Maria-
I have to respond, because this is an attitude gets me really peeved.
The "health of the fishing industry" is a lot more complex than you're making it out to be. For one thing, there are many many different fisheries active and many many different ways of harvesting. Some are healthier than others. Some fisheries are more sustainable than others. Some methods are more targeted and environmentally sound (for instance, lumping factory trawling and small boat trolling together is like comparing strip-mining to picking rocks out of the dirt with your hands).
The Alaska small boat fishers who moor at Fishermen's Terminal--the ones who will be impacted by these changes--are participating in a healthy and well-managed fishery...a fishery that is threatened mainly by environmental issues (dams and development and fish farms), and NOT overfishing. Yes, fishing is a threat to the fish, but it is the one threat that is constantly monitored and regulated. ADF&G is doing its job and doing it very well--running one of the best-managed fisheries in the world--and the fishermen cooperate. These people are relying on the sustainability of the fishery to keep their own families fed, and they have a serious interest in keeping these stocks healthy.
The North Pacific fishery is not a gold rush-style free-for-all, and making blanket statements about "overfishing killing the fishing industry" as a counterpoint to current issues with the Port is a total non sequitur. The fishing is fine...it's the infrastructure here at home that is being threatened.

If the fire department is so worried about fire safety at Fisherman's Terminal, maybe they shouldn't have closed their station there. Even though there was usually only one fireman there, it was better than nothing.

I sent an email voicing my issues to ft@portseattle.org. This is the email for Fisherman's Terminal. If you feel strongly, do something rather than argue on a blog.

Fishermen are angry and I understand that but this time government is not to blame nor is development.

The city, developers and condos is not what is killing the fishing industry. Lack of fish and high fuel cost is the culprit. What do you suggest the city do? Much more important is the loss of maritime industry. An industry owned terminal would be a step in the right direction for preserving a working waterfront

When the sweetheart deal between the Port and Carnival cruises goes into effect at Pier 91, the discounts and breaks given to the big cruise ships will need to be paid for.

And why have a real working Fisherman's terminal when "Ye Olde Fishing Village" would make a much better tourist destination for the throngs of polyester clad cruisers. As soon as the Port figures out how to get rid of the stinky real fishing boats.
sarcasm intended.

So here we go again with the condescending mud slinging. Some of the comments on here are just plain stupid.

Why don't we care about our fishermen, our farmers, people who actually WORK HARD to make our lives easier. Our giants that we cater to aren't doing well obviously, yet we push aside the basic needed industry that helps ALL of us and that Seattle and Washington were founded on.
Tear down our industry and build some more condos that won't sell and when our city is bankrupt and we have no industry to rely on we'll watch Seattle become even more vacant then it was before. History shows wealth and prosperity happen around port cities. How can the cruise ship industry go full speed in a worldwide recession? We need backbone industry to rely on when the service industry fails and that backbone is local industrial and fishing as well as our IT and aerospace.
I know certain people think the rules have changed and we are a service economy now. I believe that the US's current financial state is a slap in the face to that idea. A wake up call if you will.
We NEED industry that produces.

A tragedy yes Sig but what do you suggest be done? It’s more than just an issue of development. The salmon are getting scarce and the cost of fuel to get to the Bering Sea gets higher. The natives have their rights too. Do you suggest their history is not as important as that of the fisherman of Ballard?

Fisherman want to live in this city also and they whine about property taxes just like everyone else. It takes tax money to keep the Terminal running. We are already facing major city star and country deficits and these are not likely to improve soon. Where do they recommend we cut? That’s why I suggest that the future of this place be placed in different hands, either historical preservationists or the industry itself. It’s the only way to temper the march of progress.

DOWN WITH THE PORT!

Long before there were Microsoft and Boeing there was fishing and logging in Seattle. These two industries gave birth to Seattle and drew many fishing and logging Scandinavians to Ballard.

Logging opened the way for development and had to naturally move outward from the city. For fishing to also be forced out would be a tradgedy for us all.

Fisherman's Terminal isn't a place, it's the soul of the city.

Sig (Anderson, not Hansen)

I can’t speak for Nordic but I no more despise all software engineers than I love or admire all fisherman.



As a strong environmentalist who has worked for a fair amount of time now with those on the regulatory and scientific side of the issue, I know very well that the near future holds major changes for our historic fishing industry and many will fight that change also even though it is a battle they will lose even if they fight it unopposed.

The times they are a-changin no matter what anyone does. Battles over native fishing rights and over fishing in general have and will continue to take a toll. The rising cost of fuel mean less profit and higher prices in an ever declining economy. We can no more hope to continue traditional industry like fishing indefinitely by means of legislation than we could have kept whalers hunting.



Progress is the only way to ever successfully deal with change but progress needs to always address quality of life or it loses all human value. If quality life is limited to a few we end up with gated homogenous communities which have proven to be poor places to live thus this suburban flight back into neighborhoods like Ballard. The Terminal remaining a blue collar working place offers more human quality of life than will a row of condos. Historical designation and public ownership is a workable option. If the industry does not like that then they need to consider my first suggestion which is they buy it themselves when it is offered for development which it most certainly will be.

I work in the marine industry in Ballard. If this happens it will be devastating to the industry. Cruise lines are hurting too... I don't understand why they'd want to squeeze out fishermen who are actually profitable.

On a side note... the boat show starts today. PLEASE if you're into boating go to the show and buy something! We're going to close down if the show doesn't go well.

I love the public t*t! I'm just wondering if there's any available at the sow for the rest of us in these difficult times.

I've a transplant - but have lived here for 7 years - and would hate to see the industry go by the wayside in favor of a bunch of pleasure-craft. So please don't lump me in with lumps like Billy and his public t*t obsession.

