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OREGON: Oregon’s fishing industry faces demand challenges at home and trade barriers abroad

June 4, 2025 — Newport’s Local Ocean restaurant is the kind of place where you might have lunch next to the fisherman who caught it.

That’s according to Laura Anderson, co-founder of the more than 20-year-old restaurant.

“Creating market opportunity for fishers and showcasing local species were really what drove the founding of the restaurant,” Anderson said over a tuna wrap with fries on a recent Friday afternoon.

The tuna in her wrap comes directly from Oregon fishers, Anderson said. Local Ocean has built its business around buying as much fish as it can directly from Newport’s fleet of commercial fishing boats.

That makes Local Ocean an anomaly. The majority of seafood sold at restaurants on the Oregon coast doesn’t come from Oregon, according to a 2023 report commissioned by the Oregon Coast Visitors Association. Meanwhile, most fish from Oregon’s commercial fleet are exported to foreign markets.

Although restaurants like Local Ocean are working to convince diners that locally-sourced fish is delicious and easy to incorporate into most meals, on the whole, Americans don’t choose fish as their daily protein source. By contrast, fish is the number one protein source in most Asian countries, where it is regularly included in daily meals. The lack of fish consumption here makes access to foreign markets especially important for fishers.

That was the challenging market environment facing Oregon’s fishing industry before President Donald Trump made two major moves during the first few months of his second term: cuts to the federal workforce and tariffs that are causing foreign buyers to retaliate against U.S. sellers.

On Wednesday, the International Trade Court ruled the bulk of Trump’s tariffs illegal after Oregon and 11 other states sued the administration over the import taxes. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals froze that decision as it considers the administration’s appeal. Many economists say the back and forth on tariffs have already done lasting damage to U.S. industries.

“Fishing and having a life in the fishing industry is chaotic,” Heather Mann, executive director of Newport-based Midwater Trawlers Cooperative, said. “There’s ups and downs for all variety of reasons from season to season, year to year. So a lot of people will say, ‘Oh my gosh, the tariffs. The tariffs, how is that impacting you?’ And my response right now is, in terms of seafood and exporting seafood, we’re uncertain. We don’t know.”

Federal officials key to facilitating Oregon fishing industry

The fishing industry, like many others, relies on global trade. Oregon exported nearly $50 million worth of seafood to global markets last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Division accessed via wisertrade.org.

In the same period of time, $102 million worth of imported seafood flowed through Oregon. Some of it ended up on plates in coastal restaurants, some of it went to Oregon grocery stores, and a lot of it was ultimately shipped to other states for consumption.

Mann’s organization is a nonprofit trade group representing more than 30 vessels that fish on the Pacific Ocean. She’s been at the helm for just over a dozen years. Mann said the current back-and-forth on tariffs creates market uncertainty.

However, people who make a living pulling fish out of the ocean have contended with numerous challenges in recent years, from tariffs and other global trade disruptions to wars, the pandemic and natural disasters.

In the immediate term, Mann said fishers need three things to do their job: independent scientific surveys that measure the health of a fishery; stock assessments that take that information to help determine where, when and how much it’s ok to fish of a certain species; and trained workers to complete those tasks on an ongoing basis.

“Without those three things,” Mann said, “exporting fish doesn’t matter because we won’t be able to fish.”

Read the full article at KLCC

OREGON: Oregon’s fishing industry faces demand challenges at home and trade barriers abroad

May 30, 2025 — Newport’s Local Ocean restaurant is the kind of place where you might have lunch next to the fisherman who caught it.

That’s according to Laura Anderson, co-founder of the more than 20-year-old restaurant.

“Creating market opportunity for fishers and showcasing local species were really what drove the founding of the restaurant,” Anderson said over a tuna wrap with fries on a recent Friday afternoon.

The tuna in her wrap comes directly from Oregon fishers, Anderson said. Local Ocean has built its business around buying as much fish as it can directly from Newport’s fleet of commercial fishing boats.

That makes Local Ocean an anomaly. The majority of seafood sold at restaurants on the Oregon coast doesn’t come from Oregon, according to a 2023 report commissioned by the Oregon Coast Visitors Association. Meanwhile, most fish from Oregon’s commercial fleet are exported to foreign markets.

