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11/27/14

Ah, adventure on the high seas, the salt wind tugging at your hair, dampening your ascot. You walk breezily up the gangway, your next port of call ... the Caribbean? The South Seas? Eureka?

Humboldt County may seem unlikely competition to tropical climes, but some folks think that Eureka is poised to become a big cruise ship destination in the coming years.

The charge is being led by outgoing City Councilman Chet Albin, who recently garnered financial support from the Harbor District, city of Eureka and county government to woo cruise ship captains into Humboldt Bay.

That's a bit of a gamble, especially for two small governments who both recently called on voters to increase taxes to fund fire, police and other services. Eureka also has no dedicated dock to house the giant ocean liners. The cruise industry itself has been through rough waters lately, with onboard illnesses routinely in the media. And there are some concerned about environmental impacts of bringing cruise liners into Humboldt Bay. But, with one berth already scheduled for 2017 and growing community support, there's a decent chance Old Town could be crawling with cruisers by the end of the decade.

Cruises, for anyone who's unfamiliar, are complex trips, far more involved than walking onto a boat and drinking and eating for five days. Captains sail at night, pull into harbors around 6 a.m. and offload the 700 to 2,000 passengers typically on board (those numbers vary on the size of the boat). About 20 percent of cruisers stay on the boat at any given stop, says Albin. Another 20 percent go on pre-arranged "excursions" — tours, adventures, tastings or other highlights of the town that are conducted by local businesses who contract with the cruise line. The remaining 60 percent typically wander around shops and restaurants in town until, around 6 p.m., everyone's herded back onto the boat and the ship embarks for the next locale. It's a whirlwind.

Cruising is a $44-billion-a-year industry in the U.S. alone, according to a trade organization, and California cruising had a huge upswing in popularity in the 1990s. The late 2000s and early 2010s saw a decline in the industry, though the trade association showed that the industry expanded in 2013. The public perception of cruising — 700 people fell ill on ships in January of this year and another 170 were diagnosed with norovirus aboard one of the same ships this month — soured, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Coordinating local infrastructure for cruise ships, as well as developing the cruise lines' interest in Eureka, is falling squarely on the shoulders of Bruce Conner, the vice president of Cruise the West, a partnership of West Coast cities ranging from Ensenada, Mexico, to Victoria, British Columbia plus Hawaii united to bring in that sweet cruise ship money.

Eureka, the county and the harbor district paid a combined $30,000 to hire Conner to lobby cruise lines and to enroll Eureka in Cruise the West. It's unclear exactly how far that $30,000 carries Eureka — Astoria, Oregon's port pays $5,000 per year to be a member of Cruise the West according to the Daily Astorian. Conner's based out of Astoria, which he and other proponents point to as a cruise success story. The tiny town at the mouth of the Columbia River is only about a third the size of Eureka but hosted 16 cruise ships — and approximately 30,000 people — this year. Even more are scheduled for the next two years.

By Albin's estimate — and keep in mind he's promoting the hell out of the thing — each cruise ship brings in $150,000 to $300,000 in tourist spending, dockage fees, longshoreman fees and other cash.

But Astoria's been in the cruise ship game for 30 years, according to an article in the Oregonian. With a $10 million investment in the city's pier, and an army of volunteer "cruise hosts," the town is well equipped to handle big boats.

Eureka has no such infrastructure, which puts the city in a bit of a chicken-egg scenario. Albin says the city's Dock B, west of the balloon track, would be ideal for cruise ships, but it'll need millions of dollars of improvements to handle them. The Samoa Pulp Mill's dock is in great shape — but it's across the bay from town and shuttling people would be complicated and expensive. An agreement has been forged with the owners of the Schneider Dock (a bit south of Dock B), allowing Conner to start booking ships, but that dock is still used to ship timber and isn't available all the time.

But Albin and others are convinced that if they can get a few ships into Eureka — and prove this is a desirable area to tourists and thusly cruise directors — the infrastructure will fall into place. Not to mention that it introduces tourists to Eureka without subjecting them to the South Broadway corridor — a constant source of consternation for some of Eureka's business community.

