Senator Wyden’s Newport Roundtable Illuminates the Impacts of Federal Funding Cuts

By Brian Bahouth

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden was slated to attend a roundtable with elected officials, ocean researchers, ocean-business leaders, and federal workers on Saturday morning in Newport but was diagnosed with COVID and had to attend the meeting via phone. The senator said he would reschedule a visit to Newport for a town hall and asked the 20 invitees (listed at the end of this article) to describe the impacts of federal budget cuts and tariffs on their operations. The meeting was held in the Central Coast Food Web offices. 

Karina Nielsen is the director of Oregon Sea Grant and attended the roundtable to communicate a time sensitive budget concern to Senator Wyden and his staff. Oregon Sea Grant is one of 34 Sea Grant programs nationwide. Of the 34, three have not received their base funding for fiscal year 2025 yet, and Oregon has the unfortunate distinction of being one of those. The program has received 59 percent of its annual funding to date, which means they are $1.2 million short for this year, according to Nielsen. The federal fiscal year ends on September 30.

“That is going to affect about 35 positions in the Sea Grant Program here in Oregon,” Nielsen said to the senator through a speaker phone. “The grants that we have that work on enhancing stock assessment, the research that goes into that supports marine stewardship certification for certain fisheries, because they need to continue to have ongoing research. 

“We promote domestic seafood, Eat Oregon Seafood, Discover West Coast Seafood. We do fisherman safety at sea. Some of our work has helped vessels with their emergency immersion suits, realizing they’re not up to par and replacing them for hundreds of boats. 

“This is life, health, safety, jobs. We help bring capacity to Oregon and the nation. And when you target 3 programs out of 34, we work with a network, we provide leadership on some of these issues for the nation. And we’re at the precipice of the fiscal year, as you know.

“And there’s money to support it,” Nielsen continued. “It just got dropped in their coffers. But there’s pressure to not fund the base funding and fund other things. So this is a very timely issue for us, and we are really nervous about it.”

Newport Mayor Jan Kaplan said funding to build a new Big Creek Dam to improve seismic resilience and make the city’s sole supply of water more robust has disappeared.  

“I think you know from the city’s point of view, and I think you (Sen. Wyden) know this, the city and your office have worked really hard to get funding for our dam project. And right now that’s a little over $60 million that was allegedly out there in the pipeline. It’s not. And specifically related to much of what goes on around this table is, no water, no fish processing. Our sole source of water is at serious risk,” Kaplan said.

Chris Cooper is a fourth generation Lincoln County commercial fisherman.

“As far as supporting the seafood industry, one of the biggest things that is in jeopardy is just the infrastructure that houses the fish plants, the docks, places we can tie up. I don’t have a place to tie up my boats in some ports in Oregon. 

“We’ve been based out of Newport my entire life. We used to land the majority of our fish here. Now, we have 3 vessels on the West Coast. Not a single pound is landed in Newport anymore. It’s all landed up in Astoria, which is still Oregon. That’s great. But Newport has lost so much processing. A lot of it is because of the red tape, the struggle to operate, the discharge stuff that’s going back in the water. And the seafood companies aren’t investing here because of the difficulty of this port,” Cooper said.

“I land fish on Pier 2 up in Astoria, and that project (a waste water treatment upgrade) is huge,” Cooper continued. “For the whiting industry I don’t know what percentage, but a large percentage of the Pacific whiting comes to the coast in Oregon and goes through there, and that that project is being held up is huge to our operations.” 

Cooper also said he is concerned that the food safety standards for imported seafood are lower than those for domestically caught seafood, which puts domestic fishing operations at a disadvantage in American markets.

“The amount of seafood that’s imported in the United States compared to what we produce, that’s all exported, is just to me, it’s a shame that we’re not eating more of our own seafood,” Cooper said to applause. “We’re not having to meet the same standards that imports are coming in, and we’re held to a higher standard than what they’re held to. So all that’s being imported, we have to compete with it. We can’t because it’s more expensive to operate for us, and all of our products are going to foreign markets when they should be staying here.”

The effort to bring locally caught seafood to local markets was a recurring theme during the roundtable. Marcus Hinz is the executive director of the Oregon Coast Visitors Association.

“Regarding local seafood, our industry spends a lot of money to get people from out of state to come here to buy food, and as soon as that cash hits the cash register and they reorder Atlantic salmon or prawns from Indonesia, we lose the money, the money that was actually here, that we did get here. If you want an example of immediate economic impact, that’s it. 

“We bring in about $840 million a year just in foods, I think mostly from visitors, so if we’re losing, let’s say 20 percent of that, our coast is losing a couple 100 million dollars a year,” Hinz said.

Kate Richardson is a union steward representing Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Science Center federal employees.

“We’ve got about 50 folks in Newport across both federal employees and contractors, and many more up and down the coast, especially up in Seattle.

“We’ve lost about 25 to 30 percent of our staff since January 20. I do want to emphasize that this is not 25 to 30 percent of a really well funded organization. We’ve had several decades of flat rate funding and increasing costs, so essentially declining budgets. So we’ve been losing a lot of people. We’ve been losing a lot of capacity. 

