Interviewed by Alex Craven, Our Wild America Organizer
Amy Grondin is a commercial fisherman based out of Port Townsend, WA. She started working in Alaska on salmon buying tenders in 1991. In 2009, Amy and her partner Greg Friedrichs leased their first boat and began fishing for salmon on the coast of Washington and in Southeast Alaska. Two years later they bought their own fishing boat and haven’t looked back.
Throughout her commercial fishing career, Amy has become an outspoken advocate for conserving salmon habitat and ensuring these iconic species continue to thrive. When she’s not on her boat, Amy’s days still revolve around salmon: selling her catch, and calling for the protection of one of our most iconic species and restoration of salmon habitat.
As someone who interacts with salmon so closely, tell us your perspective on what makes this fish special?
Salmon are amazing animals that play a key part in the marine food web. Over and over again, I find them incredible and am blown away by their life story. They have such a will to live and are so resilient – give them half a chance and they find a way to get upstream to spawn the next generation.
Why do we need to protect salmon?
For so many reasons. Salmon are something everyone knows and should be able to connect with in some way, whether by casting a line into the water and catching one or taking part in a stream restoration project. They are beautiful and awe-inspiring creatures.
Beyond that, salmon are a keystone species in the marine food web. The whole ecosystem depends on their presence. Salmon in their juvenile stages are food for other fish and animals. As they mature and leave the river they become food for bigger fish and animals including orcas and us. People forget that we are part of the marine food web. We are not above it or separate from it.The actions you take on land can impact the ocean. We all need to make good choices that protect the ocean.
We need to look at the system salmon are part of and manage it as a whole. We need to focus on holistic management of the ocean, not just addressing challenges to one species or a symptom of a greater issue. Many people want to stop fishing, thinking this will save salmon but we are already managing salmon fishing on a local, state, federal and international level. To that we need to add wide scale habitat restoration, free flowing rivers, and increase water quality.
Can you talk about how Covid-19 is impacting you and the commercial fishing industry?
COVID19 is turning the commercial fishing community upside down. Everyday we’re waiting to hear if we’re going to be able to fish, if communities will let us land on their docks – will we be able to enter ports on the West coast or up North in Alaska? Even the facilities we rely on in Alaska that allow us to shower, bathe, do laundry and receive mail are restricting these services.
Fishermen are in the business of producing good food for people – and this is going to make it hard. But the biggest problem is that the same ways we are flattening the curve of COVID-19 has also flattened our sales. Most of our direct market sales of salmon are to restaurants. If restaurants are closed, the option left is to sell to buyers on the dock. But if they don’t have anywhere to sell the fish, the price per pound for our catch is going to be low. Without the ability to diversify our sales for increased value it makes me wonder if we can stay in business.
And on top of that, our mortgage will be due at the end of the fishing season. We’re like farmers in that we have one large annual payment to make at the end of the season. If we weren’t able to fish we’ll need to make another plan - whether that is negotiating with the bank, taking a loan against our home or whatever it takes to get the money together. To date, the fishing industry hasn’t been included in most of the COVID-19 bail out programs but there seems to be some motion to correct this.
Ultimately, we want to work and fish in a way that supports our family and respects the ocean.
Times have been difficult for commercial fishing families for decades - I recently read that in the 1970’s there were over 3,000 ocean troll salmon fishermen in Washington State, but by 2018 that number had dropped to just over 200 fishermen. Sounds like things are only getting tougher. Can you talk about the decline in the industry?
It is a lack of salmon, pure and simple. There has been a decline in salmon since the four lower Snake River dams were completed in the 70’s. The numbers you quoted show a similar decline in commercial fishing jobs over that same time frame. Looking back, isn’t that about the same time we started to see out Southern resident orcas start to decline as well?
As the fish diminish there is only so much you can do. You look at the equation: you pay the boat mortgage; pay the crew; buy insurance, food and fuel; and maintain the boat. You can only go a few years of not catching fish before you’re in the red. And then you have to call it. Even then you might have a tough time finding a buyer for your boat and permit.
Sustainability isn’t just about fish. It’s about a balance. Sustainability of our livelihoods is tied to the sustainability of fish and fisheries. We are very vested in the health of salmon and the ocean. As such, in the offseason from fishing we do what we can to save salmon and restore the habitat they need.
What are some of the major conservation opportunities that are related to commercial fishing?
There are three major conservation issues that fishermen are following closely and others should, too. They are: protecting Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, fighting the proposed Pebble Mine - also in Alaska, and restoring the Snake River in the Northwest.
At the heart of these issues is the need to preserve healthy habitat for salmon to spawn the next generation. The Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska - known as the ‘salmon forest’ - provides critical habitat and it is facing new threats of logging, road building, and other extractive use, based on the whims of Trump and a handful of Alaska officials.
In Bristol Bay, the proposed Pebble Mine threatens to ruin the pristine watershed and habitat that supports one of the last great salmon runs in the world.
And, closer to home, the Snake River salmon runs have been decimated by the last four dams to be built on the river, cutting off access to the 5,000 miles of rivers and streams that used to produce the famous ‘June Hogs,’ chinook salmon that would consistently weigh in from 50 to 90 pounds!
So rather than just saving salmon we should also be saving the places salmon call home?
Absolutely. You could take all the fishermen off the water but if you don’t restore and protect salmon habitat fish numbers will continue to decline. The three challenges discussed above are tied together as one because they all threaten the habitat salmon need. While fishermen spend most of their time downstream of the places where salmon start their lives and may never see that habitat up close, our livelihoods are tied to the health of these rivers and streams. We have that in common with salmon.
This goes back to what we talked about earlier: we need a holistic approach to salmon restoration and conservation. While we are managing the fishing - and working to get better at it - we also need to restore habitat and improve water quality. Along with this we need to figure out better systems for hatcheries with a hope that we can lessen dependence on hatcheries as the natural systems begin to support vigorous salmon runs again. Let’s restore habitat and work to get salmon back to their long lost rivers. They will do it if we let them.