"Proving that we can provide this for the cruise lines gives us a better chance of getting $5 million or $10 million — whatever it costs to get Dock B revitalized," Albin said.

Jack Crider, the CEO of the Harbor District, came to Humboldt Bay from Astoria in 2012 and praised Conner's work there. Despite "tremendous competition," Crider said the cruise industry is always looking for another stop.

Conner is hard at work selling Eureka. Before the Eureka City Council on Nov. 18, he said he's been promoting the area to cruise bigwigs and ship captains.

"I just use one word," he told the council. "Redwoods."

Actually, he went on, Eureka has more than that, which is why the Cruise the West board unanimously felt that Eureka was an ideal addition to the West Coast itinerary. The deep water, proximity to the ocean and opportunities for tourists should, Conner said, draw in ships that transition from southern waters in the winter to Alaskan tours in the summer. Eureka will be an ideal place in spring and fall for those ships to "reposition." Meanwhile, he said, American cruisers have been abandoning Mexico trips over fears of danger and bad press about swine flu — increasing the popularity of West Coast trips.

Eureka has more excursions opportunities than Astoria, Crider said, and it'll be easier to dock here than Catalina.

But some are concerned about the environmental impacts of the ships. "Historically cruise ships have a pretty terrible track record for doing the right thing environmentally," said Jennifer Savage, coastal programs director for the Northcoast Environmental Center. [Savage is also the Journal's music columnist and a contributor].

Cruise ships produce massive amounts of sewage — 150,000 gallons for a 3,000-person ship at sea for a week, according to Savage. In 2012, federal law made it illegal to dump untreated sewage into the ocean in California's marine waters, which extend 3 miles off shore. (One industry association asks that its member companies voluntarily don't discharge untreated water). On top of that there's bilge water, gray water and tons of solid waste.

While enforcement is tricky, "it's unlikely they're going to come into Humboldt Bay and discharge illegally," Savage said, but added that it's important to try and lure cruise lines that rate well on environmental issues. (Friends of the Earth produces a yearly "Cruise Report Card" which rates lines and ships by sewage treatment, air pollution reduction and water quality compliance.)

Air emissions regulations are scant, though, and according to Outside, the fuel typically used to power cruise ships is dirtier than truck diesel. Savage said that could have a more direct effect on North Coast residents, as cruise ships typically run their engines even when in port to produce electricity.

"It's only been in recent years that [cruise lines] have been forced to be accountable," Savage said. "I would hope that the county and the harbor district would take a very careful look at what they're encouraging."

The week of Conner's city council presentation, he was in town to meet with local vendors and seek out ideas for excursions. He's already putting together a package to pitch to cruise ships: oyster tours, beer tours, Founders Grove, Trees of Mystery, a movies-shot-in-Humboldt tour. He's looking into how to provide security and transportation as well — there's a great deal of coordination, crowd control and screening.

John Prince, the Eureka port director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said his office won't be terribly impacted, because most cruise ships will be coming from at least one domestic port before they reach Eureka. "If there is a direct foreign ship — in other words one from Canada or Mexico — then it's going to have a major impact for my office."

Prince said organizers understand this — and even if they do book a foreign ship, it's usually done with years of advance notice.

Finally, Conner said he's begun to talk with local merchants and residents about starting a volunteer cruise host program — ushers, of sorts, to greet and direct the cruisers that disembark but don't go on excursions.

With itineraries planned years in advance, we're unlikely to see anything before 2016, but Crider, Conner and Albin all admit that there's still much work to be done before the first cruise ship can land.

It's clearly not only Albin's passion, but his attempt at a legacy. Appointed to the city council in December 2013, he was defeated in November by Natalie Arroyo who will take the seat in January. Albin recalled that a friend told him he had two choices when he took the council seat.

"You can be a toggle switch," he said his friend told him, doing homework on items that come before the council and voting appropriately. "The other thing you can do is try and make something happen."