“Even before this, we were struggling to fulfill our mandates to support sustainable seafood, healthy fishing communities and healthy marine ecosystems. 

“So the staff that are remaining are really struggling to not only take up the projects of the people who have left, but even do things like administrative work, IT work. A lot of this is being compounded by burdensome inefficiency requirements. 

“So for example, you may have heard about this contracting model map where the Commerce Secretary insists on personally reviewing every contract or grant over $100,000, and of course, if you have a lot of these contracts going through one person, it’s basically paralysis. 

“So that’s had a huge number of impacts, everything from janitorial and IT services to scientific services,” Richardson said. “For example, our bottom trawl survey, which is the backbone of our stock assessments, which is the backbone of our scientific fishery management, so we’re not going to be collecting oceanographic data for the first time since 2008 because the contract for servicing CPDs, which is the equipment that collects that data, was put on hold. 

“And the full 2026 survey will rely on new vessels, nets and sensor system contracts that, as far as I know, have not yet been awarded. 

“There’s also restrictions on travel, so we can’t attend Fishery Management Council meetings. We can’t attend meetings that are specifically meant to share information between fishermen and scientists, like the Newport Fisherman’s Roundtable.

“So I guess I would say the net outcome of these actions is that we are increasingly limited in our ability to collect and analyze data, to collaborate and communicate with our partners, and to create science-based management levers. 

“And this means more uncertainty, less flexibility, less collaboration, and more conservative management, and that has largely negative impacts for industry, for communities and ecosystems.”

Lisa Ballance is interim associate vice president and executive director of Hatfield Marine Science Center. Ballance said that dwindling federal dollars not only fund world-class research at the center, but federal grants also include support for graduate students, the next generation of scientists. She said the many practical advantages of co-location with 4 federal and one state partner is one of Hatfield’s greatest strengths and that budget cuts were undermining what makes Hatfield great. 

“The most important point is about the structure of Hatfield. I’m representing OSU, but I’m representing Hatfield, and it’s more than Oregon State University co-located with us on that piece of land. We’re there with four federal partners, NOAA, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA and EPA and the Oregon Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. That co-location and partnerships is the basis for what I call Hatfield’s great strength, and it’s about leveraging. 

“We leverage across our facilities. We leverage across our assets. A really clear example of that is our seawater system, which is critical to much of the research that we do, aquaculture, for example. Each of us owns a piece of that seawater system. 

“We are leveraged intellectually and with respect to collaboration. So we’re doing partnerships with respect to our research. That’s our great strength, the partnerships and the leveraging that it allows. 

“It’s also our huge vulnerability. So as federal funding is eroding. It’s eroding everything that makes Hatfield powerful. So I’m going to add my voice here at this table to say that of all the things we could really use, we really need our federal partners to be funded. And I’m going to add my very strong voice to many at the table here about NOAA. NOAA is critically important to us. Otherwise the whole thing is going to implode slowly over time. So thank you for for carrying that message forward.”

After the roundtable, more than one attendee commented on the benefit of hearing from other stakeholders in the room.

“I’m noticing in this room there’s a lot of really great projects, but we’re almost kind of siloed,” said Heather Mann, executive director of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative. 

“I think we need a better way that we’re all communicating on a more regular basis. I’ve given presentations to city council in Toledo and in Newport in the past. I’m happy to do that again, but I think, one of the reasons we lost Bornstein Seafoods was because of the wastewater issue, and only being able to address it in Astoria and not down here. That was a huge loss for this community. 

“So we need to be working across. We’re kind of siloed. We need to be working across. You guys (at the Oregon Coast Visitors Association) have done a great job with your visitors, stuff, press releases and things that I’ve seen have just been phenomenal. And so I think there’s ways that we can do more together.”

List of Attendees:

Jan Kaplan, Newport mayor

Cristen Don, Newport resident and former federal employee  

Maggie Summer, a former NOAA Fisheries biologist

Chris Cooper, fourth generation Lincoln County fisherman

Heather Mann, executive director of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative

Kate Richardson, union steward representing Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Science Center federal employees. 

Tim Miller, Christmas tree farmer and rancher from Siletz

Lisa Ballance, Interim Associate Vice President and Executive Director of the Hatfield Marine Science Center

Karina Nielsen, director of the Oregon Sea Grant Program

Cari Brandberg, owner Chelsea Rose seafood and treasurer of Newport Fishermen’s Wives

Kiara Caruso, blue foods coordinator at the Central Coast Food Web

Francis Chan, Director Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies – CIMERS

Sarah Buddingh, the research and Engagement Manager for the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County

Bob Kemp, a Newport-based fisherman

Angee Doerr, Extension Marine Fisheries Specialist for Oregon Sea Grant

Jim King, executive director of the Central Coast Food Web

Andrew Keating, Toledo city council member

Marcus Hinz, executive director of the Oregon Coast Visitors Association

Chris Henry, a value chain coordinator working with Marcus Hinz

Brad Bailey, OO-Nee Sea Ranch