Steve Wilson, a fisherman of the area, failed to find any salmon in the area recently as the population of salmon has been collapsed. He said this is what we called a developmental fishery. According either the fishermen go broke sitting still or they could go broke working. It is fact that most of Oregon and California’s commercial salmon fishery have been shut down because of sharp declines in the number of the fish returning to the Sacramento River to spawn.
Wilson told that now fishermen are looking for almost any alternative, trying to diversify along with the rest of the regional economy. In some cases, they are investing money they received from the federal government because of a partial shutdown of salmon fishing in 2006. Wilson informed that now the fishermen are thinking to take tourism and retirees as important as fishing and logging once were on the Oregon coast, even here on the remote and misty southwestern shore.
Les Cohen, head of the Chamber of Commerce in Brookings, just north of the California border, told that the region had been successful at drawing a mix of retirees, owners of recreation vehicles and eco-tourists. According to him the shutdown in recreational salmon fishing has hurt marine supply shops, charter boats, hotels and restaurants that cater to fishing tourists.
The woes of fishermen increased when the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is proposing to raise the cost of commercial fishing licenses, to $350 from $200. Fisherman Paul Merz said it has become more difficult them to carry on fishing in such environment.