The real question is - what can we do? Oppose the fire system upgrade?

Nordic Woman-

I hope you don't despise ALL us software engineers... I for one agree with you about what a tragedy it would be to lose the fishing industry to pleasure vessels.

I agree with Lloyd Hara, “it will happen in our lifetime.” The answer therefore is work around the fools. The industry needs to buy the Terminal. It will of course become a mega corporation run by the likes of Trident but it will still be a working Fisherman’s Terminal……sort of.

Sadly it seems citizens want a homogenized world and they will have it. It’s my complaint about the whole neo Ballardite neo Seattleite group as I have said before. They are so danged boring. Look alike dress alike talk alike act alike live alike. A desire for variety in life seems to be disappearing.

A colleague of mine recently visited an acquaintance in Atlanta and was given what he referred to as the ‘Used to be Tour’ of the city. As they drove around his host showed him where everything used to be. That will be Seattle in 30 years. Americans want generic. I guess it makes them feel safe and less inferior I guess.

For everyone who did NOT vote for Mark Sidran the last time around: Shame on You, you get what you deserve. Too bad he cannot be persuaded to run again. Herr Nichols is , as you pointed out, selling Seattle to the highest bidder and will continue to do so as long as he is in office.

ok, but what is anyone gonna DO?
Pete has been fighting this for years, bless him.

everyone moans and declaims against the condos, the transplants, the techies...
I'm a transplant who bought an old funky house and all my native neighbors asked me what I was gonna build in its place... they seemed confused that I was confused why they would think I wanted to tear down a perfectly fine house.
and now the mayor who sells Seattle to the highest bidder and continues to do so is planning to run again and there doesn't seem to be a challenger on the horizon...
now I'M confused

Oh, Boardbrown, it won't just impact this neighborhood, nor just the City of Seattle. It will impact the industry of Puget Sound.

You see, it isn't just the fishermen. It's the shipyards, machine shops, engine shops, freezer plants (ever see the one over by Palisades?), paint companies, hardware stores, ship's chandlers (who provide supplies), the companies that provide food to the ships, the stores and restaurants that buy the fish, the oil docks, electricians, welders, etc. who work on the ships.

But who cares! Let's kiss it all goodbye and import all of our fish from Japan! Let's make it all condos, so out of state developers can profit! Let's make it all into yacht moorage! After all, you can moor fishing boats anywhere, can't you? Can't you??? Hey, what do we need the Locks for, anyway??? Let's put more condos there, too!

As a software designer/gamer/general parasite on society that lives in Ballard, I'd rather have the fishing fleet there than anything else in the world. Who else is gonna catch the fish that goes onto my tasty tasty sushi?

If the sprinklers are so galdurn important, why don't they just move them to where they're not being blocked?

I may not be as long-winded about it, but it'd be a real shame for this neighborhood to loose the the fishing industry. It's a huge part of who we are, and Ballard is the last remaining Seattle neighborhood with such an asset.

For everyone who has never been down to Fisherman's Terminal, take a field trip and check it out. You are looking at one of the last working waterfronts on the West Coast, so take pictures.

There are the names of over 30 guys I went to high school with on that memorial, so take a good look at the price that putting food on your table costs in human terms.

Then go into Chinooks and get some salmon, and perhaps buy some fish at the fish market and off a guy on a boat. Enjoy it, because it may become a thing of the past.

Oh, I am not a fisherman. What subsidies do they get, compared to the cruise ship industry? Did you even read the letter or try to educate yourself about the fishing industry?

I thought not.

I'll bet Billy is an overpaid software designer/gamer/other useless parasite on society. No? I'll bet he moved here from some hellhole back East then? What do you bet?

Folks sucking on the public t*t are ALWAYS convinced they deserve it and no one else does.

Fisherman's Terminal was built in 1913 to provide a harbor for the fishing fleet. Not for pleasure boats. The issue here really is the net sheds; the city wants to charge $25 a day per boat, and says that they are unsafe because they don't have sprinkers. I have never, ever heard of a fire in the net sheds! (monofilament line being not particularly flammable.)

Gee, the Port also runs the Airport. I guess we shouldn't subsidize Boeing, or the airlines, either, and we can all just start taking the bus or the train. Oh, wait, there IS no road to Hawaii. Too bad, you'll just have to take a ship...oh, wait, all the commercial moorage has been turned into pleasure craft moorage and condos. Oh, wait, the Port of Seattle's container ship port subsidizes container ships! Guess you won't be getting any goods from overseas, if they have no where to dock, either. I guess we just can't get any new cars or ship any of our Microsoft products, fruit, or any other products WA produces overseas, either. Too bad, kiss that new Honda goodbye, the Port has turned all the moorage into Cruise ship, pleasure boat mooring and condos!

Up in Everett they turned all the fishing harbor and net sheds into condos....well, where do you think the fishermen WENT? Many of them went up to La Conner, others came down here, many just packed it in.

OK Billy, how do you think the salmon, halibut and crab you eat gets to your table? Do you think that there is some sort of floating "Waterworld" where fishing boats tie up offshore? Last time I checked, Microsoft employees (and people who design video games, etc.) don't actually provide food for our country.

Mr. Knutson is right: the mandate that got funds FOR Fisherman's Terminal AND the breakwater at Shilshole were specifically written for access and moorage of fishing vessels. After about 10 years of building the moorage at Shilshole, fishing vessels were no longer able to moor there.

So when the price of fish goes up, don't be too suprised. I'm sure the vegans won't care...until the day all the farmland in the US is paved over too.

Hey, they just laid off 5000 at Microsoft, can't we also put the software industry on the public t*t? Or has the barn door closed on that?

So basically they want the rest of us to subsidize their business. If they'd at least be honest and admit that, I might be more supportive.