The Fishermen's Terminal Advisory Committee (FTAC) voted unanimously Nov. 14 to expand the off-boat sales of whole or portioned frozen salmon to include so-called value-added products such as canned or smoked salmon at the Magnolia marina.
"We're going back to where we were in 1991," said fisherman Pete Knutson. He's referring to the Port of Seattle decision in 1992 to halt the sale of processed fish at Fishermen's Terminal.
But the FTAC didn't approve of a related issue that was up for a vote at the same meeting: To charge fishers $25 to $35 a day for the privilege or 6 or 7 percent of gross sales, whichever is greater.
The idea is to level the playing field for the Wild Salmon Market, according to a Nov. 13 memo to port CEO Tay Yoshitani from Darlene Robertson from the port's Harbor and Real Estate Division.
Owned and operated by Paula Cassidy and her husband, Jon Cassidy, the Wild Salmon Market sells the same lineup of value-added products at the terminal and pays a percentage of sales to the port, along with rent and liability insurance. The fishers would also pay liability insurance for $1 million worth of coverage under the proposed rule change.
According to Robertson's memo to the port's CEO, the fees and insurance coverage are based on the ones vendors pay at farmers markets in Magnolia, West Seattle, the University District, Broadway, Columbia City and Lake City.
The proposal to start charging fishers fees was sparked by a request from the Wild Salmon owners and some members of FTA, Roberston wrote in the memo. Yet Paula Cassidy said at the Nov. 14 FTAC meeting that she neither supported nor opposed the proposed rule change, and given the unanimous vote against charging fishers a fee and insurance to sell their catches, something seems to be a little, well ... fishy, according to Knutson.
And while that activist fisherman has frequently rubbed both port officials and fellow FTAC members the wrong way over the years, he points to the 1914 dedication of Fishermen's Terminal to back up his claim that off-boat sales are a public service.
Knutson quotes then-port chairman Hiram Chittenden as saying: "To organize and solidify the scattered fishing industry of the Northwest, to provide a home for the extensive fishing fleet, to give such aid the Port rightfully should give in protecting the fisherman in marketing his hard-earned products - this is surely an ambition worthy of the most earnest efforts of the Port Commission."
Besides, he said, fishers would end up having to charge 50 cents more per pound than Wild Salmon charges for salmon and related products if the fees and insurance were imposed.
The issue is now in the hands of CEO Yoshitani, who is expected to present Port commissioners with his decision in the first quarter next year, said port spokesman Peter McGraw.
"We're not going to wait that long," Knutson said. "If we have to, we'll just show up at the commission meeting. They need to hear an unfiltered discussion."
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.
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