like Ocean Peace, U.S. Seafoods and Global Seas are now benefiting from Deflector’s proven system, which has been approved by several classification societies. Global Seas is one of the West Coast’s premier operations and has become a repeat customer, with three of their vessels refitted with Deflectors.

The fi rst was the 174-foot F/V Bering Defender in 2015 — the crew now consider their new rudder essential to the success of their operations. The company then specified a pair of Deflectors for their new flagship, the F/V Defender, which was completely rebuilt at Patti

The 123-foot longliner F/V Flicka’s new Deflector Rudder was engineered and built to RINA (Italian Navy) classification standards.

GEAR SHIFTS Shipyard in Florida in 2016. The third boat is the 148' x 32' F/V Northern Defender (formerly the Morning Star) built by Dakota Creek in Anacortes, Wash.

This hull was clearly underperforming, compared to the two Deflectorequipped boats, said Stan Frech, port engineer for Global Seas. He decided to replace the triple rudder on the Northern Defender with a single Deflector with excellent results. The ship’s captain, Jay Cox of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, reports that with the new articulating rudder, he now has a different boat!

“We now have to be careful not to turn too fast on the gear — even in heavy currents and with a lot of wire out,” Cox said. Around the docks and at slow speed, the boat simply spins in place.”

Another Bering Sea boat, the 123foot F/V Flicka, upgraded to a Deflector rudder when it was converted from a trawler to a RINA-classed longliner

“

We design and build

all our equipment for durability and ease of service to out-maneuver all other steering

”

systems.

— Lowell Stambaugh DEFLECTOR MARINE

at Dakota Creek Shipyard. Inside the shipyard, a mobile crane picked up the heavy rudder and deposited it under the stern of the Flicka, ready for installation.

The owners, Coastal Alaska Premier Seafoods, an Alaska native corporation, also fitted the boat with a modern diesel-electric propulsion system supplied

by Motor-Services Hugo Stamp.

More fishing boats will be fitting Deflectors in 2019, including the twin-engine 116-foot trawler Pacific Challenger, 90-foot trawler Alaska Dawn, and the beautiful wooden Sagstadt, a 58-foot limit seiner for Chris Peterson.

“We design and build all our equipment for durability and ease of service to out-maneuver all other steering systems,” Lowell says. “We utilize features like a heavy flangejoint to connect to the rudder top shaft, removable aft shoe and pintle bearing, and a pre-engineered torque frame to house the actuation cylinders. This also simplifies the initial installation,” he emphasized.

For more information, email designer@deflectormarinerudder.com or call (360) 777-8289.

Peter Marsh is a freelance nautical writer with more than 30 years’ experience. He has lived in Astoria since 2002.

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35

IN FOCUS / KING SALMON

Andrew Nordtvedt, 12, prepares to ice a king salmon aboard the F/V Grebe during the Southeast Alaska summer general troll opening near Ketchikan in early July.

Photo submitted by Tom Nordtvedt

36

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2019

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