Major Market Slump Forces Local Fishermen to Stay Home

For the first time in 15 years, Dean Marshall’s fishing boat is sitting idle in Ventura Harbor because fish brokers have told him that they will not buy his catch.

“I can’t go fishing because there’s no market,” said Marshall, 70, as he sat drinking coffee on Wednesday.

“You have to be a survivor” to make it as a fisherman, he said. He lives alone on his boat, the Golden Gate, and he said he can make do with little money because he’s thrifty.

But Sherry and Roy Underwood need to earn enough from operating their fishing vessel, the Blue Fin, to cover house payments and boat maintenance. It costs them $50 to $60 a day to remain docked rather than to be out on the seas fishing. “Right now it’s really putting a dent in our pockets,” said Sherry Underwood, 31, whose husband has been a fisherman in Ventura for 11 years.

Their boat is one of about 200 fishing vessels docked in Ventura County, although many of the crews fish up and down the coast.

The bottom abruptly dropped out of Southern California’s fish market about two weeks ago, just after a Consumer Reports magazine story hit the stands and reports on national television news warning of the dangers of contaminated fish, fishermen and buyers say. In addition to the negative publicity, buyers are paying less because there are more fish for sale than people want to buy during the recession.

The oversupply, which industry analysts said has affected the fishing industry between San Diego and Canada, occurred when a patch of unusually good winter weather sent a large number of boats onto the seas.

“There was too much, too fast,” said Michael J. Wagner, owner of Andria’s Seafood restaurant and market at the harbor.

Diane Pleschner, manager of the California Seafood Council, said she expects demand will catch up with supply soon.

“At this point, we’re hoping that life will go on, that we will be able to resume fishing,” Pleschner said. “We hope the public will realize that fish really is the safest muscle protein available.”

But that’s little comfort to fisherman such as Roy Underwood. His buyer, Los Angeles-based Pacific American Fish Co., told him that business had dropped off by 50% and that it could not sell as much of Underwood’s catch as before. As a result, Underwood was told not to bring in any fish for 12 days, and was limited to about 4,000 pounds per load, half the size of his usual catch.

“I don’t make that much money where I can sit around,” Underwood said. “I wait five to seven days before I run out of money.”

The rock cod that Underwood has been able to sell brings in less money; the price has dropped from 75 cents to 65 cents per pound in recent weeks, he said.

Marshall’s buyer, Los Angeles-based South China Seas, unilaterally cut the price paid for rock cod from 70 cents to 55 cents recently.

“I can squawk or scream bloody murder, but he can simply tell me to fly a kite,” Marshall said.

Pacific American Fish Co. and South China Seas officials were unavailable for comment.

Pleschner and the Underwoods disputed the contentions in the Consumer Reports story. They said local fishermen do not have the problems with contamination that areas such as Chicago, New York and Northern California do. Those areas were cited in the report.

“They work very hard to make sure the fish are fresh,” said Sherry Underwood of the local fishing fleet operators. “If we do not bring in fish that look good, the buyers will not buy.”

Wagner said customers in recent weeks have been asking more questions about how the fish are caught, but their curiosity hasn’t affected his sales.

Charles Wong, owner of Titan Seafood Inc. of Los Angeles, described the seafood market as “a roller coaster ride--good times, bad times.”

He said the local fishing industry should look to an emerging new market for live fish, which are sold primarily to Asian restaurants and markets, as a possible way out of their economic doldrums.

Wong, who was offering $3 a pound for live fish to Ventura Harbor fishermen on Wednesday, said live fish bring in more money for less effort.