Although restaurants like Local Ocean are working to convince diners that locally-sourced fish is delicious and easy to incorporate into most meals, on the whole, Americans don’t choose fish as their daily protein source. By contrast, fish is the number one protein source in most Asian countries, where it is regularly included in daily meals. The lack of fish consumption here makes access to foreign markets especially important for fishers.

That was the challenging market environment facing Oregon’s fishing industry before President Donald Trump made two major moves during the first few months of his second term: cuts to the federal workforce and tariffs that are causing foreign buyers to retaliate against U.S. sellers.

On Wednesday, the International Trade Court ruled the bulk of Trump’s tariffs illegal after Oregon and 11 other states sued the administration over the import taxes. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals froze that decision as it considers the administration’s appeal. Many economists say the back and forth on tariffs have already done lasting damage to U.S. industries.

“Fishing and having a life in the fishing industry is chaotic,” Heather Mann, executive director of Newport-based Midwater Trawlers Cooperative, said. “There’s ups and downs for all variety of reasons from season to season, year to year. So a lot of people will say, ‘Oh my gosh, the tariffs. The tariffs, how is that impacting you?’ And my response right now is, in terms of seafood and exporting seafood, we’re uncertain. We don’t know.”

Read the full article at OPB

Navy to build $146.7 million NOAA marine operations center in Rhode Island

December 6, 2023 — The U.S. Navy awarded a $146.7 million contract to New York-based Skanska USA to design and build a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric base on Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island, with plans for the facility to eventually be homeport for NOAA’s Marine Operations Center – Atlantic. 

Design details are still being finalized, according to a brief prepared statement issued by NOAA late Tuesday. requirements include having a pier that will accommodate four large vessels, a floating dock for smaller vessels, space for vessel repairs and parking and a building to be used for shoreside support and as a warehouse. Construction is anticipated to be completed by 2027. 

Design and construction of the NOAA port will be “funded in part by the Inflation Reduction Act — a historic $3.3 billion investment to help communities, including tribes and vulnerable populations, prepare, adapt and build resilience to weather and climate events in pursuit of a climate-ready nation,” according to the agency. “The act also supports improvements to weather and climate data and services, and strengthens NOAA’s fleet of research airplanes and ships.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman 

Newport, Block Island preservation groups seek relief from wind farms’ anticipated ‘adverse effects’

December 2, 2023 — The Newport Cliff Walk, meandering 3½ miles along the Rhode Island coast, draws more than 1.2 million visitors each year, according to the city of Newport. This scenic trail links the city’s Gilded Age mansions on one side, and on the other, seafaring ships gracefully navigate rows of tall whitecaps.

The spot is perfect for unforgettable snapshots, but those memories could soon include clusters of offshore wind turbines.

On Nov. 22, Cultural Heritage Partners filed four separate federal complaints alleging that the industrialization of the ocean near Newport and Block Island could cost the communities billions of dollars in lost tourism revenue during the wind farms’ 30-year project life.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

Protecting Newport’s Gilded Age mansions takes a new turn: Suing the feds.

December 2, 2023 — Trudy Coxe relentlessly pursued funding to preserve Newport’s acclaimed mansions. She helped bring the city’s “Gilded Age” icons before a national TV audience through the HBO series by the same name.

Now, she’s turning that single-minded focus to protecting Newport’s cultural and historic identity, including its iconic landmarks, against the perceived threat of offshore wind.

The  25-year leader of the Preservation Society of Newport County is defending the decision to wage a court battle against the federal agency that approved offshore wind farms off Rhode Island’s coastline.

“I would think people would be lauding us for stepping forward,” she said in an interview on Tuesday. “We are the only entity that has stepped forward and said, ‘the law is the law and we should follow the law.’ I can’t believe there isn’t general respect for that.”

The appeal filed the day before Thanksgiving in federal court in the District of Columbia alleges that Newport’s historic coastal landmarks will be ruined by the silhouettes of hundreds of skyscraper-size turbines off the coastline. The lawsuit, along with a nearly identical complaint filed separately by the Southeast Lighthouse Foundation of Block Island, argues that the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) broke federal laws in approving wind farms without properly accounting for or mitigating against the harms to historic sites. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and the U.S. Department of the Interior are also named as defendants.

