June 5, 2017 — Positive news about successful local efforts to build and maintain a strong fishing community in Clatsop County jostled with concerns about attracting workers at the first ever Clatsop Commercial Fisheries Tour Wednesday.
The tour, conceived of and hosted by Oregon State University’s Oregon Sea Grant, drew approximately 100 people, introducing them to fishermen working in the county’s Dungeness crab and groundfish fisheries and taking them through seafood plants and boat yards in Astoria.
The overall message was positive. Fishermen, seafood processors and boat builders talked about the sustainability of Oregon’s fisheries, the economic benefit the industry provides to the community as a whole, and the well-paying jobs that still exist on boats and in fish processing plants. “It’s organic, it’s free-range … it’s diet-free, whatever,” joked Scott McMullen, of the Oregon Fishermen’s Cable Committee, about rockfish and how certain stocks like canary rockfish have recently been delisted.
Some troubles
But concerns crept in, too.
For example, a species like canary rockfish has been off-limits and off the market for so long on the West Coast that fishermen are “fighting to get back into the shelf space,” McMullen said. While they were absent, other markets and countries filled the void.
Managers at Da Yang Seafood and processing giant Pacific Coast Seafood talked about the difficulty of recruiting labor to the area. People don’t seem to understand that processing jobs can be well-paid, they said. Pacific Coast Seafood has started to recruit farther afield and made do with fewer employees, while Da Yang has looked into automation. The lack of affordable, short-term rental housing options for seasonal workers complicates hiring, too, they say.