February 7, 2024 — Fire raced across the Ilwaco Landing dock Jan. 22, smoke covering the area like a blanket and destroying 3,700 crab pots next to the Bornstein Seafoods facility. The traps were kept on the dock days before the Dungeness crab dumping day.
It’s critical for fishermen to get their gear in the water on time, as most crabs are caught in the season’s first weeks. The community and other crabbers rallied up and down the West Coast to find replacement gear for the fishermen who lost hundreds of pots. Some groups and businesses set up donations and other assistance to the fishing families affected to ensure fishermen made it out for the season.
Rep. Marie Glusenkamp Perez, D-Wash., who represents southwest Washington in Congress visited the Port of Ilwaco last week to share what support was available to rebuild.
Perez told station KMUN in Astoria “If the government worked half as well as this community does, coming together, we’d be in a much different world.”
Many West Coast fishermen loaned pots for the season to those who lost in the fire. Dungeness pots are upward of $400 new; at that price, it would’ve cost over $1.4 million to replace the total loss.