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11/28/14



While last year’s crab season got off to a rocky start due to contentious price negotiations, North Coast fishermen this year will instead have to worry about rough seas and another year of low hauls.



The commercial Dungeness crab season north of the Sonoma-Mendocino county border starts Dec. 1, with crabbers getting a head start to lay down their pots today.



Local crab fisherman Paul Pellegrini was on his fishing vessel on the way back to the North Coast on Wednesday morning traveling from the Central Coast, where most of the crabs had already been “licked up” after the commercial season started earlier this month.



Down in the San Francisco area, crabbers and wholesalers had agreed to a $3 per pound price, with fishermen and stakeholders from Oregon, Washington and Northern California agreeing earlier this week to a $3.10 per pound rate. 


“They have the crystal ball,” Pellegrini said. “They go sit down for a couple of days and discuss it. They came out of the negotiations the first day with a $3.10 deal. I know if they tried to get more we’d have got more, but they didn’t try. ... I’m not going to complain about a $3 price, but I still think there was more on the table.”

Last year, the price negotiations were choppy due to preseason testing in Oregon and Washington finding that crabs did not meet the minimum size requirements for allowed take, thus delaying the season by about two weeks in those areas.

California’s North Coast crabs had passed the test, but fishermen and wholesalers in the region were left with the duty of negotiating a price themselves — a task usually left in the hands of stakeholders at the yearly Oregon meeting. With wholesalers wanting a $2.50 per pound rate and crabbers finding $3 to be more reasonable, they finally settled on $2.65 per pound.

Fortunately this year, the crabs meet the size threshold along the northwestern U.S. — but the catch this year is still expected to be low.

“It’s going to be a down year,” Eureka’s Pacific Seafood General Manager Rick Harris said. “What I think is, some areas will produce some crabs and some areas will be extremely poor.”

Harris said that the catch availability normally fluctuates with peak years — a recent one being the 2012-2013 season with about 16.7 million pounds being caught in California’s northern management area — followed by years with emptier pots, according to data from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

California’s northern management area yielded only 6.7 million pounds last year.

“I’m afraid we’re in that really bad time,” Harris said.

The $3.10 crabber to wholesaler price is likely to translate to a $6 to $7 per pound rate for shoppers at the North Coast Co-op in Eureka, according to the store’s meat department Manager Casey Tingle.

“We’re definitely trying to keep our retail on the local stuff on a hot price so we can actually get some moved,” he said.

Sporting crabbers were able to begin their season on Nov. 15 along with commercial crabbers in the Central Coast region. Once Dec. 1 rolls in, Pellegrini said the large fishing fleets will scoop up this year’s harvest with the majority of the catch being taken in during the first week.

The weather is expected to be rainy along the North Coast over the weekend and into Monday, with waves forecast to be steeper on Monday, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Garcia.

“All three days — Saturday, Sunday and all the way into opening day there — it’s looking right now that it’s gonna be wet,” he said.

Garcia said crabbers will likely only get rolling waves while setting their pots today, but opening day will be different.

“For probably a good sixhour period, we’ll probably see seas ranging anywhere from 8 to 10 feet near the coast and probably 10 to 12 feet off the coast about 5 to 10 miles,” he said. “Right up the coast, probably more in the 7-to 9-foot range and they’ll be steep, bumpy seas. After we get through the morning hours and get into the afternoon and evening hours, the seas will start shifting down again.”

For Pellegrini, he’s more concerned about the size of the catch.

“Rain or shine doesn’t matter,” he said. “We fish 24 hours a day, and that’s not a problem. We may not work 24 hours a day depending what’s in our gear.”

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11/26/14

Since last week’s focus on the environmental problems surrounding homeless encampments on Humboldt Bay, several people have reached out to Humboldt Baykeeper and the Northcoast Environmental Center requesting more attention be paid to this issue.



