(Note: Not a word was quoted from Glen Spain or Zeke Grader. Thought they'd be right in the middle of this one if they represent all the commercial fisherman up and down the Pacific Coast.)

June 22, 2002

By WENDY OWEN, MATT SABO and JONATHAN NELSON wowennews@aol.com  541-751-0516

Dennis Cutting tossed the newspaper article onto his desk and scoffed.

It was the first the commercial fisherman had heard about the Pacific Fisheries Management Council's decision to move up sharp cutbacks in ocean fishing to September. Everyone thought the restrictions would start next year.

Cutting was in his office near the Charleston marina west of Coos Bay because he has stopped fishing for sole and black cod in the summer. He said the catch is so restricted it doesn't pay. He was planning to go back to sea this winter.

"They've taken and taken and taken," he said, almost yelling.

The council voted Thursday to prohibit commercial trawling -- the dragging of nets along the ocean bottom -- for groundfish from waters 600 feet deep to 1,500 feet deep off the coasts of Oregon and Washington. The restriction closes the majority of the continental shelf beginning Sept. 1.

"There's going to be a thinning of the fleet," said Russ Crabtree, Brookings-Harbor Port director. "It's gotten to the point where we're seeing the degradation of families."

He said he's seen fishermen who once had annual incomes of $80,000 now trying to survive on $15,000 a year. Crabtree said they are still fishing because they don't know anything else.

Cutting owns three trawlers, which he docks at Charleston. He's been a commercial fisherman for 45 years.

Many fishermen hadn't heard the news Friday. Most had left for the sea at midnight the day before, but a few remained in ports up and down the coast.

Those who talked seemed resigned to their fate. They didn't pound their fists or yell. They've watched for years as the federal government set quotas and cut catches. They know there is little they can do to fight it.

"All these rules and regulations are just going to break everybody," said Paul Poindexter, who works on the 43-foot Atka in Newport. "There's no sense in fishing anymore."

In Warrenton, near Astoria, a half dozen trawlers sat tied to the dock like athletes sitting on the bench waiting to be called into the game. But they remained idle.

"It stinks," said David Arbuckle, about the federal decision.

Arbuckle works aboard the 73-foot Master Charge, one of the trawlers in Warrenton's port Friday.

The boat's owner, Milton Gruhlkey, said he and other captains he had spoken with were shocked at the closure.

Gruhlkey has watched his livelihood disappear over the last 25 years. At age 55, he has taken over running the boat with a single crewman. He once paid a crew to fish for him and planned to hand down the boat to his sons.

"I don't know what the future's got to hold," he said.

What frustrates many commercial fisherman is what they say is flawed science that drives the regulations.

It has become the fisherman's mantra up and down the coast. "The numbers are wrong," they say. "There are more fish than the scientists report."

"Counting fish is just like counting trees, except you can't see them and they move," said Bob Eder, a Newport trawl fisherman.

Newport is home to the largest trawler fleet in Oregon. About 58 groundfishing vessels dock there, but that's 23 fewer than two years ago.

"We're all nervous," Eder said. "It's an industry that's full of opportunity . . . but now, the doors are slamming shut. We'll adapt the best we can."

Cutting offered a sarcastic solution.

"National Marine Fisheries should give us their budget," he said.

He said the millions of dollars spent on studies could be used to buy out all the fisherman on the West Coast, putting the federal agency out of business. Cutting said then federal employees would be looking for jobs instead of the fishermen.

He calmed as he talked out his frustrations. By the end of the conversation, he was sitting back in his chair with a look somewhere between resignation and sadness as the latest hit to his livelihood sunk in.

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