January 17, 2023 — In an open letter to Caren Braby, the Marine Resources Program manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Dungeness crab fishers from Astoria to Port Orford lambasted the decision made by the Department to delay the opening of the Dungeness crab season along the entire Oregon coast.
The letter alleged that the decision flies in the face of the revised Tri-State Protocol, established to ensure that the Dungeness crab fishery remains sustainable and that the fishing communities of Washington, Oregon, and California continue to capitalize on this economic resource.
The letter, presented by captains Perry Kanury Bordeaux of Newport and Levi Cherry of Garibaldi, and bearing signatures from Dungeness crab permit holders who either own or operate fishing vessels that are 58 feet or less length, outlines in detail the struggles that have been imposed upon them as small vessel owners, upon consumers, and upon both the pelagic and benthic ecosystems by the unnecessary and extensive delay of the Dungeness crab season.
It also calls upon the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to make use of the revisions that allow for partial crab openers on the Oregon coast, revisions which fishers fought hard for, and points to the lack of transparency on the part of the Department in their decisions this season to not implement the accepted protocol.