Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Oregon coast has been hit with a double whammy this year.

High gas prices are causing some people to think twice about weekend trips to the shore.  And a shutdown of the salmon season has left the fishing industry scrambling.  Correspondent Chris Lehman takes us on a journey.

Let’s start our drive down the Oregon coast in Lincoln City.

Here at the Historic Anchor Inn, owner Kip Ward is glancing over blueprints for a renovation project.

“Vacancy” signs are a common sight along the Oregon coast this year.

Kip Ward:  “That’s our new front porch, except these are going to be log cabin, big round poles there that are all varnished”

Ward is optimistic about the long-term future of his hotel.  But in the short term, he has rooms to fill.

Kip Ward:  “We’ve just seen a lot less traffic and people seem to be willing to spend less.”

Ward says he couldn’t even fill up his hotel on Memorial Day weekend.  And he thinks high gas prices have something to do with it.

Kip Ward:  “A lot of people are coming and just spending the day.  They can make up for the price of gas if they don’t spend the night in a hotel, or they don’t eat in the restaurants.”

Encouraging day trips is actually a marketing strategy 20 miles south in Newport.  I talked with Mayor Bill Bain while standing on a pier overlooking Yaquina Bay.

Bill Bain: “We really just have a plentiful array of things for people to do and see and look at and pay attention to and study and all those kinds of things.”

Chris Lehman:  “But can you get people to come out and do those things when gas is four dollars and 20 cents a gallon as it is here in town here today?”

Bill Bain:  “I think so.  And I think the answer is instead of trying to draw or attract people from as far away as say Seattle or Boise or San Francisco or somewhere else that’s further away, you focus your energy on the daytime trip. That is to say, how far can you get in one day and hope that they’ll come and spend a couple days while they’re doing it.”

Chris Lehman:  “And let me just interrupt you for a second. Could you tell me what we’re seeing right now coming by us?”

Bill Bain:  “This is called the Oregon Rocket. And there’s Captain Don Mathews right there.”

The Oregon Rocket looks like a giant orange inner-tube with a pair of engines strapped to the back.  Mayor Bain says the Captain is about to take his passengers for a high-speed ride through the bay and out to the ocean.

Bill Bain:  “And you’ll notice that people are all wearing life jackets and whatnot.  It’s not because they’ve ever pitched anybody out but I’ll tell you, they will get wet on that thing.”

Chris Olson:  “Newport Marina and Charters, this is Chris.”

Anglers prepare to clean their catch in Newport.

A big draw in Newport and other coastal communities is deep sea fishing.

Chris Olson is the owner of a charter boat company. Normally this would be busy time of year as people try their luck at catching Chinook salmon.  But the salmon season was cancelled.  That leaves people like Olson in a bind.

Chris Olson:  “Salmon typically is about 40 percent of a charter business’ business every year in volume.  With zero salmon fishing basically it’s like taking a 40 or 50 percent pay cut for everybody, including all my boats and all the other people that work here.”

But there’s more fish in the sea than just salmon. Here at a fillet table in Newport, a dozen or more anglers are cleaning the day’s catch of halibut.

It’s a hectic scene, with fishermen vying for elbow room, and seagulls vying for handouts.  But amid the chaos, one sound stands out.

This is a huge diesel pick-up truck pulling a fishing boat.  The day I visited Newport, diesel was selling for $5 a gallon.

That hasn’t kept Chris Nordlund of Salem from coming to the coast.

Chris Nordlund:  “What we try to do is just bring along several people so that we can split the cost of fuel.  It only costs us like 40 bucks per person in fuel to come over here, fish, and go back.”

Nordlund says if fuel prices continue to rise, he’ll just pack more fishermen in his rig.

Towns up and down the Oregon coast are hoping other people will fill their cars too.