Changing Ocean, Changing Lives
A Story of an Oregon Fisherman
To the sound of his alarm, Alex wakes before the sun has risen. He shuffles to the kitchen to pour coffee into his favorite ceramic mug that consists of the browns, greens, and blues of the Oregon coast. He checks the weather forecast from the coast guard on his phone. The skies look clear, but the waves are larger than he wants them to be. His phone rings and it’s one his crewmembers. It's the first day of crabbing season.
Alex is a crab fisher like his father was. His father bought a commercial fishing boat and started the family crabbing business in the 1980s. Born and raised in Newport, Oregon, Alex started working on his dad’s boat when he was just fourteen years old. His most vivid and favorite memories are on the boat and out at sea.
He feels as though he was made to be a fisher and it’s all he wants to do. Actually, he often thinks about how fishing is the only thing he’s really qualified to do. Crab boats and gear are expensive and usually the kind of thing that gets passed down among family members.
Alex chose to carry on his family’s tradition, and despite the dangers, deep down Alex doesn’t know how he would provide for his daughter if not for fishing crabs. It’s what he knows and loves.
Photo by drburtoni.
Commercial crab fishing off the Oregon coast is one of the most dangerous occupations in the U.S. Crabbing season occurs during the winter months when winter storms can change ocean conditions in the span of a few hours.
Not only can larger waves capsize the fishing boats, but the boats and crews cannot seek refuge behind small islands like they can with king crab fishing in the Bering Sea in Alaska. Oregon crab fishers are out in the open ocean.
In Newport, Oregon, fishing boats have to navigate out through what is known as the bar. The bar is a passageway connecting Yaquina Bay to the Pacific Ocean bounded by two jetties that serve as buffers from the ocean waves.
Photo by OVCA.
However, underneath the surface, water from the bay flows out and collides with ocean currents flowing in, creating monstrous waves that can exceed 30 feet. These unpredictable waves have flipped boats and claimed lives.
Photo by Coast Guard News.
But there is something that worries Alex even more than the dangers of crab fishing in Oregon.
Nervous for the start of the season, Alex shutters as he thinks back to this time a year ago. As waves were crashing violently on to the sides of his boat in the stormy weather, crab pot after crab pot was coming up empty. “It’s not looking good!” one crewmember, Sandra, shouted up to the captain’s deck, squinty eyed from bracing the salty ocean water and wind stinging her face. Alex and his crew barely caught any Dungeness crabs on opening day last season, and this set the tone for the rest of the season. He is fearful of experiencing a season like that again.
Photo by Oregon Sea Grant.
Last season wasn’t the only season he has noticed changes in crab abundance and ocean life in general. “Captain, come look at this,” said one of Alex’s crewmembers a few years prior. Alex climbed down from the captain’s deck and saw what he would never forget. “Look, they’re all dead.” When the crewmembers pulled up a crab pot they had set a few days prior and began their normal routine of sorting the crabs, they noticed none of the crabs were moving.
Photo by Aaron Hockley .
When he returned home later that evening, Alex started researching what could have caused the crabs to die.
He soon realized he was witnessing an ecological disaster firsthand.
Alex learned that due to climate change the oceans have been getting warmer over time which causes plants like algae to bloom in the water.
When these plants eventually die, they suck up oxygen—oxygen that crabs and their food sources need. The scientific term for these low oxygen conditions is hypoxia.
Alex realized that hypoxia in the ocean would cause crabs to move around, searching for oxygen. This would explain why sometimes his crab pots come up empty. Alex recalls that his dad could always catch crabs, anywhere. But now their survival range is spotty, and changes every day.
This would also explain why the crabs were dead in their pots—they suffocated.
Alex figured this out years ago and it’s only gotten worse.
He constantly worries about catching enough crabs to not only provide for him and his daughter, but also the crew he employs.
Today, there are less birds that hint at where crabs may be located. Some pots come up empty. Some come up dead. He never remembers his dad experiencing anything like this. He feels like his heart is getting torn out as he worries about providing for his daughter and if she will get to experience the Pacific Ocean like he was able to. Alex worries people that aren't directly impacted by climate change effects like hypoxia won't care enough to call for change.
It’s a fear Alex can’t put into words.
Photo by author.
