April 4, 2023 — Mark Newell typically buys and processes a lot of salmon and tuna. But this year, he expects that a lack of salmon fishing off Oregon’s southern coast during the spring and summer seasons could wipe out a major chunk of his income.
Newell, based in Newport and a member of the Oregon Salmon Commission, has been a commercial fisherman since the 1970s and, in the past 15 years, a wholesale seafood buyer and processor. Ocean Beauty in Astoria is one of his accounts.
“It’s a tough deal,” he said. “It’s just tough to have no options.”
He is referring to ocean salmon season alternatives proposed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the entity responsible for setting ocean salmon seasons off the Pacific Coast.
In March, the council unveiled its alternatives for the summer salmon seasons and the picture was bleak.