We all are concerned, of course, about the impacts to Humboldt Bay and coastal wetlands from these camps, as well as from illegal dumping, but must note the the water quality impacts are just one aspect of a much larger social problem, not just in Eureka but in many communities all over the United States. Forcibly moving people along to the next campsite is a temporary and harsh “fix” that ignores the mental health, addiction and income inequity factors that often lead to homelessness.



Given that any successful long-term solution must resolve the lack of services for people in need, we strongly suggest that you contact your elected representatives in Eureka and on the County Board of Supervisors. They need to hear these concerns from their constituents as well as from environmental advocates and be aware we want action.

• In the short-term, here are the numbers to call to report water pollution:
• Polluters that are impacting fish and wildlife habitat – CALTIP, 888-334-2258
• Illegal dumping – Humboldt County Environmental Health, 445-6215  
• Stormwater pollution (e.g. spills into storm drains) – Northcoast Stormwater Coalition Hotline: 1-877-NCSC-001
• Navigational hazards/spills in marinas/sunken boats – U.S. Coast Guard, 839-6123 (emergency search and rescue calls: 839-6100), Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District, 443-0801

In the meantime, the PacOut Green Team not only cleaned up Trinidad’s Scenic Drive last Saturday, but followed up at the foot of Del Norte Street. Leader Aaron Ostrom reports:

We noticed that no action had been taken to clean up that place yet. We were surprised, considering all the press that area has been getting lately. We talked to a lot of the people that lived out there and they were willing to bag up their garbage if they were provided trash bags… After 60 minutes we packed out over 3,000 lbs. of trash.

And, once again, as I write YWIO, news comes in that police action is happening in the area…

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Tech can help monitor oyster industry health 



11/23/14



A new research tool launched this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is allowing scientists to better track changes in ocean chemistry along the U.S. West Coast.



The tool provides real-time ocean acidification data along the coast and in some protected bays. It captures data from a couple dozen sensors installed at shellfish farms and hatcheries and other monitoring sites in Oregon, Washington, California, Alaska and Hawaii.



University of Washington oceanographer Jan Newton, who led the collaborative effort, said the information can help shellfish growers make crucial decisions about when and how to grow shellfish.



“That’s a really big thing, to enable shellfish growers to have better information so they can adapt to ocean acidification,” Newton said Friday.



The website data tool also serves as an early warning system about ocean acidification. Acidification is caused when oceans absorb carbon-dioxide emissions, mostly from the atmosphere. Research has shown souring seas have damaged certain marine organisms such as oysters and corals.



Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation & Conservation District Commissioner and Coast Seafoods Operations Manager Greg Dale said the monitoring of ocean acidification is particularly important for oyster hatcheries. Larval oysters in the hatcheries and in the wild absorb calcium carbonate — the most common being in the form of calcite and aragonite — to build their shells, but an increase in acidification reduces the saturation of these crucial compounds in the water.



“(Aragonite) is the easiest one to get out of the water, but it is one the most susceptible to any change in ocean pH,” Dale said. “With a lower pH, meaning it’s more acidic, it’s more difficult to accumulate that aragonite. They need to expend more energy or may not be able to at certain levels of pH. As the pH drops, it becomes less available to them to build shells.”

Other devices have been invented to gauge the effects of ocean acidification, including one known as the Beta Burkelator, named after Dr. Burke Hales of Oregon State University. The Burkelator measures for the concentration of aragonite in the water.

Humboldt Bay currently has a Burkelator, but no oyster hatcheries, Dale said.

“They look like a Rube Goldberg device or something out of NASA. They are extremely sensitive,” he said. “They have to have water pumped through them continuously. We have one for Humboldt Bay. The problem is we don’t have a hatchery here. Not yet. Currently Hog Island Oyster Co. is building a hatchery here. ... We didn’t a want to miss the opportunity to get this piece of equipment.”

Federal, tribal and state governments, private companies, nonprofit organizations and others have combined forces to monitor ocean acidification.

The data will come from a number of sensors installed at sites, including the Seattle Aquarium, the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery in Alaska, Hog Island Oyster Co. in Central California and the Whiskey Creek Shellfish hatchery in Oregon.

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