“I think that the rockfish are doing really well in particular and that their populations are probably fully rebuilt to what they were before the 80s [. . .] And then, on the other hand, you’ve got [Dungeness] crab and spot prawns, which are in a really down cycle. Maybe that happens regardless of the fact that it’s this year in particular… it’s kind of more of a natural, long-term cyclical thing.”

“It’s kind of the general consensus of fishermen [that they are extremely worried because of] how quickly everything is changing with regulations and environmental factors [. . .] And then definitely in my mind, future ocean changes are a huge issue, especially considering all that we learned about whale entanglements [related to a changing climate affecting whale distributions and populations] and the direction things are heading. I’m definitely extremely worried about multiple particulars within the management and the ocean condition changes that we could be experiencing in the future.”

“I think the dissatisfaction comes from everything that happens when you come to the dock. […] But I do think from a regulatory standpoint and a management standpoint, it’s challenging to follow the politics around which people are making decisions about your livelihood and your ability to feed your family or pay a mortgage. The fact that other people are making the decision and you’re having to pay attention to it or participate in that – it’s very stressful, very difficult. And you’re adding that on top of a job that’s already demanding 12 hours of your day, if not more. So it’s a pretty heavy load that these guys are carrying.”

“The regulations make it very difficult to fish for the diverse species that we have around here, but if you have a billion dollars worth of permits, then you do have a pretty diverse group of fisheries here.”

“I would like to believe that a job like fishing should be at a level where you could support your family by yourself. I feel like that is a tough job. It’s a real job. It’s a job that supplies the community. It helps the community. It feeds people. It’s something that not everybody wants to do. And I feel like there’s a lot of men that are fishing that [. . .] don’t have fisheries that they can get a sufficient amount of money to provide for their families. [. . .] There are guys that are doing fine, but there’s a lot more guys that are struggling.”

“The infrastructure that exists serves a limited group of people, mostly the people that attach themselves to a market, and for those that haven’t attached themselves to a market, they’re somewhat left on the fringes and having to cart their fish on the docks… they don’t have ice, they don’t have storage, they don’t have bait. They don’t have all the things that a healthy, working waterfront would have to support a diversity of fishermen businesses, not just the key businesses that exist here in the harbor right now.”

​​“The strength of the port’s relationship with external groups, I would say, is strong. I mean, there’s myself and now [name redacted]: we’ve both been a part of the Dungeness Crab Gear Working Group, and a lot of people have tried their best to be involved as much as they can, including [names redacted]. And so, that could almost be considered very strong, I guess, but it could be better also. But yeah, the key players who have their life on the line here are definitely engaged.”

“The ocean is arguably one of the most dynamic environments on the planet, and it’s being regulated in a very static way. And I think there’s a giant mismatch between how much the ocean changes day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year, and the need for management strategies to be much more adaptive and dynamic in that way. And I know that is a giant ask of managers and policymakers, but I think it’s imperative; I think it’s essential. The environment’s changing much faster, given all the other forces in the world.”

“I’ve got to run way further to get to the fish, the quota that I’m allowed to catch. Landings are down because I used to be able to fish for shallow nearshore rockfish in spots that were more protected from the weather, and so I could fish way more days. Therefore, if my cost is up and my landings are down, my income is down. So [MPAs] affect my income. And I’m not sure if it really affects the number of participants in the fisheries that we have around here. I mean, I could see how that could be a big factor for the lobster fishery or sea urchin fishery. But here, it makes it tougher: you have to go further to get to good fishing spots, and mainly the loss of my favorite fishing spots that I could fish when the weather was bad has negatively affected my income for sure over the years.”

“When they shut these areas down, they used the data that the fishermen gave them. And they literally collected the data and got the waypoints where people caught fish, and they shut the areas down where all the fish was caught.”

“I would like to see data on the monitoring of the MPAs [. . .] Everyone has a theory that the MPAs can harbor older fish, which can have more babies, and therefore the fishing areas will be better fishing. But that’s just a theory unless it’s been scientifically proven. Maybe it has, but I’d just like to see more outreach from whatever monitoring that they are doing. I think that would build trust with me at least, and just make me feel like they’re actually caring about all these giant closed areas that they made and not just creating ‘em and enforcing the fact that you can’t do anything there.”

“As far as enforcement goes, enforcement’s just doing their job. [. . .] Now, if somebody is breaking the law within the deal, which I’ve seen several times, and guys get away with it… enforcement’s spread thin and light, too. So is it being completely policed like a stoplight with a camera on it? No, it’s not. But they’re doing the job to the best of their means.”