News - Local - North Coast

Monday, Jul. 28, 2008

Morro Bay Fishing Industry Special Report: An old seadog’s new tricks

Fisherman Ed Ewing never imagined he’d be teaming up with The Nature Conservancy, but his efforts at using gentler trawling methods may be the only way he and other local veterans stay in business

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Ed Ewing may not look like it, but he could well be the future of commercial fishing along the Central Coast.

Working aboard the trawler South Bay, Ewing looks every inch the grizzled fisherman that he is. But the South Bay is no ordinary trawl boat, and the nets spooled on its stern are unusual as well.

The South Bay is owned by The Nature Conservancy and leased to Ewing. The trawl nets are smaller and lighter, designed specifically to be less damaging to the ocean floor and catch fewer unwanted types of fish than traditional nets.

Ewing, 62, has been fishing out of Morro Bay for 40 years. Working with The Nature Conservancy and experimenting with new gear are unexpected turns in his career, changes necessitated by a near collapse of the trawl fishery along the West Coast.

Like many fishermen, Ewing resented environmentalists who have pushed for closures and catch limits in order to give fish stocks maximum protection.

“The only reason I got involved with this whole deal was because they pissed me off so Goddamned bad,” Ewing said. “There were no fish coming in here.”

Health problems have limited the amount of work that Ewing can do on the South Bay as well as the number of fishing trips he’s been able to make. He recently underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery and is in line for a kidney transplant.

When he does get out to sea, however, the trawling Ewing does is highly specialized.

According to the fishing permit he uses, which is held by The Nature Conservancy, he must trawl only over soft seafloor and avoid rock piles and other sensitive areas.

His nets are about a third smaller and lighter than those used by the typical trawler. The footrope, the part of the net that drags across the bottom, is also smaller.

These changes address the first of two environmental problems traditional trawling is known to cause — damage to the ocean floor. Seafloor is important habitat for some fish species.

Under the old paradigm of trawling, fishermen wanted to catch the maximum amount of fish with every drag.

“They did a lot of damage because they were big boats with heavy gear,” Ewing said.

The smaller nets also are intended to address trawling’s second environmental problem—bycatch. Large, heavy trawl nets scoop up anything in their path. This means a variety of unwanted sea life is harvested as well. Deeper dwelling fish are killed when they are dragged to the surface, so some trawling can result in large amounts of waste.

Ewing’s fishing trips last for a day and a half to two days and involve multiple drags. He typically returns with 15,000 to 16,000 pounds of fish, mostly Petrale sole and other flatfish that sell for a premium. Bigger trawlers will catch that much fish in a single drag.

Demand in Morro Bay for Ewing’s smaller, more selective catches is high. Consumers are generally willing to pay 10 percent to 20 percent more for locally and sustainably caught fish.

And there’s enough consumer demand for one or two more lowimpact trawlers like Ewing’s, said Rick Algert, Morro Bay harbor manager.

Mark Tognazzini buys about 10 percent of Ewing’s catch for his two Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurants in Morro Bay.

He buys much of Ewing’s bycatch as well, such as small rockfish and rays, and personally fillets them and offers them as specials in his restaurants so that very little goes to waste.

“The work Eddie is doing is important,” he said. “It’s really just old-school trawling.”

Since he began fishing in Morro Bay in 1968, Ewing has seen a lot of changes. During that time, state and federal regulators have struggled to keep up.

Like most fishermen, he thinks regulators overreact to changes in the ocean environment and make decisions that are based on insufficient scientific data.

“Between the government and the environmentalists, they are trying to use a sledgehammer to drive a tack,” he said. “We just want to control our own destiny without outside interests.”

He looks forward to a day when a sustainable commercial fishing industry is established along the Central Coast and large swaths of the Pacific that are now closed to fishing are reopened. But that is likely to be many years away.

“We are just going to have to grind away at things,” he said.

Reach David Sneed at 781-7930.