Read the full article at Whats Ups Newp

Plans to move NOAA hub to Newport are being finalized, Reed says

March 19, 2023 — The federal government is “finalizing plans” to move a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration marine operations center from Virginia to Naval Station Newport, according to US Senator Jack Reed.

Reed said the move from Norfolk, Va., to Newport would mean a $150 million federal investment and 200 jobs in Rhode Island.

“This is a major win for Rhode Island and our Blue Economy that will help NOAA improve mission fulfillment while achieving savings through consolidation and enhancing collaboration with the Navy, URI, the Coast Guard, and leading ocean scientists and marine businesses,” Reed, a Democrat, said in a news release Wednesday touting the development, as well as his role in it.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

Catching Crabs in a Suffocating Sea

March 7, 2022 — The crab pots are piled high at the fishing docks in Newport, Oregon. Stacks of tire-sized cages fill the parking lot, festooned with colorful buoys and grimy ropes. By this time in July, most commercial fishers have called it a year for Dungeness crab. But not Dave Bailey, the skipper of the 14-meter Morningstar II. The season won’t end for another month, and “demand for fresh, live crab never stops,” Bailey says with a squinting smile and fading Midwestern accent.

Most marine animals don’t breathe air, but they need oxygen to live, absorbing it from the water as they swim, burrow, or cling to the seafloor. But lately, bouts of dangerously low oxygen levels—or hypoxia—have afflicted parts of the North American west coast, affecting critters from halibut to sea stars. These “dead zones” cause ecological disruption and economic pain for fishers like Bailey, who can’t sell crabs that have suffocated in their traps.

The phenomenon offers a preview of what climate change holds for many other parts of Earth’s oceans, which are already stressed by human impacts. As seawater warms, it holds less oxygen. Warmer surface water also acts like a cap that prevents the gas from mixing from the atmosphere down into the deep. And rising air temperatures can shift weather patterns in ways that worsen the problem.

It’s a subtle but significant change. While well-oxygenated water contains about eight milligrams of oxygen per liter, hypoxic water holds less than two and can sometimes approach zero. Overall, the world’s oceans have lost up to two percent of their total oxygen content over the last 50 years, and scientists estimate that they could lose another two to four percent over the next century. By 2100, some amount of climate-related oxygen loss could affect more than three-quarters of the ocean’s area, inflicting widespread damage to marine ecosystems and the billions of people who depend on them.

Read the full story at Hakai Magazine

OREGON: Pacific Seafood donates to Newport water fund

July 23, 2021 — Pacific Seafood has donated more than $240,000 to assist the city of Newport in its efforts to maintain, upgrade and address its aging water infrastructure. The donation will help the city to safely address the water needs of local residents and businesses.

“As a result of a corrected billing error, Pacific Seafood has agreed to forgive over $240,000 in overcharges,” said Newport City Manager Spencer Nebel. “Pacific Seafood’s generous action comes at a critical time for the city’s water fund. The city of Newport has several major projects that are in need of immediate attention in order to ensure that city residents continue to have uninterrupted access to water service.” Nebel added, “Pacific Seafood’s donation to the water fund is greatly appreciated, and we thank them for their continued partnership with the city.”

Read the full story at the News Times

Coast Guard medevacs man from fishing vessel near Newport, OR

July 22, 2021 — A Coast Guard aircrew medevaced a man Monday afternoon from a 40-foot commercial fishing vessel after suffering a medical emergency 5 miles west of Newport.

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector North Bend command center received a call from the vessel operator at 1:15 p.m., who reported that a 70-year-old male aboard had had passed out and lost consciousness.

An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Sector North Bend, already airborne conducting training in the area, diverted to the scene.

Read the full story at The News Guard

OREGON: Newport restores water to commercial users

July 9, 2020 — “The good news is, we’re up and running again in Newport,” said Lori Steele, executive director of West Coast Seafood Processors. “It’s really good news.”

As part of the city of Newport’s declared water emergency, production at fish processing plants on the Bayfront had been halted. This action was taken because the city could not supply its industrial users with water, due to the unexpected fouling of membrane filters at the city’s water treatment plant.

“There were concerns that we were going to shut down longer than just through the holiday weekend,” Steele told the News-Times early Tuesday afternoon. “There were financial losses and disruption in the fishing community when this happened, but we got though it.”

Read the full story at the Newport News Times

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