Fishermen's News - The Advocate for the Commercial Fisherman

Call it an uneasy truce rather than a treaty. Two days of intense negotiations held between government representatives from the United States and Canada in Portland, Oregon in mid-April failed to... Full story

Despite predictions of a possible “bust” in a twice-delayed season, Oregon’s Dungeness crabbers have landed about 17 million pounds of the official state crustacean since January. In a news... Full story

The 2013 season for one of California’s most lucrative commercial fisheries opened April 1 amid a lingering controversy that erupted late last season. Briana Brady with the California Department of... Full story

Oregon’s commercial fishing industry is alive and well. In fact, 2011 was an outstanding season with the highest landed value – about $148 million – since 1988, according to statistics from the... Full story

In last November’s election, Oregon voters overwhelmingly rejected Measure 81, which would have banned commercial non-tribal gill net fishing on Oregon’s “inland waters” and allowed the use of... Full story

Commercial fishermen and environmentalists don’t often find themselves on the same boat, collaboratively eyeing the horizon. All the same, fishermen realize the need to protect the resource that fee... Full story

The third time proved to be the charm for the opening of the 2012-2013 commercial Dungeness crab season in Oregon and Washington, but whether or not crabbers find the circumstances charming depends... Full story

An ugly primitive sea creature is fetching sort of pretty prices for some Oregon fishermen. With an abundantly available resource and willing buyers, a number of fishermen are cashing in on a... Full story

Another gigantic dock piece beached itself on a remote Pacific Northwest shore on December 18 – an early “Christmas gift” from the earthquake-spawned tsunami that devastated Japan in March... Full story

The commercial Dungeness crab season from Point Arena, California to the Washington-Canada border was put on hold until at least Dec. 15, due to recalcitrant crabs who failed their first two meat quality tests. Officials from the Oregon Department... Full story

By most measures, the North Pacific albacore tuna fishery is thriving. Abundant stocks and environmentally-friendly fishing practices with very little by-catch have earned the albacore fishery off the shores of Washington, Oregon and California... Full story

Information gleaned by NOAA Fisheries Service during the first year of the West Coast trawl fishery’s use of the “catch shares” system, officially known as individual fishing quotas (IFQs), suggests that trawl fishermen are learning to plan... Full story

Hypoxia team keeps watch on coastal waters Spring transition is the time of year when coastal wind patterns switch from winter’s southerly flow to summer’s northerly pattern. The summer pattern favors upwelling, the ocean process that ushers... Full story

Commercial salmon fishermen off the Oregon coast are so far landing considerably more fish this season than they did in 2011 and 2010, but the results, while promising, are far from satisfying for... Full story

Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishermen logged another good year in terms of market value. The season ended August 14th with an estimated harvest of about 14.2 million pounds and to-the-boat value of $42... Full story

Staffers from Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) are venturing into well-charted but controversy-infested waters as they prepare to sail into a rule-making process designed to weigh anchor on Gov. John Kitzhaber’s proposal to reform... Full story